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This program allows to set up
some extra security settings of Windows accounts. Usually such settings
are changed by means of a local or group security policy. There are no
native tools to change most of these settings in home versions of Windows.
Accounts Tuner - freeware
software product. Any person or organization can use this product free
of charge. License conditions in details are described in the file LicenseEN.txt which is located
in a folder where the program is installed to.
Accounts Tuner may be
used on computers with following operating systems: Microsoft Windows
NT 4.0 (Service Pack
6 required), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server
2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server
2008 R2 and later. Both 32- and 64-bit systems supported.
Administrator rights required for the program to work.
 Note: you can
start the program without
administrative rights. In this case, you can only examine the settings,
their change will be impossible.
Note: the
term "Administrator" is understood as
the user possessing the rights to change accounts settings. Members
of "Administrators" security group have
full rights for this. However, to change some settings there is enough
membership of "Accounting operators" security group.
The program interface is simple
enough:
The option button in the top part
of a window allows to choose management of the local computer or other
server connected to the local network. Other server management is
possible if any of the following conditions met:
both
computers joined the same domain;
there is an
account on the server with a name
and the password coinciding with a name and the password of your
account on the local computer, and this account on the server is
administrative account.
The left part of a window
contains settings of the accounts which are present on the local
computer or a server. The account to set up can be chosen from the
"Username" list.
Settings available to change:
Account
Disabled -
the user will not be able to log on until the account will be enabled
by the administrator.
Account
Locked -
accounts are automatically temporarily locked after some failed
logon attempts. This field allows to see locking state and force unlock
the account.
Password
Required
- if this setting enabled, the user will be unable to set up logon
without password.
Password
Never Expires
- password age will be unlimited for this account.
User
Can Change Password
-
if disabled, only administrator will be able to change password of this
account.
Other fields in the left part of
the screen are for information, their values cannot be changed.
The right part of a window
contains common settings for all accounts on the local computer or the
server:
Maximal
Password Age -
after the lapse of this time from the last password change, the user
password becomes expired, and at the next logon attempt it will be
offered to change it. To disable password expiration on this server,
enter 49710 into this field.
Minimal
Password Age -
the system will not allow the user to change password if the time
elapsed since its
previous change is less than in this field.
Minimal
Password Length
-
the user will not be able to set password shorter than is designated
in this field.
Bad
Passwords Before Lockout
- number of serial failed logon attempts after which the account is
locked.
Lockout
Duration -
time interval after the lapse of which the locked account unlocks
automatically.
Bad
Password Timeout
- a minimum interval between failed logon attempts at which failed
logons counter does not increase, and, thus, account lockout does not
happen.
Password
History Length
- the system does not allow the user to assign the password which was
used earlier. This field defines a number of the previous passwords
which the system remembers, and not allows to use repeatedly.
Password
Expiry Warning
- this setting defines an interval of time before password expiration
when the system reminds the user of necessity to change password.
This setting is for the local computer only.
Numeric settings may be increased
or reduced by "+" and "-" keys on the keyboard.
To apply changed settings click
"Set" in the appropriate block of settings.
Accounts Tuner supports
multiple languages. Program language is selected automatically
according to current user interface language (for multi-language OS),
operating system language (for single-language Windows 2000 and later),
language of user regional settings (for Windows NT). In case Account
Tuner does not support this language, English is used.
Current translations included into distributive package:
German - by TheStarGate
Russian - by Sergey Merzlikin
You can add support
of additional languages to
the program yourself. For this purpose translate into your language the
text lines in a file 1033.loc, and save result file as XXXX.loc, where
XXXX - the locale code of appropriate language. Locale
codes (Microsoft Locale ID) you can get here.
If you send to the author of the program prepared
by you localization files, they will be added
to the distributive package with mentioning of translator. Do not
forget to specify your copyright and the contact address in file
comments.
© Copyright 2010 Sergey Merzlikin
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