How to Manage passwords in Windows 7 Credential Manager

Posted Date: 30-Jul-2010		Category: Microsoft Windows
Author: D.Jeya Kumar(JK)	Member Level: Diamond
Rating:	Points: 25 (Rs 15)

This article explains Windows 7 feature Credential Manager which is used to manage the Network system or internet user name and password for the automatic login

Windows 7 Credential Manager

Credential manager is Windows 7 is used to store the credentials of the web sites to log on to the web sites automatically or other computer to login to computer without giving password. By storing the credentials in Windows credential manager allows you to enable the automatic log on in Windows 7.

Username and password are stored in a special folder called Vault by Credential Manager. It is hard to remember the passwords for multiple accounts with different user name and passwords. Credential manger will store the user name password so you can create a unique user name and password and it will be remembered by Windows 7 Credential Manager.

Click the Windows start button and click the Control Panel and open the All Control panel items and select Credential Manager. Credential Manager will show 3 options to add the credentials (Check the below screenshot).

In order to add a windows network user credentials click Add a Windows credential. Certificate-Based Credentials is to store digitally signed public key that contain the credential information that is used for the secured web sites that starts with https instead http. General Credentials stores the web site URL's along with username and password for that sites.

To add a new Windows credentials , click Add a Windows credentials will ask for the Internet or Network address , user name and password and it will saved in the special folder called vault. Once the Address is added then it will show the information under Windows Credentials (Check the below screenshot).

Windows 7 Enter Windows credential

Take the backup of vault in case of system failure or crash you can restore the credential information using vault backup. You can take the backup of the vault from Credential Manager by clicking the Back up vault link will open a Window and you can store the backup file in the system or in a removable disk.

Windows 7 Backup the vault

You need to enter the backup file path and click the next button and in the next window press Ctrl + ALT +Delete button to continue to your backup on the secure desktop to enter the password for the backup file. Type the password in the password text box for the backup file and click the next button to continue (Check the below screenshot). Once the back is finished then you can click the Finish button to close the Window.

Windows 7 Credential manager backup password

Windows 7 Credential manager backup password

In order to restore the backup file click the Restore vault link will open a Window. Select the path of the Vault backup file and click Next button to continue. Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete key to continue to enter the backup file credential in order to restore the vault from secure desktop. Enter the password to restore the Vault.

.Net developers can make use of the Credential Manager in Windows 7 using .net framework to access the credential information

Check the below link for the credential management using .NET

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480470.aspx

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