How to set a password expiration date in Windows 10

Do you have a business where your employees use the company's computers to do their jobs? Do you want the passwords for 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.

Read this article to find out how to do that and carefully apply the steps written here. Do remember to set strong passwords when you change passwords after they expire. Choosing a strong password can add to your security and the password expiration settings.

For Microsoft account

If you use your 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 out.
3. Type in the old password.
4. Type in the new password and rewrite it in the next text box to confirm it.
5. Next, you need to 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 that you have not used more than three times before.

Enable password expiration

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

1. Press the Windows + r keys on your computer to open the Windows run box where you need to write lusrmgr.msc.
2. Click on the "users" option located near the left portion of the new window.
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 the 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 Computer Configuration, then Windows settings, then Security Settings, then Account Policies. Next, click twice on the Maximum Password Age option in the window's right pane. 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 after which you want the password to expire. Once you have done that, you need to 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.