Windows Server 2003

In Windows Server 2003 the “Account is locked out” checkbox can be cleared ONLY if the account is locked out on the domain controller you are connected to. This means that if an account has been locked out, but the local DC has not yet replicated that information, you CANNOT unlock the account on the local DC.

Windows 2003 account properties for an unlocked account.  Note that the checkbox is grayed out.

 

Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2

In Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 the “Unlock account” checkbox will always be available (regardless of the status of the account). You can tell whether the local DC knows if the account is locked out by looking at the label on the checkbox as shown in the screenshots below:

Windows 2008 account properties showing the “Unlock Account” checkbox.  Notice that the checkbox is available regardless of the status of the account on the local DC.

 

Windows 2008 (and higher) Account Properties dialog box showing locked account on this domain controller

 

If the label on the checkbox is just “Unlock account” then this means that the domain controller you are connected to recognizes the account as unlocked. This does NOT mean that the account is not locked on other DCs, just that the specific DC we’re working with has not replicated a lockout status yet.  However, unlike Windows Server 2003, if the local DC doesn’t realize that the account is locked, you DO have ability to unlock it from this interface by checking the checkbox and applying the change.

We changed the UI behavior in Windows Server 2008 to help administrators in large environments unlock accounts faster when required, instead of having to wait for replication to occur, then unlock the account, and then wait for replication to occur again.

 

Windows Server 2012

We can also unlock the accounts using the Active Directory Administrative Center (available in Windows Server 2008 R2 and later).  In Windows Server 2012, this console is the preferred method of managing accounts in Active Directory. The screen shots are present below about how we can go about doing that.

You can see from the account screenshot that the account is locked which is denoted by the padlock symbol. To unlock the account you would have to click on the “Unlock account” tab and you would see a
change in the symbol as can be seen below.