Setting password complexities

10 Feb 2006 8:03 PM

R Green

Hi All

I'm able to set the minimum password length using group policy for our domain, however, how do you enable complexities? I've enabled the "Password must meet complexity requirement", however, what is the default "complexity" ? I'm running AD2k3...

Or is there none? I didn't see any difference after enabling that feature... If there is none, how do i set it to use a 'defined script' and where would i put this defined script??

Thanks!

R Green

10 Feb 2006 9:37 PM

Cary Shultz

Simple:

You must use three of the following four: lower case alpha, upper case alpha, numeric and special character (such as the * or the @ or the !).

An example of this might be using 'n8th@n!' instead of 'nathan'.

Please see the following MSKB Article:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=821425

I included this article for two reasons: 1) it explains what password complexity is and 2) it gives you information about a patch (careful, IIRC there are two: one for WIN2000 and one for WINXP/WIN2003) that makes the error message much more clear.

The default error message (er, at least in WIN2000) is really not very helpful. You need to install the patch on each and every system in your environment. It is well worth the effort in my opinion.

--
Cary W. Shultz
Roanoke, VA 24012

"R Green" <[ne***@wowsat.com> wrote in message news:11upse9q5vt1ha9@corp.supernews.com...

Hi All

I'm able to set the minimum password length using group policy for our domain, however, how do you enable complexities? I've enabled the "Password must meet complexity requirement", however, what is the default "complexity" ? I'm running AD2k3...

Or is there none? I didn't see any difference after enabling that feature... If there is none, how do i set it to use a 'defined script' and where would i put this defined script??

Thanks!

R Green