---
title: AD Password Requirements and Fine Grained Password Policies
slug: ad-password-requirements-and-fine-grained-password-policies
createdAt: 2025-06-11T20:26:21.328Z
---
## How Activate Displays the Password Requirements to Users
Activate queries the Default Domain Policy to find the Password Requirements for the Domain as a whole:
These are displayed to users to give them information. The main places these are used are the root of the Passwords Task:
They are also displayed to users when they use the Activate Credential Provider or Activate Anywhere to change their password. An example from Activate Anywhere is:
## Fine Grained Password Policies and Password Requirement Information
The Password Requirements in the Default Domain Policy apply to all users in the domain. Fine Grained Password Policies are a feature in Active Directory that allows different Password Policies to be defined. These are secured to different Active Directory groups and apply to only the users in the respective Active Directory groups.
If you are using Fine Grained Password Policies and want Activate to show the users the Password Requirements based on the Fine Grained Password Policy that would apply to them, then it is recommended that you create Roles within Activate that use a Members Parameter associated with the same Active Directory group that is used for the Fine Grained Password Policy.
For example:
Then you can use these Activate Roles to determine the information that is displayed to the users.
For the information used in the Credential Provider or on the Activate Anywhere Password Reset page, then you should use the instructions tag inside the XML configuration at //Tasks/Passwords/PasswordResetQuestions can be expressions. e.g.:
| |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
\
\What street did you live on when you first went to high school?\
\What is your oldest sibling’s birthday month and year? (mmm-yyyy)\
\What is the name of the school you attended when you were 14?\
\What was your dream job as a child? \
\What is the name of the school you attended when you were 7?\
\In what year was your mother born? (yyyy)\
\What is the name of your favourite primary school teacher?\
\What was the first concert you attended?\
\What was your childhood nickname? \
\What was the make and model of your first car? (Make/Model)\
\What is your preferred musical genre? \
\What is the last name of your favourite secondary school teacher?\
\\\
\ |
**NOTE**: If you copy the text above within the \ node - you will need to remove the \_ between the %= for this to work.
To change the information at //Tasks/Passwords simply edit the Web.Page parameter so that the expressions depend on the relevant Roles:
