Administrator not allowed to change local security settings

31 Oct 2008 5:11 PM

D.J. Curran-Godwin

I am working with a laptop running Windows XP, not connected to any network.
I want to disable the "password must meet complexity requirements" setting.
I've logged in to Administrator, but when I go to Local Security Settings,
Password Policy, and click on "Password must meet complexity requirements",
both the enabled and disabled options are grayed out. It will not allow me
to change them. Password Policy and several other items in the left pane of
local security settings has a padlock icon, which I assume means changes are
locked out.

I have double checked and even logged out and back in again. I am
definitely logged in as Administrator, which is in the Administrator group.
Shouldn't Administrator be able to change anything? How can I unlock these
settings?

1 Nov 2008 11:51 AM

Marcin

If the laptop is a member of a domain, then settings applied via Active
Directory GPOs will take effect even when the laptop is not connected to the
network. Is this the case? If so, you would need to make the computer
account a member of a workgroup (i.e. remove it from the domain) in order to
be able to modify the local password policy.

hth
Marcin

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"D.J. Curran-Godwin" <D.J. Curran-God***@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:B38588A4-B476-49D1-B1EE-2E976139B954@microsoft.com...
>I am working with a laptop running Windows XP, not connected to any
>network.
> I want to disable the "password must meet complexity requirements"
> setting.
> I've logged in to Administrator, but when I go to Local Security Settings,
> Password Policy, and click on "Password must meet complexity
> requirements",
> both the enabled and disabled options are grayed out. It will not allow
> me
> to change them. Password Policy and several other items in the left pane
> of
> local security settings has a padlock icon, which I assume means changes
> are
> locked out.
>
> I have double checked and even logged out and back in again. I am
> definitely logged in as Administrator, which is in the Administrator
> group.
> Shouldn't Administrator be able to change anything? How can I unlock
> these
> settings?
>