Magento – Magento 2.1 – Set customer password in backend

As of at least 1.9.2.x there is a setting Under "Configuration > Customers > Customer Configuration > Password Options" named "Require admin user to change user password"

Flipping it to no does exactly what you'd expect, it removes the "Admin password" requirement when changing the password of customer accounts. This is presumably to allow for stronger admin passwords using a password manager.

That setting will not work on the passwords of backend users, only customers. That's probably all that most of us need.

1. This function was removed in Magento 2. There is only the option to reset a password for a customer.
2. You have to do change on code level.