Remote Desktop - password expired, but you can't change it? Solved. Well, for us, anyway...

If you're like me and you manage several Windows machines, you use Remote Desktop (RDP) frequently. In one environment, we run Windows Server 2012. Since this environment has multiple dedicated web servers and databases, we utilize Active Directory manage our credentials. Our passwords expire regularly, and we need to reset them.

If you are using these machines often, you would see a notification in the task tray saying that your password is about to expire in X days (usually I notice the warnings start at 5 days). You can then do the good ol' Ctrl+Alt+End to access the Change Password feature.

Unfortunately for me, in this particular environment, I may go a week or more without logging on. If I miss my password expiration, and then try to log in using Remote Desktop, I'm stuck: instead of having the chance to change my password, I get a message saying that my password has expired, and that I need to contact my "administrator". Well, I'm the administrator... Darn those administrators!

Finally, after frustration grew, I dug and discovered the solution here: https://gist.github.com/pingec/7b391a04412a7034bfb6

If the remote machine does not enforce NLA (Network Level Authentication), it is still possible to start a remote desktop session by disabling NLA on the client. 

Add the following setting to your .rdp file ("C:\Users\\Documents\Default.rdp" if you aren't using a specific one). 

enablecredsspsupport:i:0

Phenomenal - simply opening my Default.rdp in a text editor and adding that one setting (enablecredsspsupport:i:0) to the end made all the difference. Now, I was able to enter my old password, and then prompted immediately to change. Hopefully this saves you undue frustration as well.