Knowledge Base

Cannot unlock workstation with ForceUnlockLogon and expired password

Article ID: 329885

Article Last Modified on 8/16/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition

This article was previously published under Q329885

SYMPTOMS

When you try to unlock your computer, you may receive an error message that is similar to the following:

The password is incorrect. Please retype your password. Letters in passwords must be typed using the correct case.

You cannot unlock your computer.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if ForceUnlockLogon is enabled on your computer and if either of the following conditions exist:

Your password has expired.
Your account has the User must change password at next logon setting enabled.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, use one of the following methods:

Log on to another workstation, change your password, and then use the new password to unlock your computer.
Have an administrator unlock your computer.

Note When you have an administrator unlock your computer, your session on your computer is forcibly logged off, and any unsaved work may be lost.

MORE INFORMATION

The ForceUnlockLogon registry entry was introduced in Microsoft Windows NT4.0 Service Pack 4 (SP4) to make sure that an unlock request was sanctioned by a domain controller, and hence that account lockout was observed. For more information, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

188700 Screensaver password works even if account is locked out

281250 Information about unlocking a workstation

These articles discuss Windows XP and Windows NT4.0 however the information also applies to Windows 2000. In Windows NT4.0, the new option can also cause a user account to be locked out prematurely, as incorrect unlock attempts were sent to the domain controller two times.

In Windows 2000, the message that appears for incorrect password entry and eventual account lockout was originally incorrect. See the following article on the post-SP2 hotfix that corrected this problem:

286778 Wrong message appears when the workstation is unlocked with an invalid password

The ForceUnlockLogon registry entry forces the workstation to logon, or authenticate at every unlock attempt instead of using a stored hash of the user's password. For more information about unlocking a workstation, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: