When you are trying to establish a remote desktop connection to a target system using windows server 2012 or above, you might have gotten the error message “Account Restrictions Are Preventing This User from Signing In”. Disabling the windows group policy would solve the problem & even a few other methods. 

If you don’t know how to do that, then don’t worry, we are here to guide you in fixing this issue in this article. So, read till the end of this article carefully and apply the given solutions.

Reasons for the “Account Restrictions Are Preventing This User from Signing In” Error Message

Let’s take a deeper look into what causes the account restrictions problems & what steps need to be taken in order to solve the problem. 

1. Windows Group Policy

Windows group policy stops the remote desktop client to expose sign-in credentials to the remote host. Disabling this policy will fix the issue in no time. 

2. The Account Has No Password

Sometimes the reason that the error message might show is that the account you are trying to remote access doesn’t have a password. Disabling the policy or just setting up a password will do the trick.

How to Fix – the ‘Account Restrictions Are Preventing This User from Signing In’ Error

As there are two different reasons which can trigger the above-mentioned error, there are two different solutions for two different scenarios –

1. Disabling the Windows Group Policy
2. Setting Up a Password

Let’s explore the fixes below.

Fix 1: Disabling the Windows Group Policy

Note: This solution can be done on any windows except Windows 10 Home.

Here are the steps to follow –

Step 1: First, you need to go open up the start menu & type up “local group policy”. It would give you “Edit Group Policy”. Left-click on it. 

Step 2: On the Local Group Policy Editor, find two configurations on the left –

• Computer configurations 
• User configurations

Step 3: Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Credentials Delegation.

Step 4: Double-click on the “Restrick delegation of credentials to remote servers” option and disable it.

Step 5: Finally, click apply and this should resolve the issue.

Fix 2: Setting up a Password

We have already discussed that this could also be a problem. To set up a password, follow the instructions below –

Step 1: Go into the same “Local Group Policy Editor”.

Step 2: Navigate to Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options.

Step 3: Expand the Local Policies, and double-click on the “Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only” option on the right of your screen under the security options.

Step 4: Disable the policy and click “Apply”.

After this restart your computer. Hopefully, it will fix the problem. 

Bonus Tip: How to access the Local Group Policy directory?

If you can’t find the local group policy directory from searching through your start menu, then you can press the Windows key + R to open the dialog box.  Type in ‘‘gpedit.msc” in the search box & hit enter. This should open the local group policy editor.

Conclusion

Due to some windows policies, you may receive the Account Restrictions Are Preventing This User from Signing In error. But following the solutions step by step should allow you to disable them & get rid of the error message that keeps coming up.