Smart Computing Magazine
May 2006Get Yourself A Manager
Remembering Passwords Is No Longer A Burden
These days, it seems you can't go anywhere online without having to provide login information. Usernames and passwords are everywhere: Email, banking, and user-sensitive documents are just a part of the myriad of services that require personal sign-ins. To further complicate matters, if you don't visit certain sites on a regular basis, you may not remember the login you registered years ago. Password manager applications can resolve the frustrations of dealing with so many passwords.
Handy Password 3.4. If you're looking for software that will encrypt your login information on your computer or network, look no further than Handy Password 3.4 ($15; www.handypassword.com). With the use of a 128-bit Blowfish algorithm and master password, you can have peace of mind knowing that your logins won't be easily compromised. The program uses less than 3MB of hard drive space and is compatible with Windows NT 4.0/2000/XP and Internet Explorer versions 5.5 or later. After installation, a Handy Password toolbar appears in IE, which makes for easy access to your stored password information while browsing the Internet. Every time you encounter a login page, Handy Password prompt boxes will appear for any unstored logins. (If you find this annoying, you can turn off the prompt boxes.) In turn, this new information is stored in Handy Password's Card system. Information such as IDs, logins, and passwords, as well as survey answers, are stored on Cards to be filed away in Handy Password's file tree system. The program also features a password generator, which is great if you want to regularly change your password information, thereby increasing the security of your login accounts. Other than the generator function giving you the option of selecting the number and types of characters to use, don't expect too much from this tool. If you want to use a password from the generator, you'll have to go for the good ol' copy-and-paste technique.
Handy Password is a very straightforward program that doesn't offer many options. You might find that this program isn't as efficient as its name implies, especially because you must crank out new Cards every time Handy Password comes across unfamiliar territory on the Web. It won't be until after your initial card setups that you'll be a lightning-fast login machine.
by Ashley Finter
Handy Password team's comments to the article "Remembering Passwords Is No Longer A Burden"
We are glad that our product is estimated at its true worth. As an answer to Ashley Finter's complain we would like to offer the following possible way out of the problem he described. So, Handy Password has such an option as "Fill with Personal Info". It means that you have your login, password and other personal information, which may be used by default while filling in some forms. In this way, even if Handy Password comes across unfamiliar territory on the Web, you can use this option and Handy Password automatically fill new web forms with this information. But we advise you not to make excessive use of this function, because it may be dangerous for your data protection. It is better once to put down a concrete password for each site. At any case, it is Handy Password that will remember all these passwords.
Download Handy Password to login to sites automatically.
 |  |  |
