Password Issues

No, I believe that if you set a minimum password length, it will not lock out any users who's password is currently under that length. What it will do is require any password changes from that point on to be at least as long as what you set it for. So, if you run password expiration, when people have to renew their password, and they type in one that is too short, they will get an error message saying they need to enter in a password at least X characters long. But it won't keep anyone locked out when they have a short password.
So, to make this work best, also set up password expiration. 42 days is the default length of time. It works ok.
And no, you can't exclude anyone from this. Even your Administrator account will have to have a password at least as long as the minimum length.

And if you really want to get tough on passwords, turn on the "password must meet complexity requirments." That will REALLY frustrate your users, but it is a good thing from a security standpoint. Read this Technet article:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=%2fsearch%2fviewDoc.aspx%3fdocID%3dKC.Q225230
(plese remove any spaces)

Hi there

to simplify your task as admin you might consider this:
If you have users who uses more than 1 desktop / PC and change password the account of the other maschine logged in will be locked to get out of that you must set enable to all users acount simply put in the policy to reset locked account after 15min (Coffee break)... It works here at my admin center....

Uffe