As if you didn’t know it already, (and I’ve posted about this before) your Windows passwords are not safe. According to an article on TechExtreme, some Swiss researchers have published a paper detailing how to crack Windows computers protected by alphanumeric passwords in an average of 13.6 seconds.
Their approach can crack 99.9 percent of all alphanumerical passwords in 13.6 seconds, against a previous 101 seconds. The bottom line: When you can, include non-alphanumeric characters in your password, such as a question mark or a plus sign.