Dear Diva, I was talking to a group of people, and the discussion turned to passwords and how hard it is to keep track of all of them. One person said she swears by a “program” from www.1password.com. It costs $50, and supposedly creates and remembers all your passwords for you. Somehow, I don’t need to remember my passwords, and they are automatically filled in when I go to sites that need them.
Do you know anything about this program? If yes, is it a good or bad idea??? I’m leery of signing up for something like this, but I’m also sick of trying to remember what passwords I have for each website I need to log into.
Any advice you have is truly appreciated?
Barbra Portland, OR
Hi Barbra, I indeed do know of the program 1Password. The program is safe and reliable, and highly recommended. However, I know you are a Windows user, and not a Mac user. For you, I would suggest looking at Roboform instead. Roboform is very similar to 1Password, but it is much stronger on the Windows side than 1Password is.
Both programs are integrated with your web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari) and will store logins and passwords for websites. They will both allow you to create profiles to fill in forms. For instance, store your name, address, phone numbers, email addresses, credit card numbers, bank account info, etc. When you need to fill in a form on a website, you can click on the profile and it will fill in the form fields with your stored profile information. If you do a lot of online shopping, this is a great feature.
With Roboform, you create what is called a Master Password. The Master Password protects your Passcards (a passcard is created
when you log into a website, and stores your login and password for that site). The Master Password stays in memory so that you do not have to enter it for each site, and will remain in memory until you either reboot your computer, or two hours of inactivity have gone by. You can change this time period in the settings.
Roboform has a few flavors. The Desktop version is for the user who has one computer and no other devices. An office environment is best for this version. However, if you have a computer, a smartphone, and maybe a tablet, the Roboform Everywhere product is for you. Roboform Everywhere allows you to sync all of your Passcards between your devices. A very cool thing. I have two Windows computers, a Macbook, an iPhone, and an iPad, and all of my logins sync seamlessly between all of my devices.
If you are like me, the never ending list of websites and passwords to remember was driving me crazy. Now that I have deployed Roboform into my technology environment, I only have to remember my Master Password.
As always, if you are intrigued and want to find out more, do not hesitate to call on ComputerDiva.