14 DAY TRIAL // Making changes to your user account in Windows is not a difficult task mainly because Microsoft designed the applet for the average user. Accounts Tuner comes to expand the set of options available in Windows by granting you control over passwords’ lifespan or logon statistics.
Windows’ User Accounts panel is pretty straightforward and lets you create a password to protect the account, modify the name of the user, its permissions and even set parental restrictions. Overall, these are options an average user wants, but a more experienced one would tap into local or group security policy panel you can impose a whole new set of rules.
With Accounts Tuner you get a freebie that expands the control an administrator has over the other accounts on the system. The application is not portable, but installing it is swift and eventless, so as long as you follow the instructions in the screens you’re okay.
It works even if you do not run it with administrative rights, but it won’t be of much use if you want to change a setting as you can only examine the way it is configured.
Accounts Tuner is a one-window program where you get to apply your restrictions and set up password-related options. The main screen may seem a bit confusing for some of the users, but suffice to learn that all the settings, in both window splits apply either to the local computer or a remote server, depending on your selection in the upper part of the interface.
In the left part (User Parameters) you get options for accounts available either on the local computer or a serve, as per your choice in the upper part of the application window. These include the possibility to disable an account, unlock it or prevent the user from changing the account password. This side of the screen is actually a reflection of what you find in the advanced user management in Windows.
Details are also present in this area. You’ll be able to view the date for the last logon of the selected account, the age of the set password, the number of logons as well as a bad password count.
This is also the place to disable accounts. By doing this the selected account will no longer appear as a choice at logon. If the account gets locked because of inputting an incorrect password this panel unlocks it in a jiffy.
On the “Server Parameters” side of the application window Accounts Tuner generally puts at your disposal password-related settings. As such, you can define an expiration period for the current countersign, set a minimum number of accepted characters, impose the number of bad password input before the accounts gets locked expiration warning or the password history length.
The content in this screen is consistent with the options available in Local Security Policy in Windows, under Password Policy. This section is reserved for advanced users such as system administrators and is definitely not to be messed around with.
What Accounts Tuner does is bring forward some options and settings beginners and even average users most likely would not even know exist. It wraps them up in a neat and easy to use interface which also sports tooltips making things more clear in the case of some settings.
As far as you are in administrator mode you can control the access to other computer accounts and ensure stricter logon rules. It does not bring in an extraordinary range of options, but taps into some security choices most users would expect to see in the default account management applet.
Accounts Tuner functions as a user-friendly manager for extended account management features encompassed by the operating system. All modifications you make in the program are automatically reflected in Windows.
The app is accurate and works like a charm. Server functionality is available if the remote machine is on the same domain as yours and has an account with the same name and password as the account on the local computer. Also, the account on the remote computer must have administrative rights.
Since all settings are immediately applied in the operating system, it would be great to see a portable version of the program.
You can impose various restrictions to increase the security of the accounts on your system, like setting an expiration date for the passwords, disabling accounts or defining the number of bad passwords to be input before locking the account. You can use it both at home and in corporate environment with no restrictions and, the most important part is that it works and applies your settings on the spot.
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