Within default SharePoint environment, SharePoint users are not allowed to change their passwords on their own. Therefore, IT administrators have to spend countless hours on helping reset the passwords. This time-consuming and tedious job has made it difficult for IT administrators to focus on tasks of higher priority, which might lower the operation efficiency.

SharePoint Password Change considerably alleviates IT administrator workload while ensuring the access security simultaneously. It contains two Web Parts: SharePoint Password Change Web Part and SharePoint Password Expire Warning Web Part.

Password Change Web Part allows Active Directory users or Local NT users to change their own passwords without administrator intervention. If the password has been changed successfully, a confirmation email will be sent automatically as long as the IT administrator has enabled this feature and completed the configuration.

Besides, to smooth the resetting process, security policies are allowed to be displayed on the Web Part, preventing users from coming up with improper passwords. Moreover, Password Change Web Part offers administrators an option on whether allowing users to specify the domain and account or not. Empowering an individual user to specify different domains and change corresponding passwords will further increase the efficiency, while restricting his or her ability to change the password to the currently logged in account only can guarantee the access security.

Password Expire Warning Web Part can prompt users to change passwords proactively through sending them expiry notification emails beforehand and providing a URL to redirect users to the password change page. Fully customizable settings allow administrators to configure whom to notify, how many days before expiration date to start the notification, the content of the email and also the URL of password changing.

The availability of password log file further enhances the capability of SharePoint Password Change. The downloadable log file stores all password changes and change attempts in one convenient place for IT administrators to view and download. Serving as an information tracker, it allows IT administrators to get a clear idea about the progress of password change without being annoyed by notification emails every day or even every couple hours, which will greatly improve password management.

Click here for the tutorial of the SharePoint 2007 version of Password Change.

SharePoint Password Change Tutorial for SharePoint 2010

SharePoint Password Change gives site collection administrators the options to allow AD users or Local NT users to change their own passwords on SharePoint without administrator intervention. Password Change also allows you to send expiration notification emails to warn users before their passwords expire, send confirmation emails after users have successfully changed their passwords, and store all password change attempts in a convenient administrator's log.

How to Add Password Change Web Part and Password Expiration Warning Web Part

After installing SharePoint Password Change, an additional option will be available in the users' main dropdown menu.

You can also choose to add a Password Change Web Part and Password Expiration Warning Web Part to any SharePoint site in your site collection.

To do so, go to the page where you would like to add the web parts, click Site Actions at the top of the page, and then click Edit Page to modify the site. Click on the Insert tab under Editing Tools, and then click Web Part.

In the Categories box, select SharePointBoost Web Parts, and then add either or both web parts by selecting them and clicking Add.

How to Activate the Password Change Web Part

The Password Change web part has to be activated before it can be used.

From the SharePoint Central Administration homepage, click Manage web applications under Application Management.

Select the web application to which you want to apply Password Change, and then click Manage Features. This will open up the Manage Web Application Features window.

Locate Password Change Email Notification Timer Job, and then click Activate.

How to Configure Password Change

The Password Change Web Part

To access the Password Change Settings page, open the Site Actions dropdown menu and then click the Site Settings button. Under Site Collection Administration, click Password Change settings (Powered by SharePointBoost).

You can also access this settings page directly from the Password Change Web Part, see below:

The Password Change Settings page is divided into 4 sections. Each section has to be enabled before it can be edited. To enable a section, click the corresponding checkbox on the left.

The Password Expiration Notification section lets the administrator select if he or she would like to send a password expiration notification email to users.

The first three boxes let the administrator decide when and how often email notifications should be sent before a password expires. Enable the feature by checking the Password Expiration Notification checkbox, and then set how you intend to send the notifications. Note that the first box must contain a numerical value greater than 0. The last two boxes are optional.

Next, specify the site groups and users you want to exclude from the notification policy. For example, if somebody is on long-term leave or sabbatical, the administrator has the option to not send them password notification emails.

Then, customize the password notification email subject and content the way you want to. The message body supports rich text features and sending emails in HTML format (plain text emails are also possible). The Insert expression… dropdown box allows you to insert expressions corresponding to the user name, the time when the password expires, days left before the password expires, and so on.

Finally, choose if you want administrators to be notified when a notification is sent to a user. Administrators can choose to receive carbon copies (as CC or BCC) of expiration notifications each time an email is sent.

The Password Change Email Confirmation section allows the administrator to specify whether or not a confirmation email should be sent to the users after they have successfully changed their passwords. Check the Password Change Email Confirmation checkbox to enable this feature.

As in the Password Expiration Notification section, you can select accounts that should be excluded from receiving confirmation emails, customize the email content, and whether or not administrators should be notified if a user changes his or her password.

The Password Change Log section allows the administrator to set the password log options. Check the Enable Password Change Log checkbox to enable this feature.

Under Password Change Log Schedule Options, specify how often a new log file should be created. It can either be set to create a new file monthly, or after a number of days (as specified by the administrator). The Delete Logs checkbox gives the user the option to delete the logs after a specified number of days.

The View logs button opens up a new window that allows you to select and view the log files. It also gives you the option to delete log files.

The log files will be saved as .log files and can be edited in Notepad. Click on a file name to open and edit it.

The last section lets the administrator customize the SMTP server settings. There is no need to customize these settings if the SMTP server settings are already configured in SharePoint Central Administration. The administrator can change these settings when he or she wants to specify customized settings for outgoing emails.

Once configured, test the SMTP settings by clicking on Send Test Email to send a test email to the email address you specify.

Click OK to save the current settings.

The administrator has the option to customize the SharePoint Password Change web part. To customize it, click the web part dropdown menu, and then click Edit Web Part.

Here you can specify whether or not the user is allowed to specify the domain and the account to be changed, and to give more detailed information on the password policy. You can also specify where to display the additional information on the password policy. Please note that this is just a description of the password policy specified in the Default Domain Security Settings. The password policy settings have to be modified in the Default Domain Security Settings.

The SharePoint Password Expiration Warning Web Part

The Password Expiration Warning Web Part can warn you with a message on web pages before your password expires, prompting you to change the password and providing a link that takes the user to the Password Change site.

To edit it, click the web part dropdown menu, and then click Edit Web Part.

The web part allows the administrator to customize warning days and input a password change URL.

The password change URL redirects users to the password change page.

Click OK to save the current settings and exit from the settings page.

When you log on to the page, the web part will display a warning message and a link (Click here to change your password). You can click on the link to go to the change password page.

How to Change a Password with the SharePoint Password Change Web Part

The users can also access the change password page by clicking Change Password from the main dropdown menu of the current site or change the password directly from within the Password Change Web Part.

On the Password Change page, or from within the web part, the user must enter his current password, his new password, and confirm his new password.

Based on the settings of the Password Change Web Part, the user might also be required to enter the domain and the account name in order to change the password. Please note that these options are only available in the Password Change Web Part.

After the password has been changed successfully, a message will notify the user and prompt the user to log in with the new password.

Top

Languages Supported: English, Chinese, Japanese

System Requirements

For SharePoint 2010:

Operating System:	Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x86/x64 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Server:	SharePoint Release: - Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 - Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
Browser:	Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 or greater is recommended for Advanced Administration features Mozilla Firefox supported

For SharePoint 2007:

Operating System:	Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x86/x64 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x86/x64 Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
Server:	SharePoint Release: - Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services v3 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 - Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 or 3.0 Note: This product is not compatible with SPS 2003 and WSS v2
Browser:	Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or greater is recommended for Advanced Administration features

Release Notes

2.3.723.1 Jul 26th, 2010	New Features: - Server License is available. - Announced compatibility with SharePoint 2010.
2.2.107.0 Jan, 20th, 2010	Licensing module upgraded.
2.1.1209.1 Dec, 10th, 2009	Bugs Fixed: - In WSS, users could not change passwords with SharePoint Password Change if they did not have permission to access to the root web; - SharePoint Password Change failed to work properly when multiple domains were involved in the operation.
2.0.818.1 Aug, 20th, 2009	New Features: - Sends fully customizable email notifications to prompt users to change passwords before they expire; - Includes options to restrict the ability to change a password to the currently logged in user account only; - Downloadable log file stores all password changes and change attempts in one convenient place for IT administrators. Bugs Fixed: - Resolved the error: the notification that "The function is disabled because invalid license" might show up when users with valid license or within the 30 days trial period intended to change passwords; - Enabled users to set their new passwords the same as the previous ones; - Fixed the bug: users encountered "Access Denied" when they intended to change password in some cases.
1.7.519.0 May, 20th, 2009	New Feature: - Support Japanese. Bugs Fixed: - Users cannot change password in some cases; - Password expire warning error in some cases.
1.6.212.0 Feb, 12th, 2009	New Feature: - Add password expire warning in the Password Change web part and page.
1.5.1204.0 Dec, 5th, 2008	New Feature: - Availability of farm license. Bug Fixed: - Users cannot change password in some cases.
1.4.1201.2 Dec, 1st, 2008	Bug Fixed: - Password cannot be changed in some cases.
1.1.1119.2 Nov, 20th, 2008	New Feature: - Add a "Change Password" link to welcome menu. Bug Fixed: - Users cannot change password when SharePoint server is not in a domain controller.
1.0.0.0 Aug, 7th, 2008	Initial Release

Purchase FAQ

Questions about Licensing:

• What is the difference between a Server License and a Site Collection License/Farm License?
  • Currently, we can provide Server License, Site Collection License and Farm License:
  • Each WFE will require a Server License (For SharePoint 2007: all servers running the SP Web Application service will need to be licensed; for SharePoint 2010: all servers running the "Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application" service will need to be licensed). SPB Server Licenses do NOT limit the number of end-users.
  • A Site Collection License (with end-user number limit) can be applied to one site collection only, you would need to make sure the number of end-users is within the end-user number limit provided by your license;
  • A Farm License can be used across all site collections within a SharePoint farm; however the maximum number of users within each site collection is limited by the end-user number limit provided by your license. For example, a 400-end user Farm License means that the number of users within a site collection should not exceed 400.
  • To find out the number of end-users you have in your site collection/farm, please check the license management page (this will appear after you install the trial version of our software on your SharePoint servers), or download and run the free End User Viewer Tool available here: http://www.sharepointboost.com/end-user-viewer-tool.html.
• Which type of license should I choose?
  • Server Licenses are better if you would like to use the product without site collection or end-user restrictions.
  • A Site Collection License/Farm License is better if you only want to use the product in one site collection/farm and the number of end-users is unlikely to grow rapidly or change frequently.
  • If you are still unsure as to which license type is best for you, please email sales@sharepointboost.com for assistance.
• What are "end-users" and how do they affect my Site Collection License/Farm License?
  • End-users do NOT affect Server Licenses. An end-user count is only needed for a Site Collection License or Farm License.
  • An end-user is defined as any user who has access to, or has accessed any site in your Site Collection/Farm at any point in time, either directly (e.g. signing in) or indirectly (e.g. assigning him a task). And the number of end-users in the site collection means the total number of users across all sites in the site collection.
  • Once a user has accessed a site in the site collection/farm, he is counted, regardless of whether or not this user is active on the site where the product is used. For example, while you may only have 50 users who would need to use the product on Site A in the site collection, there are 360 users accessing Site B (including the 50 accessing Site A), making a total of 360 users with access to the site collection. Since Site A and Site B are in the same site collection, you would need to purchase a license for at least 360 users. SPB licenses increase in increments of 100 users, so if there are 360 people who have access to the site collection, you will need to purchase a 400 end-user license.
• If the current end-user number exceeds the end-user number allowed by my Site Collection License/Farm License, what will happen?
  • Please note that end-users do NOT affect Server Licenses.
  • If the current end-user amount exceeds the amount of end-users allowed by your Site Collection License/Farm License, the original functions and settings of the software will NOT be influenced until you change them (e.g. additions, deletions, modifications, etc.)
  • You can either use our End User Viewer Tool to delete some inactive or disabled SharePoint users (http://www.sharepointboost.com/end-user-viewer-tool.html) or upgrade your license with more end-users.The cost of a license upgrade is equal to the price difference between the old and new licenses, plus a standard fee of 50 USD applied to all upgrates submitted. For example, if you had purchased a 200 end-user license for $500 and now you want to upgrade to a 300 end-user license (Price: $600), you only need to pay the difference (600-500=$100) plus the standard upgrade fee ($50), therefore in total $150. It also applied to Farm License.
• What will happen if I buy a new server or add another server? How will this affect my license?
  • Please note that adding an additional server/replacing an old server with a new one will NOT affect Site Collection Licenses/Farm Licenses. Please contact sales@sharepointboost.com for more information only if your Site Collection ID/Farm ID has changed.
  • However, if you are using Server Licenses for an SPB product and you subsequently add an additional WFE to your environment, you will need to purchase another Server License. Also, if you elect to replace an old server with a new server, and the Server Code subsequently changes, you will need to contact sales@sharepointboost.com for more information.
• What is Premium Annual Support? If I buy it, what do I get?
  • For detailed information regarding SharePointBoost's Premium Annual Support plan, please visit our support page.
  • Premium Annual Support must be renewed each year. Support fees are charged per license per year.
• How can I find my Server Code or Site Collection ID/Farm ID?
  • To find your Server Code or Site Collection ID/Farm ID, please check the license management page (this will appear after you install the trial version of our software on your SharePoint servers – for help finding this information, please email support@sharepointboost.com, or download and install the free License Management Center here: http://www.sharepointboost.com/licensecenter.html.
• What is the price for DEV/Test environment? Is there any discount?
  • SharePointBoost offers 50% discount off the list license price for DEV/TEST environment when customers purchase license for their production environment.
• Do I have to pay for updates as new versions of the product are released?
  • Do I have to pay for updates as new versions of the product are released?
  • A minor release contains bugs fixes and minor feature changes (e.g. 1.0 to 1.1). Major releases include significant feature additions and enhancements (e.g. 1.x to 2.0), and Major releases (usually with significant functionality added) require the payment of an upgrade fee. However, if you purchase our Premium Annual Support plan, then all major and minor releases are free for one year.
• Do I need to apply for a new license if the site collection ID/farm ID/server CODE has been changed?
  • Yes. Since the license is generated based on the specific site collection ID/farm ID/server CODE, which means, once the site collection ID/farm ID/server CODE is changed, the original license CODE would be invalid as well. You need to contact our sales team(sales@sharepointboost.com ) for further assistance.

