Azure Virtual Machine – You Must Change Your Password Before Logging On The First Time

One fine day when I tried connecting to my Azure Virtual Machine in a cloud, I was welcomed with this error message.

Tip: If you press Ctrl + C on the message window, it will copy text on the clipboard and if you paste, it comes like below. Neat and Clean!

[Window Title]

Remote Desktop Connection

[Content]

You must change your password before logging on the first time. Please update your password or contact your system administrator or technical support.

[OK] [Help]

I clearly remember that I have not done anything with the user account. Also, the machine was NOT joined to any domain.

WORKAROUND/SOLUTION

I knew that I need to change the password but how to get to the prompt to change the password as this is an Azure Virtual Machine.

The easiest way to reset the password is to use Azure Portal. Open Azure Portal, Go to “Virtual Machines”, go under click “Reset password” under “Support + Troubleshooting”

As the message says, we can also provide a new account and the password. After providing details, hit “Update” and wait for it to finish. It shows below the screen.

Once done, you should be able to login to VM using the new account (if a new account is provided during reset) or an existing account (for which you have given new password)

Hope this would help someone who runs into error on Azure Virtual Machine.

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)