You are not prompted to change your expired password when Internet Explorer is configured to connect to a remote access server by using a dial-up or a VPN connection

When Microsoft Internet Explorer or Windows Internet Explorer is configured to connect to a remote access server by using a dial-up or a virtual private network (VPN) connection, you are not prompted to change your password when your network password has expired. When you try to connect, you receive the following error message in the Dial-up Connection dialog box:

Although the Windows Internet (WinINet) application programming interface (API) receives the ERROR_PASSWD_EXPIRED error from the remote access API, the error is not handled by the WinINet API.

To work around this behavior, connect to the remote access server through the Microsoft Windows shell instead of by using Internet Explorer. To do this, you can create a desktop shortcut to your network connection. Then you can use the desktop shortcut to dial the remote access server. In this case, the Windows shell handles the password expiration and displays a dialog box that lets you change your network password.

To create a desktop shortcut to your network connection, follow these steps:

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.

1. Click Start, click Run, type ncpa.cpl in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Right-click the network connection that you want to create a shortcut to, and then click Create Shortcut.
3. Click Yes to create a shortcut on the desktop.
   
   To connect to the remote access server, double-click the desktop shortcut.

If you want to continue to use the desktop shortcut to connect to your remote access server, you may have to change your Internet Explorer connection settings. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3. Click the Connections tab.
4. Click either Never dial a connection or Dial whenever a network connection is not present.
5. Click OK.

For more information about the WinINet API, visit the following Microsoft Web site: