As with most SharePoint developers, I make heavy use of Virtual PC to create VMs. One area I have passed over is anti virus. I sent an email to Grisoft and received an email back saying I need the “AVG SharePoint Server Edition” which are sold in packages 25, 50, 75, and 100 licenses. This seems like overkill, along with extreme expense, since they wouldn’t give me a price (they told me to call them).

Yesterday our company was slammed with some SQL Server 2005 virus which caused major issues. I want to make sure this virus doesn’t occur in my VM environments.

Can somebody recommend a good, non-expensive anti virus program which will run on Windows Server 2003?

Recently I have been creating numerous VM’s for my SharePoint development. Typically the first thing I do is create a base Windows Server 2003 VM with Active Directory. Inevitably, during the process of creating users I receive the error (see below) that the password has not met the password policy requirements. Since I want all users to have the same simple password, I needed a way to change the strong password policies.

Windows cannot set the password for <user> because: The password does not meet the password policy requirements. Check the minimum password length, password complexity and password history requirements.

Below are the steps to do so:

1. In Windows Server 2003, select Domain Security Policy from Administrative Tools. In Windows Server 2008, select Local Security Policy from Administrative Tools.
2. In Windows Server 2003, expand Security Settings-Account Policies-Password Policy. In Windows Server 2008, expand Account Policies-Password Policy.
3. Right-click on “Minimum password length” in the right pane and select Properties. Do not remove the check for the “Define this policy setting” check box (only available in Windows Server 2003). Enter a new setting – I set mine to 0 (no password required) and click OK.
4. Right-click on “Password must meet complexity requirements” in the right pane and select Properties. Do no remove the check for the “Define this policy setting” check box (only available in Windows Server 2003). Select the Disabled option and click OK.
5. Close the “Default Domain Security Settings” dialog.
6. Select Start-Run and type in cmd.
7. Type “gpupdate /force” (without the quotes) and click Enter.
8. Type “exit” (without the quotes) to exit Cmd.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND REMOVING STRONG PASSWORD POLICIES IN A PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENT.

UPDATE (1/14/2009): UPDATED FOR WINDOWS SERVER 2008.