Quite often (especially in small offices with established local area networks) you can observe a picture when, like all the machines connected to the local area network, I work fine, but when accessing a specific terminal I need to enter a network password. Where to get it? The system administrator, according to most users. No matter how! And if the administrator did not set any passwords on the system? What to do then? The answers to these questions are known not only by ordinary users, but also even by some novice system administrators. But there is nothing particularly complicated here.
Entering a Windows 7 network password: why is this needed?
Of course, no one argues that in offices with a sufficiently large number of computers connected to the local network, the use of access passwords, both at the direct input level and at the remote access level, is justified.
But often, even if the Windows 7 operating system is installed on all terminals, they seem to “see” each other on the network, but when, for example, an attempt is made to send a document to be printed using a network printer, even with the correct settings, nothing happens, since a network password is required. Where to get it? The network administrator is not up to date. In fact, there is a solution to this problem, and it is quite simple.
How to find out the network password? Data view
The password data itself is hidden from the eyes of a user of any level (even if he is a private user, even an admin, the system still does not allow him to see hidden data).
Nevertheless, there is a way out. If we take into account that all folders, including registration data, are invisible, you just need to enable the display of such objects in the same "Explorer". But in this case, finding a folder with passwords will be quite difficult.
In fact, everything is much simpler, and you do not need to spend energy on entering a network password. Where to get it and find the parameter that interests us? Elementary! It is only necessary to use the command rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr in the command line launched as administrator.
How to disable network passwords or change them?
In the initial version, we call the Run section from the standard Start menu or using the Win + R combination.
Then, in the most called console, we write the Controluserpasswords2 command and press the enter key. In the menu that appears, uncheck the password requirement for the selected accounts (it does not work on Windows 10!).
The same actions can be performed from the “Control Panel”, where you need to turn to the section of the network and sharing control center, and in the current (general) profile, check the checkbox of the shared access point with password protection.
Security Policy Settings
In the most optimal case, when you need to enter a network password (where to get it, what to enter, enable or disable the service), you can use another quite effective tool - edit group policies with setting permissions to access certain system functions at the administrator level or local user.
For access, the gpedit.msc command is used, and in the editor itself, the computer configuration section, where you need to find the LAN Manager network security check directory and activate LM and NTLM send parameters in it.
Total
Actually, that’s all. If there is a problem with the network password, its use should simply be turned off. If necessary, a new combination can be installed on Windows 7 and below. But this will have to be done on all machines synchronized over the network, and provided that all have the seventh modification of the system installed.
It goes without saying that in the settings of the Group Policy Editor, you can change and apply some additional settings that can be assigned to a specific group or class of users working on the same terminal.