The account lockout feature in Windows 11 serves as a crucial security measure to protect your system from unauthorized access. By default, if someone repeatedly enters the wrong password, the account is locked for 10 minutes. However, you might want to customize this duration to better suit your security needs. Windows 11 allows you to change the account lockout duration through the Local Security Policy or by using the Windows Terminal.

Change account lockout duration using Local Security Policy

Step 1: Open the Start Menu and type Local Security Policy in the search bar. Click on the Local Security Policy app from the search results to launch it.

Step 2: In the Local Security Policy window, expand the Account Policies folder by double-clicking on it. Then, select the Account Lockout Policy folder to view the policies related to account lockout.

Step 3: On the right pane, double-click on the Account lockout duration policy to modify its settings.

Step 4: In the properties window, enter a value between 1 and 99,999 minutes to set the desired lockout duration. This determines how long the account will remain locked after exceeding the failed login attempts threshold. Click Apply and then OK to save the changes. If you set the value to 0, the account will remain locked until you manually unlock it.

Note: If you cannot change the duration because the field is greyed out, ensure that the Account lockout threshold policy is defined and set to a number greater than zero.

Change account lockout duration using Windows Terminal

Step 1: Open the Start Menu and type Terminal in the search bar. Right-click on the Terminal app in the search results and select Run as administrator to launch it with administrative privileges.

Step 2: If prompted by the User Account Control (UAC), click Yes to allow the app to make changes. If you're not logged in as an administrator, you may need to enter administrator credentials.

Step 3: In the Terminal window, type the following command and press Enter to view the current account lockout policy settings:

net accounts

Step 4: To change the account lockout duration, type the following command and press Enter:

net accounts /lockoutduration:<number>

Note: Replace <number> with the desired duration in minutes, ranging from 1 to 99,999. This value sets how long the account will stay locked after too many failed attempts. If you set the value to 0, the account will remain locked until an administrator unlocks it manually.

By customizing the account lockout duration, you can enhance the security of your Windows 11 system according to your preferences. It's generally recommended to set the lockout duration to around 15 minutes to effectively deter unauthorized access attempts without causing inconvenience to legitimate users.