The Information below is intended for UH Math staff and faculty. Although this information may be useful to others, requests for help from the Administrators is only supported for UH staff and faculty. Please do not email the Administrators unless you are working for the UH Math Department.
Since UH policy still requires changing your password every 180 days, it can be a challenge making sure all your devices are updated to know that your account password has changed. So, this webpage will help you eliminate or reduce the hassles in doing this.
When your password is close to expiring, you should start receiving emails notifying you about it and usually it tells you the date it expires and/or how many days you have to change it. You should start getting email notices at least 4 weeks prior the the password expiration. Notices are sent once a week for the first 3 weeks and then every other day and then every day until it expires. Once it expires, you may not be able to receive the notices anymore, since your password is no longer valid.
First, a little information that should help you understand your account and the password-changing process. Your Cougarnet account is stored securely on a server on the internet.
Windows PCs should no longer have local accounts.
Domain user accounts are created by domain administrators only, and only domain admins can join a Windows PC to a domain. Once a PC is joined to a domain, any domain users can log into that PC, provided that the PC is in communication with the domain when the user logs in for the first time. That is because the user credentials (username, password and some other account info), which are stored on the Domain server must be downloaded to the PC in order for Windows to allow the user to log in. Domain accounts used to store lots of user settings and files in a user profile, which would download/update on each login to a specific PC and upload/update when the user logged out. This allowed user settings to follow you no matter what PC you logged into. This is called a roaming user profile, and unfortunately, that service is no longer available now.
All Windows PCs in the department are joined to the Cougarnet domain. All department Windows laptops that were issued since 2020 or have had maintenance performed by the Math IT since then, are also joined to the Cougarnet domain.
This is something Microsoft started using since Windows 7. It is like a domain account, but any user can setup an account without being an admin. Windows Pro and Home editions now require the use of a Microsoft account. Users can use any already existing email account to create the Microsoft account and then setup a new Windows PC with the first user account. Cougarnet accounts are similar to, but not exactly the same as Microsoft accounts.
Local user account credentials are stored on the local Windows PC only. Domain user account credentials are initially stored on the domain server, but once logged in to a PC, a local copy is saved to that PC.
When a user tries to login to a domain-joined PC for the first time, the PC wiil have to request a copy of the domain user account credentials from the domain server. This can only be completed if the PC and the server can communicate. Desktop PCs in the department are always in communication with the domain server, as long as there are no network issues. Laptops, on the other hand, are not always on the domain network, and will used cached copies of the credentials until they expire.
If your password is not expiring soon and you want to check to see when it will expire, the easiest way to do this is to login to the UH Access website, using your cougarnet username and password. This may require you to use 2-Factor authentication, so you will need to have your phone handy to complete this. Once logged in, under the UH banner and between the Welcome (your name) and the Logout button, you should see some text that tells you how many days before your password expires. There is also a link "Change CougarNetpassword." Do not use this unless your password has already expired and you have no other option.
Change your password using the Windows "Change Password" function |
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| On campus: Using a desktop or Using a laptop which is connected to the UHSecure wireless network This is the recommended solution |
1) Press the keys <Ctrl> + <Alt> + <Del> together to get the following: Click on "Change a password" |
You should see the following: |
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| 2) You should see your username instead of {your username]. The first time you do this, your current password may already be filled in. If not, then enter your current password where it shows "Old password". Type your new password into the next textbox. If you want to check to make sure you typed the new password correctly, then click on the eyeball icon that should be to the far right of the textbox before you leave the textbox. Do the same again for the next textbox. Click the right arrow or press the <Enter/Return> key to finish. |
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| 3) If the new password is accepted, then a notice should tell you the same and you should click the OK button. Otherwise, you will have to repeat step 2, above. |
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| Off campus: | When off-campus, you must connect to the UH VPN using the Cisco Anywhere VPN app. See my activation webpage for help with connecting to the UH VPN. Specifically, Section II |
| Then follow the instructions from Step 1 above, as if you were on campus. | |
You should always do your best to make sure that you change your password before it expires. Otherwise, you will need to change it twice.