Configuring AD Password Policies

Passwords are essential for security as they help ensure that a person is who they say they are and thus are allowed to perform some action such as logging on to a host or editing a file. Password policies allow you to define your password attributes, including minimum length and whether complex passwords are required. You can also set the number of times a user enters an invalid password before that user is locked out (and a lockout duration). For more details on improving authentication security, see https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2224364&seqNum=2.

In AD, you can apply a default domain password policy. This policy applies to all users in the domain. In most cases, this is adequate for the organization. But in some cases, you wish to apply a more stringent password policy to certain users or groups of users. You use AD's fine-grained password policy to manage these more restrictive passwords. A ‘fine-grained...