Thursday, October 25, 2012

Why and How to Reset Windows 7 Password Periodically?


For an enterprise, to prevent data leak or other security issue, workers may be required to change windows login password at a fixed date. For a local user, a regular windows 7 password reset can save users from being hacked.
If you are busy, you may forget to change windows password, thus three methods are provided to schedule windows 7 password reset task.
Method 1 Set Maximum Password Age
Step 1: Enable Password Expiration
1. Right click Computer, and choose Management. In Computer Management window, locate to Local Users and Groups Manager.
2. In the left pane, click on Users, then double click on the name of the user account that you want to enable password expiration for.
3. Uncheck the Password never expires box, then click on OK.
Step 2: Set Maximum Password Age
1. Open the Start menu, and type secpol.msc in the search box to open the Local Security Policy editor.
2. In the left pane, expand Account Policies, and click on Password Policy.
3. In the right pane, double click on Maximum password age, and enter a number
Method 2 Use Windows Task Scheduler
1. Open the Task Scheduler window.
Open Control Panel and choose System and Security. Then select Administrative Tools and, finally, Task Scheduler. 2. Create Task.
Click Create Task in the right Actions side. The Create Task dialog box appears. 3. Type a name and a description for the task in General tab.
For example, Name: reset password. Description: Remind you to change password every month. 4. Click the Triggers tab, followed by the New button. In New Trigger window, select monthly, select all months and specify a date, OK.
5. Click the Actions tab, followed by the New button. The Action button menu displays.
6. From the Action button menu, choose Display a Message. Fill in the title and message. OK.
For example, Title: reset password, Message: change user account password. 7. Make more supplemental settings in Conditions and Settings tab.
8. Click OK to create the task. The completed task will appear in the list of task scheduler library.
To test your task, select the task, choose Run from the Actions side. Click OK to close the pop-up message.
Method 3 Adopt time management software
There are many third-party time management tools and event reminders on the internet, including Foxmail.
Install one of them, edit the message “change windows 7 password” and specify the notification date in the program.
With either one of above three methods, you can reset Windows 7 password at a regular time interval.
Additional knowledge
In case you forgot Windows password, it is better to create a windows password reset disk right now.