Password Policy settings changes do not take effect

  • Article

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Password Policy settings do not take effect.

Cause

If you have made changes to password policy settings and they do not get applied, this may mean that the policy settings have not been updated.

Solution

To trigger a policy refresh

  • Click Start, click Run, type gpupdate, and then click OK. This refreshes policy settings, and it updates the changes to password policy on the computer.

Gpupdate refreshes local Group Policy settings and Group Policy settings that are stored in Active Directory, including security settings. This command supersedes the now obsolete /refreshpolicy option for the secedit command.