A pal of mine uses a program called Roboform on her PC to keep her site passwords all synchronized between her different Web browsers and as a Mac user I figure there’s got to be at least as good a solution, if not better on my new Macintosh. So how do you manage your passwords?
Until very recently, the sad truth is that I was trapped using Apple’s Safari browser and had to scrounge and remember passwords when I switched to a different browser on my computer. A big pain, for sure. Fortunately, I’ve recently started running 1passwd and am finding it makes this sort of task a breeze.
Let me show you how it works so you can see that it’s pretty darn easy. When installed, it adds a small button to the Safari and Firefox address bars, with a bunch of new functionality:
I’ll choose the “Import Safari Passwords” option from this menu as a necessary first step and after a moment or two get this confirmation:
Not sure why a few didn’t import, but 93 is still a lot better than zero when I’ve switched to Firefox! When I installed 1Passwd, it automatically added itself to all of my active browsers, so switching to Firefox shows that it too has new 1Passwd functionality:
Just to make things interesting, I’m going to use Firefox to download the latest version of the splendid Safari add-on Saft. To download the latest version, I need to re-enter my original license key each time, which is a pain and a perfect job for a password manager.
When I go to the Saft download page suddenly 1Passwd has changed its settings:
I choose “Restore” and seconds later am asked if I want to grant access to the Apple Keychain to get that password and form value:
I click “Always Allow” and instantly it’s prefilled and ready to go:
Nice, simple and 1Passwd even saves the passwords in the standard Mac OS X Keychain mechanism, which means that they’re all encrypted and you need a password to access them.
1Passwd has a bunch of other useful features, so don’t be too scared off by the rather pricey $29.95 license fee. It’s worth it.
I’m on Microsoft Windows. What shall I do?