"You Do Not Have Permission to Change Your Password" Error Message When You Change Your Password At Logon

When you try to log on to a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer or to a Microsoft Windows 2000-based computer, you may be prompted to change your password. After you enter your new password, you may receive the following error message:

This issue may occur if all of the following conditions are true:

• The Windows Server 2003 domain controller has the NT4Emulator value enabled.
• The client is running Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1).
• You enter a password that does not comply with security requirements specified by your network administrator.

For example, this issue occurs if the first two of these conditions are true and you try to change the password to a password that already exists in the password history for your account.

When you are prompted to change your password, enter a new and unique password that is not similar to any previous passwords.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a bug in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

The error message in the "Symptoms" section of this article is misleading. It implies that you do not have permission to change your password. The following error message is more accurate, and it is what you can expect to receive when you enter a new password that does not comply with password security requirements: