Mastering Active Directory - Second Edition

Implementing fine-grained password policies

Complex passwords are a basic security setting that any administrator uses. In the AD environment, password complexity settings and account lockout settings can be configured by using GPO settings, which are located at Computer Configuration | Policies | Windows Settings | Security Settings | Account Policies. Before Windows Server 2008, there was only one password policy and account lockout policy setting that could be applied to the users. With Windows Server 2008, Microsoft introduced fine-grained password policies, which allow administrators to apply different password and account lockout policy settings to individual users or groups. This allows you to protect privileged accounts using stronger ...