Questions about Purchasing Process:

• Does SharePointBoost accept Purchase Orders?
  • Yes, we accept purchase orders from our customers, for more details on purchasing via PO, please contact sales@sharepointboost.com.
• Which payment methods does SharePointBoost allow?
  • PayPal:
  • The preferred method of payment is PayPal. You can either purchase SharePointBoost products via PayPal account or via credit card. If you would like to purchase a Site Collection License/Farm License where the total number of end-users is greater than 900, we will generate a PayPal purchase link and send it to you in an email (paying via purchase link does not require that you have a PayPal account).
  • Secure Purchase Link:
  • If purchasing our products through PayPal is not possible for you, then you may contact sales@sharepointboost.com to get a secure purchase link generated and then emailed to you. Here you may pay with a credit card online, by phone, or by fax.
  • Bank Transfer:
  • If purchasing our products through PayPal or via a secure purchase link is not possible for you, then you may contact us to get bank information for a wire transfer. Note that you are responsible for any bank transfer fees.
  • If you do not specify one currency from USD, HKD, JPY, or EUR, we will take USD as the default payment currency.
  • SHAREPOINTBOOST DOES NOT ACCEPT CORPORATE OR PERSONAL CHECKS. PLEASE USE PAYPAL, SECURE PURCHASE LINK OR BANK TRANSFER TO PURCHASE OUR PRODUCTS.
• What is SharePointBoost's refund policy?
  • A request for a refund will only be granted if it is received BEFORE the license code has been sent. Once SharePointBoost has sent you a license code, the sale is considered final. We recommend that you take advantage of the 30-day trial period to download and test the product. This should allow you to fully test and make sure the product meets your needs before making a final purchase decision.
• Does SharePointBoost offer a discount for non-profit organizations, government agencies, or educational institutions?
  • Yes, SharePointBoost can offer discount on condition that you can provide proof that your organization is a registered non-profit, please contact sales@sharepointboost.com for the discount.