Modify Windows Server Password Policy

So, while playing with Windows Server 2008 R2, I found the minimum password requirements to be a bit too stringent for a lab environment. If you find yourself in a similar predicament and wish to lower the password requirements to near-nothing (not recommended for production environments), then follow these steps:

1. Open a command prompt
2. Type 'secedit /export /cfg c:\temp.cfg' and hit enter
3. Edit c:\temp.cfg in your favorite ASCII editor
• Change the line "PasswordComplexity = 1" to "PasswordComplexity = 0"
• Change "MinimumPasswordLength = 7" to a smaller value.
• Save and close the file
4. At a command prompt type "secedit /configure /db %windir%\security\local.sdb /cfg c:\temp.cfg /areas SECURITYPOLICY"

The new settings should be in place. Create an account and it won't bug you if the password is too short.