The most common reason for alphanumeric password policy failures is improper local account configuration. You need to ensure all local accounts can change passwords and have password expiration enabled.
On each target device, open an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell and run these commands to identify problematic accounts:
# List all local user accounts
net user
# Check specific account properties (replace 'LocalAdmin' with actual username)
net user LocalAdmin
# Look for these problematic flags:
# - Password never expires: Yes
# - User may not change password: Yes
Fix any accounts with problematic settings:
# Enable password expiration for specific user
wmic useraccount where name='LocalAdmin' set PasswordExpires=TRUE
# Allow user to change password
net user LocalAdmin /passwordreq:yes
# Verify the changes
net user LocalAdmin
For multiple accounts, use this PowerShell script:
# Fix all local accounts at once
Get-LocalUser | Where-Object {$_.Enabled -eq $true} | ForEach-Object {
Set-LocalUser -Name $_.Name -PasswordNeverExpires $false
Write-Host "Fixed account: $($_.Name)"
}
Verification: Run net user [username] for each account and confirm that "Password never expires" shows "No" and "User may not change password" shows "No".
Warning: The error code 2016281112 almost always indicates local account configuration issues. Fix these before deploying the policy to avoid mass compliance failures.
