XP Home "The password does not meet the password policy requirements"

so i got this DELL laptop USED and moderately old but passable, and anyways, it won't let me change the passwords to be simple, they require the pass to have no less than 6 digits, and MUST use a combination of any 3 types out of 4 types of characters: CAPITAL letters, lowercase letters, numbers, or symbols. there seems to be some solutions for XP Pro on the internets by using the "Local Security Policies" (secpol.msc, i believe), but i have XP Home, and this is not included in it.
i have already done "net accounts" in the command line, and changed all the settings the way i wanted them, but they don't seem to be taking effect for changing my Login pass for Windows. i have the latest Updates for Windows XP Home, including SP3, but it was doing this before SP3, too. i DO have .NET Frameworks 1.1 and 2.0, along with all updates installed, as well.
i have typed "control userpasswords2" in the run box, but it only allows me to remove the necessity to Login by autologin, it doesn't let me use short, simple passwords; i don't have anything i don't want anyone to get to on it, just simple, replaceable stuff.
my XP Pro PC doesn't have that problem (i've got a 4 digit number on it), only my new XP Home lappy has this issue.
how could something have changed my policies, if i can't even changed them? to clarify, it's been like this since i got it.

any ideas?