Windows 10 has expired the password on the user I created specifically
for the purpose of doing backups.

I have never seen a password expire on Windows before. Why would
Microsoft do such a thing? How am I ever meant to set up and test
anything if Microsoft lays traps like this.

Yes, I know I could ditch Windows, and in truth I'm sorely tempted, but
this is needed to support family members who are unlikely to respond
favourably to a suggestion that they use Linux.

It's possible that the expiry is a function of how I created this user,
(I used net user on the command line) but at the moment I'm unable to
use the "standard" Windows 10 way to create local users because
"Something went wrong" after I indicated that this user does not have
Microsoft account.

Sylvia (becoming increasingly bald).

Am 28.10.2022 schrieb Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>:

> I have never seen a password expire on Windows before.

It is possible for a long time, especially companies use it.
You can change the settings in gpedit.msc IIRC.

> Why would Microsoft do such a thing? How am I ever meant to set up and test
> anything if Microsoft lays traps like this.

Do you have a company-administrated machine connected to AD?
Maybe the admins there set that option.
> It's possible that the expiry is a function of how I created this
> user, (I used net user on the command line) but at the moment I'm
> unable to use the "standard" Windows 10 way to create local users
> because "Something went wrong" after I indicated that this user does
> not have Microsoft account.

Is it Windows 10 Home?
MS made it difficult to create local users there. Disconnect from the
internet and try it in that state.

Does control userpasswords2 work?

On 28-Oct-22 6:00 pm, Marco Moock wrote:
> Am 28.10.2022 schrieb Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>:
>
>> I have never seen a password expire on Windows before.
>
> It is possible for a long time, especially companies use it.
> You can change the settings in gpedit.msc IIRC.
>
>> Why would Microsoft do such a thing? How am I ever meant to set up and test
>> anything if Microsoft lays traps like this.
>
> Do you have a company-administrated machine connected to AD?
> Maybe the admins there set that option.
>
>> It's possible that the expiry is a function of how I created this
>> user, (I used net user on the command line) but at the moment I'm
>> unable to use the "standard" Windows 10 way to create local users
>> because "Something went wrong" after I indicated that this user does
>> not have Microsoft account.
>
> Is it Windows 10 Home?
> MS made it difficult to create local users there. Disconnect from the
> internet and try it in that state.
>
> Does control userpasswords2 work?
>

"Something went wrong" was fixed by a reboot. How many people remember
when the standard fix was "reinstall Windows"?

Turns out I can use PowerShell to create a local user whose password
does not expire.

But the underlying problem of MS laying traps remains.

Sylvia.

Am 28.10.2022 schrieb Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>:

> But the underlying problem of MS laying traps remains.

I don't have a windows system to test, but is a local user with
expiring password the default for a normal Win 10 installation?
At least in older versions it wasn't.

Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> wrote:
> Am 28.10.2022 schrieb Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>:
>
>> But the underlying problem of MS laying traps remains.
>
> I don't have a windows system to test, but is a local user with
> expiring password the default for a normal Win 10 installation?
> At least in older versions it wasn't.

Windows has never set passwords to expire by default, AFAIK. My personal
machines have never expired their user accounts. The only place I see
passwords expire is on machines at work, where a group policy in Active
Directory forces new passwords every once in a while for most users.

--
_/_
/ v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
(IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
\_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

On 28-Oct-22 10:10 pm, Marco Moock wrote:
> Am 28.10.2022 schrieb Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>:
>
>> But the underlying problem of MS laying traps remains.
>
> I don't have a windows system to test, but is a local user with
> expiring password the default for a normal Win 10 installation?
> At least in older versions it wasn't.
>

After further testing, it appears to be specific to using the command
line NET USER command to create the user. That command creates a user
with an expiring password, and has no option to disable that. The method
using PowerShell creates a user with an expiring password by default,
but has an option to disable the expiry.

Fairly typical of Windows to be providing multiple different ways of
performing the same underlying function, but which are not quite the same.

Sylvia.

On Sat, 29 Oct 2022 08:44:02 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:

> On 28-Oct-22 10:10 pm, Marco Moock wrote:
>> Am 28.10.2022 schrieb Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>:
>>
>>> But the underlying problem of MS laying traps remains.
>>
>> I don't have a windows system to test, but is a local user with
>> expiring password the default for a normal Win 10 installation?
>> At least in older versions it wasn't.
>>
>>
> After further testing, it appears to be specific to using the command
> line NET USER command to create the user. That command creates a user
> with an expiring password, and has no option to disable that. The method
> using PowerShell creates a user with an expiring password by default,
> but has an option to disable the expiry.

The non Powershell command:

NET ACCOUNTS /MAXPWAGE:UNLIMITED

removes password aging from all users.

--
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

Use the BIG mirror service in the UK:
http://www.mirrorservice.org

On 29-Oct-22 10:39 am, Bob Eager wrote:
> On Sat, 29 Oct 2022 08:44:02 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:
>
>> On 28-Oct-22 10:10 pm, Marco Moock wrote:
>>> Am 28.10.2022 schrieb Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid>:
>>>
>>>> But the underlying problem of MS laying traps remains.
>>>
>>> I don't have a windows system to test, but is a local user with
>>> expiring password the default for a normal Win 10 installation?
>>> At least in older versions it wasn't.
>>>
>>>
>> After further testing, it appears to be specific to using the command
>> line NET USER command to create the user. That command creates a user
>> with an expiring password, and has no option to disable that. The method
>> using PowerShell creates a user with an expiring password by default,
>> but has an option to disable the expiry.
>
> The non Powershell command:
>
> NET ACCOUNTS /MAXPWAGE:UNLIMITED
>
> removes password aging from all users.
>

So it does. Rather counter-intuitive. Thanks for that

Sylvia

[I thought I posted this already, but seems not].

Sylvia Else <sylvia@email.invalid> writes:

> "Something went wrong" was fixed by a reboot. How many people remember
> when the standard fix was "reinstall Windows"?

It's still the standard fix when things get broken enough. I remember I
installed Windows 98 from scratch when Windows 95 could no longer
uninstall any device in the device manager. And that was the fix even
back then for misbehaving hardware.

Funny enough, last year I had to reinstall Windows 10 for the same
reason. I tried to migrate my old installation to new HW and it didn't
work that well, uninstalling drivers hung which makes Windows 10 pretty
much dead, at least if you want to change the underlying HW. When I went
back to my old system, much to my surprise I noticed the problem was
already present there too. Oh well, that Windows 10 installation was
originally a Windows 7 installation from around 2010.

So, reinstalling is still the fix, just don't have to do it so often.

> Turns out I can use PowerShell to create a local user whose password
> does not expire.

Curious thing, I don't think I've ever had a password expire in my home
Windows computers, 7, 10, 11 variants, usually Pro. No AD.