This guide explains how to increase the security of your Windows 7 computer by only allowing a certain number of unsuccessful login attempts before you have to wait a set period of time to try again.
In Windows 7, by default, you can attempt to login as many times as you want. No matter how many times you enter an incorrect password, you can try again. To make your account more secure, there is a feature called Account Lockout, which locks the account if a specified number of incorrect passwords are entered. Here’s how to enable it –
- Open the Control Panel and click on the System and Security link.
- In the System and Security window, click on Administrative Tools.
- Double click on the shortcut Local Security Policy in the Administrative Tools window.
- A new window will launch. Expand the list titled Account Policies under the Security Settings heading in the left pane of the Local Security Policy window. Select Account Lockout Policy from the left pane in the Local Security Policy window.
- Right-click the Account lockout threshold option and select Properties.
- In the properties window set the number of login attempts that you want Windows to allow before it locks the account. Click OK and exit.
- Now you’ll want to set the duration for how much time your account remains locked. This can be done by right-clicking the Account lockout duration option and selecting Properties. In the properties window, set the amount of time for which you want the account to be locked. Click OK and exit. That’s it.
Your Windows 7 user account will now lock after the set number of failed login attempts and you won’t be able to try logging in again until after the specified “time-out” period passes. The security of your Windows 7 PC just got a nice little increase :)
Sure don’t make that easy to access, do they?