Passphrases

Rather than Passwords, consider using Passphrases, these are much more secure than Passwords, and probably easier to remember for most people.

Forcing users to use more secure passwords

Having users on your system using secure passwords is obviously an important matter. Unfortunately people tend to either pick passwords that they can easily remember, or re-use the same passwords for different things.

Whilst there is nothing you can do about the latter, you can beef up security by forcing users to adopt password with both letters and numbers with the aid of a little registry tweak.

  • Click Start and Select Run
  • Type regedit into the dialog box and click OK
  • Once you're into the registry editor navigate to:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network.
  • Create a new DWORD Value Called Alphanumpwds and set its value to 1.

Now your users will only be able to use passwords with a combination of letters and numbers.



This page last updated December 12th 2009 Bookmark and Share