We remind users to change their password in Windows 7 / Windows 8: NetWrix Password Expiration Notifier

The end of the year turned out to be fruitful for us: immediately 5 programs received substantial updates. We already wrote about releases of NetWrix Active Directory Change Reporter 7.2 and Change Reporter Suite 3.2 in previous posts. But now our focus is on a password management program.
Meet - new version of NetWrix Password Expiration Notifier 3.2 . As the name implies, the main task of the program is to remind users to change the password on their machine.
The question that the notification of a password change in Windows 7 (and Windows 8) looks too unobtrusively has been repeatedly raised on the forums.

Since Microsoft does not offer a solution to the problem, there are several ways out:

• let it be as it is
• writing your own script is one example
• specialized software

Referring to the third option and consider the free program Password Expiration Notifier .
It is necessary to immediately clarify that speaking of the free program, we cannot but indicate the presence of an extended commercial version. However, in this post we will leave its consideration for the brackets and focus on what gives the free version.
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The main purpose of the program is to remind users in the domain to change the password within a certain period of time. The program extends the regular features of the Windows operating system and provides advanced features for administrators and Help Desk services to monitor the status of passwords.
One of the important features is the support of users working remotely. When a user has an AD account for VPN access only, Outlook Web Access (OWA) and file access, there is no interactive connection, which means that standard Windows notification is also unavailable to these users.

Let's walk briefly by functions :

• Administrators can receive reports on the status of account passwords (“the password will expire soon,” ”the expiration date is over”);
• Users are notified not only about the expiration of the password, but also the validity of the account itself;
• Users are notified of the need to change the account password before the password expires;
• Administrators can set password expiration dates based on granular policies, while ignoring domain password policies;
• Support for both trust and non-trust domains;
• Ability to overwrite the “Maximum Password Age” setting to calculate the password expiration date

We want to pay special attention to the Plan & Test function. With it, administrators can check the configuration and find out how many users will be affected by planned changes in the password policy. To do this, you will not have to distract users or change your AD settings.

Download page
Webinar recording (along with other password management and account lockout solutions)