Your Cougars account permits access to most network resources on campus, including e-mail and wireless. If you are experiencing difficulty with this account, please try the troubleshooting tips on this page. If you continue to experience problems, contact Helpdesk for further assistance.
New Users
If you are new to the College, please see our Getting Started guide for the Cougars account.
Lost or Forgotten Password
If you have lost or forgotten your Cougars password, you can reset it using CougarTrail for Employees.
- Log on to CougarTrail for Employees.
- On the main screen, select Change Cougars Password.
- A popup window will appear. Verify that the e-mail address in blue at the top of the screen is your address, as shown in the figure below:
- Enter a new password twice. Keep in mind it cannot be any of the three previous passwords you've used, that the password is case sensitive, and the password must be at least five characters in length.
- Click Change Password. This will complete the process of resetting your password. If your account continues to have problems, please contact Helpdesk.
Changing Your Password
Changing your password on a regular basis ensures the security of your account, and is a recommended practice.
Users can change their password at their desktop machine, via CougarTrail (see Lost or Forgotten Password, above, for instructions), or via Outlook Web Access.
Changing your password at your desktop computer using Microsoft Windows
Changing your password at your desktop is the easiest and most efficient way to change your password. To change your password using Windows, follow these steps.
- At your desktop, after you've logged in, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
- When the Windows Security dialog appears, click Change Password.
- Enter your old password, and your desired new password twice. Passwords must be five characters in length, are case sensitive, and must not be any of the last three passwords you have used.
- Click OK.
Your password is now changed. Please note that this is the same password that you use for accessing the wireless network and Outlook Web Access, so use your new password in those locations as well.
Changing your password via CougarTrail
Changing your password in CougarTrail involves the same steps as resetting your password in the event you have forgotten it. Please click here to see those instructions.
Changing your password via Outlook Web Access
Users can also change their Cougars password using Outlook Web Access, the Web interface to the faculty and staff e-mail system. This is useful if you are away for an extended period and need to change your password. If you are not familiar with Outlook Web Access, please see our primer before continuing.
- Log in to Outlook Web Access.
- Click on the "Options" icon. In Internet Explorer for Windows, it may look like this:
- Toward the bottom of the Options page, look for the Change Password button and click it.
- A popup window will open:
- For Domain, use COUGARS. For Account, use your Cougars username. Then, enter your old password and your desired new password twice. Click OK, and your password will be changed. Please note changing your password here also changes the password to your desktop computer and CampusWide access in addition to your e-mail.
