Windows 2008R2 password policy is greyed out

I needed to reduce the complexity of the password policy for a Windows 2008r2. I found the option to be greyed out. This did it immediately.

Found this on the Internet. Thank you Strangenut. Here is the original blog.

The basis of the blog is the following:

1. Go to a command prompt
2. Type ‘secedit /export /cfg c:\local.cfg’ and hit enter
3. Using notepad, edit c:\local.cfg
4. Look for the line “PasswordComplexity = 1” and change it to “PasswordComplexity = 0”
5. You can also edit “MinimumPasswordLength = 7” to a lesser value if you like.
6. Save the file
7. At a command prompt type ‘secedit /configure /db %windir%\security\local.sdb /cfg c:\local.cfg /areas SECURITYPOLICY
8. This will apply the new settings and refreshing the gpedit.msc should reflect the new settings
9. Set your new less complex password!

The only thing you need to change is if you have 64-bit version (most will be) then you can’t use the edit command. You will need to open the local.sdb file using notepad.