No Old Password Is Visible in the Old Password Box When You Try to Change Your Domain Password

• Microsoft Windows 98
• Microsoft Windows 95

SYMPTOMS

When you try to change your domain password, you may experience the following symptoms:

• The Old password box in the Change Password dialog box may appear to be empty instead of containing asterisks.



• When you click OK after typing in the Old password box, the New password box, and the Confirm new password box, you may receive one or more error messages. The error message you receive depends on what Windows password you currently use, and may occur with one of the following scenarios:
  
  
  • Scenario 1: There is no Windows password file (.pwl).
  
  
  
  • Scenario 2: The Windows password is a null password or is different than the domain password.
  
  
  
  • Scenario 3: The Windows password is the same as the domain password.
  
  
  

CAUSE

This problem can occur if your computer is configured to keep the Windows password and the domain password synchronized, and you only have the Client for Microsoft Networks installed.

RESOLUTION

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that problems resulting from the incorrect use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

For information about how to edit the registry, view the "Changing Keys and Values" Help topic in Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) or the "Add and Delete Information in the Registry" and "Edit Registry Data" Help topics in Regedt32.exe. Note that you should back up the registry before you edit it. If you are running Windows NT, you should also update your Emergency Repair Disk (ERD).


To work around this problem:

1. If you are using Windows 98, skip to step 2. If you are using Windows 95, apply the Password.cpl update. For additional information about applying the Password.cpl update, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Q172351 Option to Change Windows Password Without Password Caching

   
   
   NOTE: The problem described in this article is resolved in Windows 98.



2. Use Registry Editor to view the following registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\PwdProvider\MSNP32

   Change the value of the UseMasterKey value to 0. Note that a value of 0 clears the password check box and a value of 1 selects the password check box. Selecting the password check box enables password syncronization between Windows and a Microsoft Windows NT domain.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

REFERENCES

For additional information about related topics, click the article numbers below to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q230598 Synchronizing Windows NT Domain and Windows Passwords

Q155424 Windows NT Domain Does Not Accept New Domain Password

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbtool kbui win95 win98
Version : WINDOWS:95
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbprb