I installed Windows 7 on a computer in a workgroup a few weeks ago. Yesterday while logging, the user (administrator account) was prompted to change its password Your password has expired and must be changed
.
It is not possible to change the password, the error is Access is denied
.
There is a second administrator account on the computer, but it is hidden on the welcome screen. Normally, by clicking Ctrl-Alt-Del
it should be possible to log in using that account, but for some reason, Ctrl-Alt-Del
does not have any effect.
I could boot the PC on a CD and reset the password that way, but the computer is situated in a secondary office a two hours drive away.
Is there something else I could do ?
Best Answer
Thanks to @Nikolay's link, I was able to solve the problem :
In the user account settings, I had checked
Password never expires
andUser cannot change password
. I was sure there would not be problems. I did not know that the computer'sPassword Policy - Maximum password age
overrides the local user's settings in a Workgroup environment.To change this Policy, type
secpol.msc
at the command prompt, and setAccount Policies - Password Policy - Maximum password age
to0
.