MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-270): Installing ...

16-16 Chapter 16 Configuring Security Settings and Internet Options
Lesson 2: Configuring Account Policies
In Chapter 7, “Setting Up and Managing User Accounts,” you learned about assigning
user account passwords and how to unlock an account that was locked by the system.
In this lesson, you learn how to improve the security of your user’s passwords and how
to control when the system locks out a user account.
After this lesson, you will be able to
■ Configure Password Policy.
■ Configure Account Lockout Policy.
Estimated lesson time: 15 minutes
How to Configure Password Policy
Password Policy allows you to improve security on your computer by controlling
how passwords are created and managed. You can specify the maximum length of
time a password can be used before the user must change it. Changing passwords
decreases the chances of an unauthorized person breaking into your computer. If an
unauthorized user has discovered a user account and password combination for your
computer, forcing users to change passwords regularly will cause the user account
and password combination to eventually fail and lock the unauthorized user out of
the system.
Other Password Policy options are available to improve a computer’s security. For
example, you can specify a minimum password length. The longer the password, the
more difficult it is to discover. Another example is maintaining a history of the passwords
used. If you also require passwords to be changed regularly, this prevents a user
from having two passwords and alternating between them.
You can configure Password Policy on a computer running Windows XP Professional
by using the Local Security Settings tool. To configure Password Policy, use these steps:
1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. In the Control Panel window, click Performance And Maintenance.
3. In the Performance And Maintenance window, click Administrative Tools.
4. In the Administrative Tools window, double-click Local Security Policy.
5. In the Local Security Settings window, expand Account Policies, and then click
Password Policy.
6. Select the setting you want to configure, and then on the Action menu, click Properties.