Prevent standard users from changing their own password in Windows 7
As you learned in previous tutorials, each user can by default change his/her Windows 7 password; likewise, you (assuming you have administrative credentials) can change another user's password. But what if you want to retain full control over if and when other users on that machine can change their account password at all? Well, Windows 7 makes configuring this quite easy. (And while they will no longer be able to change their password, any PC admin will still be able to, for them.)
Disable the ability of Windows 7 users to change their password
Note: the rest of this tutorial assumes that you are either currently running as an administrative user, or that you do know the Administrator's password: these elevated credentials are necessary to configure some users' settings and profile like the one we're about to describe.
Note: following the steps below, you could also prevent a computer administrator from changing his/her Windows 7 password as well, but this is not something we recommend doing unless you have an extremely good reason.
- Once you have logged in to Windows 7, open the start menu, and locate the word "Computer" on the right hand side (if My Computer is not displayed, see our tutorials on the Windows 7 start menu to customize this). Then, right-click on Computer and choose "Manage":
- Once the "Computer Management" console opens, double-click or expand "Local Users and Groups" inside the left pane; then, select "Users", and Windows 7 will display all user accounts that have been created for this particular computer.
Tip: Type "lusrmgr.msc" in the start menu to directly load the "Local Users and Groups" node. - Right-click on the username of the person you want to prevent from changing their own password, and choose "Properties" from the context menu that opens.
- Make sure that the "General" tab is selected in the "[user name] Properties" dialog that launched; then, check the "User cannot change password" checkbox. Click "OK" to apply.
- As soon as you do, you will back in the Computer Management console, which can now be closed. From this point on, the user in question will not be able to change his/her password!
Tip: while that person will no longer be able to change password, they can still ask you or another system administrator (or anyone with access to the computer Administrator's credentials) to manually change that user's password. And as an administrator, you'll still be able to manage that account as any other.
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