What is Windows LAPS?

Article
09/06/2023

Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (Windows LAPS) is a Windows feature that automatically manages and backs up the password of a local administrator account on your Azure Active Directory-joined or Windows Server Active Directory-joined devices. You also can use Windows LAPS to automatically manage and back up the Directory Services Restore Mode (DSRM) account password on your Windows Server Active Directory domain controllers. An authorized administrator can retrieve the DSRM password and use it.

Windows LAPS supported platforms and Azure AD LAPS preview status

Windows LAPS is now available on the following OS platforms with the specified update or later installed:

All supported editions of the above platforms have been updated with Windows LAPS, including LTSC editions. The introduction of the Windows LAPS feature doesn't modify in any way whatsoever the standard Microsoft product lifecycle policies.

The Windows LAPS on-premises Active Directory scenarios are fully supported as of the above updates.

Important

Windows LAPS with Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) and Microsoft Intune support is now in public preview as of April 21st 2023.

For more information, see:

Introducing Windows Local Administrator Password Solution with Azure AD

Windows Local Administrator Password Solution in Azure AD (preview)

Microsoft Intune support for Windows LAPS

Benefits of using Windows LAPS

Use Windows LAPS to regularly rotate and manage local administrator account passwords and get these benefits:

Protection against pass-the-hash and lateral-traversal attacks
Improved security for remote help desk scenarios
Ability to sign in to and recover devices that are otherwise inaccessible
A fine-grained security model (access control lists and optional password encryption) for securing passwords that are stored in Windows Server Active Directory
Support for the Azure role-based access control model for securing passwords that are stored in Azure Active Directory

Informational videos

The following videos offer an informative way to learn more about the Windows LAPS feature.

Windows Technical Takeoff presentation (November 2022):

Windows Tackling Tech discussion (August 2023):

Key Windows LAPS scenarios

You can use Windows LAPS for several primary scenarios:

Back up local administrator account passwords to Azure Active Directory (for Azure Active Directory-joined devices)
Back up local administrator account passwords to Windows Server Active Directory (for Windows Server Active Directory-joined clients and servers)
Back up DSRM account passwords to Windows Server Active Directory (for Windows Server Active Directory domain controllers)
Back up local administrator account passwords to Windows Server Active Directory by using legacy Microsoft LAPS

In each scenario, you can apply different policy settings.

Understand device join state restrictions

Whether a device is joined to Azure Active Directory or Windows Server Active Directory determines how you can use Windows LAPS.

Devices that are joined only to Azure Active Directory can back up passwords only to Azure Active Directory.

Devices that are joined only to Windows Server Active Directory can back up passwords only to Windows Server Active Directory.

Devices that are hybrid-joined (joined to both Azure Active Directory and Windows Server Active Directory) can back up their passwords either to Azure Active Directory or to Windows Server Active Directory. You can't back up passwords to both Azure Active Directory and Windows Server Active Directory.

Windows LAPS doesn't support Azure Active Directory workplace-joined clients.

Set Windows LAPS policy

To set up and manage policy for your Windows LAPS deployment, you have multiple options:

Manage and monitor Windows LAPS

You also have various options to manage and monitor Windows LAPS.

Options for Windows include:

The Windows Server Active Directory Users and Computers properties dialog
A dedicated event log channel
A Windows PowerShell module that's specific to Windows LAPS

Azure-based monitoring and reporting solutions are available when you back up passwords to Azure Active Directory.

Windows LAPS vs. legacy Microsoft LAPS

You can still download an earlier version of Local Administrator Password Solution, legacy Microsoft LAPS.

Windows LAPS inherits many design concepts from legacy Microsoft LAPS. If you're familiar with legacy Microsoft LAPS, many Windows LAPS features are familiar. A key difference is that Windows LAPS is an entirely separate implementation that's native to Windows. Windows LAPS also adds many features that aren't available in legacy Microsoft LAPS. You can use Windows LAPS to back up passwords to Azure Active Directory, encrypt passwords in Windows Server Active Directory, and store your password history.

Important

Windows LAPS doesn't require you to install legacy Microsoft LAPS. You can fully deploy and use all Windows LAPS features without installing or referring to legacy Microsoft LAPS. But to help migrate an existing legacy Microsoft LAPS deployment, Windows LAPS offers legacy Microsoft LAPS emulation mode.

Support statement

Microsoft released the legacy Microsoft LAPS product in calendar year 2016 on the Microsoft Download Center. Windows LAPS shipped as part of Windows Updates released on April 11, 2023 for the platforms listed in Windows LAPS supported platforms and Azure AD LAPS preview status.

Microsoft and its support delivery organization offer assisted support for both Microsoft LAPS and Windows LAPS including interoperability between the two products.

Microsoft strongly recommends that customers begin planning now to migrate their Windows LAPS-capable systems from using legacy Microsoft LAPS over to the new Windows LAPS feature. Windows LAPS offers many new security features and improved product servicing.

Questions about limitations and\or interoperability concerns between 3rd-party local account password management tools and Windows LAPS should be directed to the 3rd-party application developer not Microsoft.

Licensing requirements

The Windows LAPS feature itself is available for free in all supported Windows platforms.

You can back up passwords to your on-premises Active Directory with no other licensing requirements.

You can back up passwords to Azure AD with an Azure AD Free or higher license.

Other Azure- or Intune-related features may have other licensing requirements.

Submitting feedback

Want to send us feedback? Feel free to submit doc-specific questions via the Feedback links at the bottom of these doc pages.

You may also submit feedback and other requests via the Windows LAPS feedback Tech Community page.

If your feedback is specific to the Azure AD- or Intune-related LAPS functionality, you may submit feedback via the Azure AD feedback forum.

If you aren't sure where your feedback should go, submit it using any of the above options.