Overview – Block Users from Changing Password
Windows allows the users to prevent the password from changing unless you’re not on a corporate network where your computer is managed by a system administrator in an organization.
It seems that you want to prevent users from changing password in Windows or you want to fix the error stating the warning “Windows cannot change the password”.
The methods listed below are applicable to both the guest users and local users on the same machine, but you cannot prevent changing the administrator password as it can result in the Admin account being disabled, deleted, or may cause login issues, especially when you’re connected with your primary Microsoft Account.
By the end of this article, you’ll be able to prevent users from changing password in Windows 11:
1. Prevent User from Changing Password via Computer Management
Step 1: In the Start menu, type “Computer Management” and hit the enter key,
Step 2: Expand the “Local Users and Groups” section on the left sidebar, click the “Users” option and Double-click the account for which you want to remove the password.
Step 3: Check the “User cannot change password” option and click the “Apply” button.
Note: To enable users from changing password, uncheck the “User can not change password” option and click the “Apply” button.
2. Prevent Users from Changing Password via Registry Editor
Step 1: Open the Registry Editor from the Start menu.
Step 2: Navigate to the following path:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies.
Step 3: Right-click the Policies folder and create a new key named System (if doesn’t exist already).
Step 4: Select the system key, right-click and add a new DWORD (32-bit) value named DisableChangePassword.
Step 5: To prevent users from changing password, open the recently created DWORD value and set the value data from 0 to 1.
Note: To enable changing password using registry settings, simply set the value data in the “DisableChangeValue” DWORD value to 1.
3. Prevent Users from Changing Password via Command Prompt
Step 1: Run the Command Prompt from the Start menu as an administrator.
Step 2: List all users with usernames by executing the command:
net user.
Step 3: To prevent the user from changing the password, type the command:
net user “Account-Name” /passwordchg:no.
Note: To revert the settings and allow users to change the password again, type the following command:
net user “Account-Name” /passwordchg:yes.
4. Prevent Users from Changing Password via PowerShell
Step 1: Run the PowerShell from the Start menu as an administrator.
Step 2: To list all users on the computer, type the command:
net user.
Step 3: To prevent the user from changing the password, type the following command:
Set-LocalUser -Name “username-here” -UserMayChangePassword 0.
Note: To allow changing password again, type the following command:
Set-LocalUser -Name “username-here” – UserMayChangePassword 1.
5. Prevent Users from Changing Password via Group Policy
Step 1: In the Start menu, type “Edit Group Policy” and hit the enter key.
Step 2: Navigate to the following path:
User Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Ctrl + Alt + Del Options and double-click the “Remove Change Password” on the right pane.
Step 3: Set the status to “Enabled” and click the “Apply” button.
Note: To again allow changing password using group policy, double-click the “Remove Change Password” option and set the status to “Disabled” and click the “Apply” button.
Next Steps
We’ve covered how to prevent other users from changing password in Windows 11. You can choose any of the methods that you find convenient to follow.
Further, configure the computer’s settings to customize it depending on your preferences.
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