Best Password Utilities for the PC - Password Managers

Secure Password Generator (http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/)

Okay, so this one does not store passwords; it helps you to generate them. But since you need a password to store one, this is a great place to begin. It can create up to 50 passwords at once, and it can use any or all of the following parameters to do so.

1. Number of Letters - Up to 64.

2. Mix of upper and lower case.

3. Addition of punctuation.

4. Addition of numbers in the password.

5. The ability to get rid of duplicate or similar charters.

Passpack (http://www.passpack.com/en/home/)

This system is an online password manager that will automatically store up to 100 passwords and log you into your system. Just be sure to remember your encryption password, otherwise you will not be able to sign into the password manager and all of your passwords will be lost. How you choose to hold onto those, however, is your own issue.

IDVault (http://guardid.com/)

This product, unlike the others that we have talked about so far, is one that you are going to have to pay for to use, but on the bright side this little baby is highly mobile. How mobile, you may ask? Well, mobile enough that it can, and is, put onto your USB flash drive in order to go with you from machine to machine.

On the down side though, that means that you are going to have to keep track of the drive, because if you lose it, you are going to lose all of your passwords at once, and have to change them all. That's not exactly what I would call fun, and it would be even less fun if the passwords that you have lost are those that are from your job. Explaining to your boss why you have to change the server password is never good for your career.

Robo Form (http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,6380-order,1-page,1-c,alldownloads/description.html)

This baby is a hybrid. It is free if you are a personal or non-profit user, but if you happen to be a for-profit business user than you are going to have to pay $30 to use this program. Robo Form is arguably one of the more popular and well-known applications of this type. In addition to the password storage database, it also boasts a password generator, so if you use this one you can skip the generator at the top of this listing.

Now that you have a few choices on your plate for your password management needs, you have no more excuses for using that same tired, old, worn-out password on all of your systems over and over again. So break out that big mental list of great passwords you have been storing, or make one quickly. Then download your new password manager program and get on changing all of those over-used passwords. Note that if you have not heard of this particular utility, you may have about it under its other name, Pass2Go.

Account Logon 2.5 (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/win/21723)

This one is a good option for business users who want to spend less on a utility, but you should be aware that this web-based application does not come with its own toolbar in your browser, so if you really wanted to have one of those, then this is most likely not the piece of software for you.

If you use a lot of sites or programs, this may require blocking off some time in your schedule to get this done. Don't worry, it will be well worth the small amount of time that you have to put into it.

*Though now that this password has been published I would not suggest using it. Ditto on cute combinations of words you found on the most commonly used passwords list; even changing out one letter for a number in these words or adding common symbols is only a minor help, so go for a different password. I'm sorry if that already happened to be your password and I just published it. I took a shot in the dark, but you never know when you have accidentally guessed someone's password.