Through 'Group Policies' to set Windows Password Complexity

Obviously, for setting a password, it is as complex as possible for the sake of security. It is much easier for a weak password to be attacked than a sophisticated password, of course. A password composed with simply digits or letters and the length is no more than six characters is much easier to be attacked compared to a password with special symbols and more than 10 characters.

If unfortunately, your password is attacked and used by others illegally, your information, privacy may be risked, and possibly you may face a huge economical lose. So, it’s important to set a sophisticated password to better protect your information to reduce risks.

Sophisticated passwords, or say strong passwords can be composed with special symbols, characters, and digits for security, like ‘^&2fds7fs9’, ‘&qp9(xi’, ‘x2xu0/?zo/3r’, etc.

If you are using Windows operating system, and want to enforce your system to protect your information in maximum, Windows offers stronger password protection in addition to a strong password with complexity and length. This method is rarely used, and most of people may feel strange about it, but do follow with the steps below, and you are easy to get your system as safe as possible simply by more security settings for the password.

Firstly, set a sophisticated windows XP/7/Vista password, and then through ‘Group Policy’, you are easy to set the password attempt times. For example, if someone else trying to log on your system attempting 3 times without success, then he is impossible to enter a password on the Welcome Screen within 30 minutes.


Then how to do it?
Click ‘Start’, select ‘Run’, enter ‘gpedit.msc’ and hit Enter. You are facing a window named ‘Group Policy’, unfold ‘Computer Configuration’, unfold ‘Windows Settings’, click ‘Security Settings’, on the right pane, double click ‘Account Policies’, find ‘Password Policy’.



Tips: If get this ‘Password must meet complexity requirements’ enabled, the password must meet the minimum requirements below:
1. The password must no less than 6 characters.
2. The password can’t contain either the account name or characters sets with more than two serial characters.
3. The password must contain three types of characters among the four types below:
a. English letters either capitalized or small but not other languages
b. Digits
c. Special symbols (!, $, #, %)

Double click ‘Password must meet complexity requirements’, and select ‘Enable’ in the window below:



Tips: This setting can take effect without the restarting your computer. After you have finished the settings, you can set either administrator or user password through Control Panel.



How to limit the attempting times?
To limit the attempting times is to set the permitted times when the password is continuously wrong. If the attempting times come to the times you set, the system will automatically lockout for a period of time, which is also according to your settings.

Still open the ‘Group Policy’ as the above, Unfold ‘Computer Configuration>Windows Settings>Security Settings>Account Policies



Double click ‘Account Lockout Policy’, and you get the following window, and double click ‘Account lockout threshold’.



Enter a number for ‘invalid logon attempts’ and click ‘OK’. For example, if you have entered 3, it means that after 3 wrong password attempts, your system will be lockout and won’t allow more attempts.

In the following window, double click ‘Account lockout duration’.

And, enter a number for the account lockout duration. And, click ‘OK’.


Tips: This method seems a little bit restrict, and for those who are not familiar with computer settings, please get used to it firstly to use it.


Of course, if unfortunately, you have yourself locked out of your Windows system, and the password is that complex, it’s still method to recovery windows password and reuse the account to log on Windows. Use one of the popular software program to burn a CD to reset the password will do, like Windows Password Reset 7.0.


More tips in: windows password recovery | password reset | Administrator Password