Thursday, January 8, 2009

Password problem with Internet Explorer 7 and solution

In IE7 I find that some log in or sign in forms I use like the one for Autodesk forums have, does not automatically add the password that have been specified to be saved. It simply is not remembered. Or is it? The trick is to place the cursor in the first field and then use the Tab key to move to the password field and now the password is added.
Other sites where I have found this is LinkedIn, Plaxo and Wikipedia. If it still does not work make sure you have Internet Options>Content>AutoComplete Settings>User names and passwords on forms and Prompt me to save passwords checked. Then when you enter a password answer Yes to the question “Do you want Internet Explorer to remember this password?” If the dialog box does not come up you might need to use Tab to enter the Password field instead of using the mouse and click in it. It might also be that you have answered No to the question before. This choice is saved to the registry. If you don’t care loosing all your saved passwords you can use Tools>Delete Browsing History in IE and Delete passwords… If not you can use Regedit.exe and clear this using this solution.
  • Close Internet Explorer.
  • Run regedit.exe (you will need administration rights)
  • Locate this key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\IntelliForms\Storage2 This is the location for AutoComplete Passwords only. HTTP Authentication Passwords and FTP Passwords are saved at a couple of other places.
  • Select Storage2 on the left pane. Save Storage2 as backup via File>Export so you can restore it later on. Name it Storage2Old.reg and save it where you want. Or you can right click on Storage2 and select Export.
  • In the right pane select all values except (Default), right click and select Delete.
  • Start Internet Explorer and visit the website in question with the log in form and enter the password you want to save and answer Yes to save it.
  • Log out and close IE.
  • Go back to Registry Editor and press F5 to refresh the view.
  • Now save Storage2 as a second backup but name it Storage2New.reg.
  • Select Storage2 in the left pane again and visit File>Import and select StorageOld.reg so it can be merged back into the registry.
  • Now repeat the previous step but select StorageNew.reg.
  • Close the Registry Editor.
  • Now you should be able to have the password remembered for the site in question and still have all saved passwords retained. I’ve used Vista but it should work with XP as well.
Then there are some sites where this does not work at all like I found with Feedburner. There are also some sites where you have to enter the password and save it on multiple places depending on where on the site you log in. Many of Google’s site are like this. Another solution is before anyone comes with a comment on it to use another web browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. On the other hand I found that both Firefox and Chrome could not save the password on the Autodesk discussion group site but could save it on Feedburner. On the topic I can also mention that there are some add-on software that can handle form filling like RoboForm and IE7Pro Auto Form Filter. But I know that at least IE7Pro cannot solve the Feedburner log in because it is a unique URL used each time. Saving passwords in IE7 is something you should only do if you are aware that if anyone else have access to your computer they can find out your password. IE PassView is a freeware that recover lost passwords stored by Internet Explorer. Don’t think that just because the password shows as ***** it is safe, not even in some applications as you can see in the Asterisk Logger. Lastly there are sites that don’t allow saving the password like online banking sites. What is your experience in this field?

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