Checking Password Policies

You should check your local password settings to make sure they conform to the Windows-based computer policy regarding the minimum length and complexity.

  1. Click Start / Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Local Security Policy.

    The Local Security Settings dialog box appears.

  2. Navigate to Account Policies / Password Policy.

    The settings for this option appear on the right side of the dialog box.

  3. Check the value of the Minimum password length setting.
  4. If the Password must meet complexity requirements option is enabled, the following restrictions are in place:

    • Your password must contain characters from at least three of the following four groups:

      • upper case letter
      • lower case letter
      • number
      • punctuation character

    • Your password must be a least six characters long.

    • Your password must not contain three consecutive characters from the user name or full name settings. For example, if the user name is seeadmin, the password could not contain see, adm, etc.