This policy setting determines the length of time that must pass before a locked account is unlocked and a user can try to log on again. The setting does this by specifying the number of minutes a locked out account will remain unavailable. If the value for this policy setting is configured to 0, locked out accounts will remain locked out until an administrator manually unlocks them. Although it might seem like a good idea to configure the value for this policy setting to a high value, such a configuration will likely increase the number of calls that the help desk receives to unlock accounts locked by mistake. Users should be aware of the length of time a lock remains in place, so that they realize they only need to call the help desk if they have an extremely urgent need to regain access to their computer. Countermeasure: Configure the Account lockout duration setting to an appropriate value for your environment. To specify that the account will remain locked until an administrator manually unlocks it, configure the value to 0. When the Account lockout duration setting is configured to a non-zero value, automated attempts to guess account passwords must wait for this interval before they resume attempts against a specific account. Using this setting in combination with the Account lockout threshold setting makes automated password guessing attempts more difficult. Potential Impact: Although it may seem like a good idea to configure this policy setting to never automatically unlock an account, such a configuration can increase the number of requests that your organization's help desk receives to unlock accounts that were locked by mistake.

[max value in mins]

(1) GPO: Computer Configuration\\Windows Settings\\Security Settings\\Account Policies\\Account Lockout Policy\\Account lockout duration (2) REG: ### (3) WMI: root\\rsop\\computer#RSOP_SecuritySettingNumeric#Setting#KeyName='LockoutDuration' And precedence=1