Modify the password policy in the Windows Active Directory Group Policy Manager

Active Directory Group Policy basics

The following sections describe some Microsoft® Windows® Active Directory® concepts.

Active Directory Domain Services

Active Directory is a Microsoft domain management tool. It provides authentication functions and a framework for other such services. The directory itself uses an LDAP database containing networked objects.

Organizational units

An organizational unit (OU) enables you to group resources within a domain into subsets for security and authorization purposes. An OU provides a security boundary on elevated privileges and authorization and does not limit the replication of Active Directory objects. You should not use OUs to implement and limit security and roles among groups, but you can use domains to control replication.

Objects

Everything within Active Directory is stored as an object. You can also define the class as the type of an object in the schema. Active Directory contains location information on objects stored in the database, but Active Directory uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to locate domain controllers. Its class defines the attributes of an object.

Group Policy Manager

The Group Policy Manager (GPM) in Windows Server® is a database of custom configured policies that are setup as OUs. Use the GPM to assign users and group permissions and operating parameters that you grant for a particular resource or function.

For more on Active Directory Groups, see (Group Policy fundamentals in Active Directory)[/support/how-to/group-policy-fundamentals-in-active-directory/)

Update the password policy for user accounts

1. To create a password Group Policy, open the Server Manager and, under Tools, select the Local Security Policy.

2. In the left-hand panel, expand Account Policy and click Password Policy under the Security Settings section.

3. The right-hand panel displays the different choices for setting up the password complexity requirements for creating a new password. The choices include:

   • Enforce Password History

   • Maximum Password Age

   • Minimum Password Age

   • Minimum Password Length

   • Password must meet complexity requirements

   • Store passwords by using reversible encryption

   You can configure each of these policies for different requirements. Click the policy to display a window with the Settings and Explain tabs.

Password complexity policy

If the password complexity policy is enabled, passwords must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Don’t contain the user’s account name or parts of the user’s full name that exceed two consecutive characters.

• Be at least six characters in length.

• Contain characters from three of the following four categories:

  • English uppercase characters (A through Z)

  • English lowercase characters (a through z)

  • Base 10 digits (0 through 9)

  • Non-alphabetic characters (for example, !, $, #, %)

When you change or create passwords, the complexity requirements are enforced.

By default, the password complexity policy is enabled on domain controllers and disabled on stand-alone servers.

Note: Member computers follow the configuration of their domain controllers by default.