The problem comes in when your local user account has been set to expire the password, because there’s not an obvious place to change that setting in Vista, although it’s easy to do. Note that this problem doesn’t exist in the Home editions of Windows.
Open the Local Users and Groups administration panel by typing in lusrmgr.msc into the start menu search box. (or the Run box on XP) Select “Users” in the left hand pane, and then double-click your user account in the list.
On this screen you’ll find the “Password never expires” checkbox.
Just make sure the box is checked and you won’t be forced to change your password anymore.
Windows XP/Vista Home Users
If you are using the Home edition of Windows, you can download User Manager for XP/Vista Home from XPHomeTools. It’s a shareware software, but you can use the trial version to disable expiration.
