PW Management Tool

This might also fall under the SECURITY area on VDr....

As it goes, our company employs many systems requiring many differently formatted User ID's and PW. Additionally many outside contact, such as vendors, freight companies and clients have developed their own websites with limited (PW) access.
On top of it all, the expiration frequency varies and some sites are accessed very infrequently.

In short - there's a boatload of helpdesk requests and lost productivity to find, restore or reset PW's (and User ID's).

Is anyone using a solid, trustworthy PW-Management Tool (such as www.passwordlocker.com) or can recommend one, that can be installed on a client basis?

Tips/Links/Reco's much appreciated.

Cheers
KGG

Alternatively, Biometrics could be useful?

I've been very happy with Password Depot ( http://www.password-depot.com/ ).

2 free password management programs...

http://keepass.sourceforge.net/

http://www.schneier.com/passsafe.html
(It's my understanding Schneier is considered kind of an authority in this field.) (If you go to the Sourceforge.net site the latest v2.08 is there.)

These programs are made for what you're looking for. Easy to use for copy & paste operations...

The simplest approach could be to use a text file for passwords/logins and just encrypt or decrypt when appropriate. A simple encrypter is dsCrypt. http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulif...ezip/freeware/ (2nd program listed) dsCrypt doesn't even install permanently into Windows. It just runs on it's own. (Handy for floppies and flash drives.)

The problem with this approach is that one must remember to encrypt the file when finished. Probably not the best when users aren't personally motivated to do so...

I've tried several and none compare to Access Manager . They have a free version and a professional edition (Pro version well worth the $19.95 - USD). The feature that I like best is the ability to run entirely from a USB key with nothing at all added to your registry. You can take your passwords and favorites anywhere you travel. The only requirement is that each machine you run AM on, must have .NET Framework installed.

Hope this helps..............

Woow, Thanks All !

Lot's of good links/apps. Read up quite a bit and will probably try 2 or three of them.

One thing I am not quite clear about (even after reading through some of the manuals), how do these apps update PW's, e.g. when the WIN logon expires and the user is prompted to come up with a new PW?
Does the user have to remember that and manually update the list in the PW app or how is that linked?

KGG: After your post, I decided to have a deeper look into the 2 apps I posted. I know that we need to do something in our small office because no one ever knows their PWs and they have all these scraps of paper with PWs all over the place.

Both of these programs are very small and do not become part of Windows when ran. I tested the zipped versions because I could control where they unzipped to and where I wanted to place shortcuts and such.

I like them both but KeePass is the one we'll run at our place. It can show which PWs are expired, you can drag and drop BOTH the user AND the PW from KeePass to the login page. It also offers the ability to copy and paste the user/PW phrases if that's what you want. (From what I see, the user would need to update an expired PW. You could either change the PW and update the expiration date or leave the original PW entry and create a new one.)

KeePass allows you to create a Windows file association for the .kdb extension so that your desktop shortcut will point directly to the correct database. (This would also allow one to have a personal password db and a work db.)

It also allows a passkey file to be generated and stored on portable media if one prefers that over a master password to open KeePass.

BTW...I loaded the .97c version (not always up for an "a" version of an app.)

Well, gotta try KeePass now.
Access Manager does not run with .NET version 2.0, and apparantly I cannot revert to 1.1 (but that's a whole other thread worth).
We'll see how that goes.

Have been using KEEPASS ( http://keepass.sourceforge.net/ ) for almost two months now, and I am VERY pleased with it.

I am running it of a USB stick, which makes it very portable and allows for complete PW mgmt at the office and at home.
(Note: make sure to backup the DB part .kdb file on another media.)

* Ease of use and setup (didn't much read the manual)
* copy+paste options (CTRL's, or toolbar buttons, or double-clicking)
* auto-open of URL's
* comments and expiration feature

These are the main positive aspects IMO.


Sooo, Thanks to HAN for pointing me in the right direction. !