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Managing a password policy

EXPERT RESPONSE FROM: Kevin Beaver

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QUESTION POSED ON: 18 March 2007
I am using a Windows Server 2003 system. I have set up a test network, which is a copy of the live network. I have changed the default password policy to:
Enforce password history is three passwords, maximum age (these are temporary settings) will be 62 days, minimum age, two days
Minimum length, eight characters
Password complex enabled

The password policy is not working as I have added some passwords and have had a seven-character password. How can I solidify and enforce these password settings?

EXPERT RESPONSE
Have you restarted the server? If you can't, try running gpupdate at a command prompt to refresh the policy. There could be a policy conflict on the server that's overriding the policy you set. Set the policy for the domain (or group) and if that doesn't do it, try setting a local policy, which will apply to the server itself. And then see what happens.

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