Password Expiration in Vista

INFO: This normally only applies to the Vista Business and Vista Ultimate versions. By default, Vista is set up with passwords which will expire after 42 days. 14 days in advance, Vista will start warning you of this fact.

NOTE: You must do this from within a Administrator account or use Run as administrator.

WARNING: If you have this user account setup to logon automatically and change or remove the password, then be sure
to change or remove it here to. See: How to Logon Automatically at Startup in Vista

RELATED LINKS:
1. How to Manage Stored User Names and Passwords in Vista

2. How to Enable or Disable Secure Logon in Vista

3. How to Make Vista Require a Username and Password at Logon

4. How to Display Information About Previous Logons During User Logon in Vista

5. How to Logon Automatically at Startup in Vista

6. How to Remove a Password from a User Account in Vista

7. How to Create a Password Reset Disk in Vista

8. How to Reset a User Account Password in Vista

9. How to Create a Password for a User Account in Vista


METHOD ONE:
Through Local Security Policy :
NOTE: Vista Home Basic and Home Premium does not have this feature. See METHOD THREE below for these versions.

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type secpol.msc and press Enter.

OR

1. Open the Control Panel. (Classic Vew)
2. Click on the Administrative Tools icon and click on Local Security Policy.
NOTE: This is also in the Start Menu if selected in Customize. See: How to Customize the Start Menu in Vista

3. Click Continue for UAC prompt.
4. In the left pane, under Security Settings, click the little arrow next to Account Policies to drop down and view the folder
options. (See screenshot below)
5. Click on the Password Policy folder.
6. In the right pane, right click on Maximum password age and click Properties.

Password_Policy.jpg

7. To Stop Password Expiration -
A) Type 0 (number zero) and click OK. (See screenshots below)

8. To Change the Password Expiration Date -
A) Type in a number between 1 and 999 days between expirations.
NOTE: If you would like to change the other options, then just right click them and click Properties. Click the Explain tab to see what it is for and how to set it.

Max_Properties.jpgMax_Explain.jpg


METHOD TWO:
Through Local Users and Groups :
NOTE: Vista Home Basic and Home Premium does not have this feature. See METHOD THREE below for these versions.

OPTION ONE:
1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type netplwiz and press Enter.
3. Click Continue button for UAC prompt.
4. Click on the Advanced tab. (See screenshot below)
5. Go to step 4 below in OPTION TWO.

User_Accounts.jpg


OPTION TWO:
1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In white line (Start Search) area, type lusrmgr.msc and press Enter.
3. Click Continue for the UAC prompt.
4. In the left pane, click on Users. (See screenshot below)
5. In the right pane, right click on the user account and click Properties.

lusrmgr.jpg

6. To Stop Password Expiration -
A) Check Password never expires. (See screenshot below)

7. To Change the Password Expiration Date -
A) Check one of the other options you want to apply.

8. Click OK.

Properties.jpg

9. Close the lusrmgr window.


METHOD THREE:
Through a Elevated Command Prompt :
NOTE: You can do this one in all versions of Vista.

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Click on All Programs and Accessories.
3. Right click on Command Prompt and click Run as administrator.
A) Go to step 4 below.

OR

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type cmd
3. Right click cmd (at top) and click Run as administrator. (See screenshot below)

cmd_Start_Menu.jpg

4. To Stop Password Expiration -
A) Type net accounts /maxpwage:unlimited and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
B) Close the command prompt window when you get the The command completed successfully message.

Unlimited_CMD.jpg

5. To Change the Password Expiration Date-
A) Type net accounts /maxpwage:(1-999) and press Enter. (See screenshot below)
EXAMPLE: To change it back to the default 42 days, you would type: net accounts /maxpwage:42
NOTE: Change it to whatever you want between 1 to 999 days before password expiration.
B) Close the command prompt window when you get the The command completed successfully message.

Change_CMD.jpg


That's it,
Shawn