How to set a password expiration date in Windows 10

Do you have a business where your employees use the computers of the company to do their jobs? Do you want the passwords of these computers to be changed at regular intervals for security reasons? You can achieve this by setting a password expiration date in Windows 10. Setting this password expiration date is very simple. To find out how you need to read this article and carefully apply the steps written here. Do remember to set strong passwords when you change passwords after their expiration. Choosing a strong password can also add to your security along with the password expiration setting.

See also: How to completely remove Xbox app from Windows 10

For Microsoft account

If you use the Microsoft account on your computer to log in, then this section can be used to set the expiration date of your password. However, using this method, you can set the password to expire only after every 72 days. The steps for the same are:

  1. On a web browser, go to the link: https://account.microsoft.com/security/ and click on the ‘change my password’ option under the ‘password security’ heading.
  2. A form will appear that you need to fill.
  3. Type the old password.
  4. Type the new password and rewrite it again in the next text box to confirm it.
  5. Next, what you need to do is tick-mark the option marked ‘make me change my password every 72 days’.
  6. Click on the Save button.

Using this approach, you can only change the password to that new password which you have not used before more than 3 times.

Enable password expiration

Before moving on to how to set password expiration for the local Windows account, you need to enable the password expiration feature that is disabled by default.

  1. Press the Windows + r keys together on your computer to open the Windows run box in which you need to write lusrmgr.msc.
  2. Click on the ‘users’ option located near the left portion in the new window that opens up.
  3. From this, some user accounts will be displayed on the right. Choose the user account for which you want to set the password expiration. Right-click on it.
  4. A menu pops up. Click on the ‘properties’ option on the menu.
  5. A window opens. Untick-mark the ‘password never expires’ option in this window.
  6. Click on the apply button and then click on the ok button.

For local account

Now, you again need to open the Windows run box. You can do so by pressing the Windows + r keys simultaneously. In this run box, type ‘gpedit.msc’ and then press the enter button or click on the ok button.

This will open the local group policy editor window. On the left pane, you should be able to see a menu organized in a tree format. One by one, go to the ‘computer configuration’, then ‘Windows settings’, then ‘security settings’, then ‘account policies’, and then ‘password policy’. Next, click twice on the ‘maximum password age’ option in the right pane of the window. This will open a smaller window on the screen. Under the heading, ‘maximum password age’, you will see ‘password will expire in’. Fill in the number of days here after which you want the password to expire. Once you have done that, what you need to do is click on the apply button and then click on the ok button to confirm the changes.

Windows will now remind you after this number of days to change your password and keep your security standards up to date.

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