Microsoft Edge is testing an option to allow users to save passwords manually
Microsoft is testing a new feature for Edge. Don't worry, this time it isn't bloatware. The browser's built-in password manager could soon allow you to save credentials manually.
Most modern browsers have a password manager, that lets you log in to your favorite sites with ease. Not unlike standalone tools (which often require an extension), browsers offer to save the username and password when you sign in to a website. Allowing it to do so, provides a convenient auto-login option that is triggered the next time you visit the same website. Besides, you don't have to type the long passwords, or even remember complicated patterns/phrases.
The password manager has been a part of Microsoft Edge for quite a while, though it has been missing an important option, the ability to add passwords without the login process that I mentioned above.
For context, Firefox's password manager, Lockwise, has had this feature for a long time, but Google Chrome was a little late to the party, it recently added support for saving passwords manually.
Since Edge is based on the Chromium source code, it is not surprising that Microsoft has brought the option over to its browser. The feature, spotted by a redditor, is currently available for select users participating in the Microsoft Edge Canary channel. Screenshots reveal that the feature can be accessed from the Edge Settings > Profiles > Passwords page.
With the addition of the handy option, you will be able to click the Add Password button which will bring up a pop-up modal, that allows you to add the URL of the website's login page, the username and password, and save it to your browser's vault. It looks very similar to the Edit passwords panel.
This may not sound like a useful option if you are using a cloud-based service like LastPass or Bitwarden, or a standalone password manager like KeePass. But for people who rely on Edge's password manager, the option to save passwords manually can be a lifesaver. The only other way to add passwords to Edge is by importing logins from other browsers, or a HTML or a CSV file.
The new feature seems to be in A/B testing phase in the current build available for users in the Microsoft Edge Canary Channel, version 99.0.1124.0. Once it passes the checks, and gets a positive nod from testers, Microsoft will roll out the option to the stable channel.
This is the sort of feature that users need, not a shortcut to MSN Games or Loans and other nonsense. In case you missed it and are wondering what I'm talking about, I recommend reading Martin's article where he wrote about how the recent additions to Edge have cluttered the browser.
Personally, I prefer a standalone password manager or a dedicated cloud service, for the sake of cross-platform/device compatibility. I use KeePass with a cloud service to synchronize the database across my devices, but also have Bitwarden as a partial backup.
What about you, do you use the built-in password manager in your browser?
This feature is still not available? We are now at v100 of edge
Stuff’s getting so complicated, users will do anything that works, then be glad. Which is really the point of complication, engagement time.
No, I’d never deliberately save passwords in a browser, although phones become really clunky if you don’t allow them to hijack your logins.
If I could code I would make a Chromium based browser with everything google related removed, i don’t care about cookies, kill sticky, H264ify and ublock origin preinstalled with all social media blocking features enabled from the get-go. It would feature auto-updating, a blank startpage with no preinstalled bookmarks and no redirects anywhere ever. No prompts to perform any effin action. Right after installing it would show the webpages you want to see, without ads, cookies, popups, sticky objects. When you are done, you close it and it closes leaving nothing running and cleaning all caches, there would be no activity, no pings no goddamn nothing. Imagine that, a browser that shows websites. For free, with no strings attached. Wow. I would be praised as the new Messiah. Too bad this messiah can’t code, but at least he can bitch and whine on the interweb, that’s something.
By the time you wrote that post, you could’ve found a video tutorial about how to package your own Chromium browser and you could have been started doing it.
So start doing it, we all have dreams of perfect software, but nothing works on daydreaming.
@Dumbledalf
Do you have any more of obvious things to pass as deep words of wisdom, captain Hindsight?
Do you tell people that were in car crashes they shoudn’t have driven that way?
Can’t stop laughing..I write “I can’t code” and this guy goes “You could code instead of writing here”.. Come on man/woman/thing, stop drinking.
The internet, endless source of human donkeys.
Well, there’s Ungoogled Chromium, which is close but a real pain to use in its raw form. Despite being open source, the spyware part of Chromium can’t be removed but you’re welcome to examine it, since Chromium is like, ya know, open source? What a term.
Almost all of what you’ve mentioned can be done in Chromium with Settings, flags and extensions. Takes an hour or so of F’ing with the damned thing. No point in bothering with Chrome, it’s such bloatcrapjunkware.
I know all of this. Ungoogled Chromium is nowhere near where I want it to be. Like I said, it needs to be easy and perfect right from the start. Zero tinkering, zero problemsolving, zero setting up. Just GO. BOOM! Who knows, maybe there’s some wunderkid somewhere who is working on something like this right now =) Fingers crossed. Every browser today is just different levels of stinky horseshit. Pick the one you find the least stinky and live with it. Those who don’t know how to pick or even know they CAN choose something else, they have a miserable browsing experience. And it shouldn’t BE this way! Greed is an ugly ugly thing…
@Your Saviour
Brave is a zero setup browser and is degoogled, here is the relevant page:
https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/wiki/Deviations-from-Chromium-(features-we-disable-or-remove)
It is degoogled, but not as crippled as Ungoogled Chromium. It is what I am using, and is what you might be looking for when you say you want Chromium without the Google spying.
@Iron Heart
Brave is nowhere close what I would want. Yet another wolf in sheeps clothing. Brave is not your friend, Brave wants money. Because developing free software using free open source software as a base is VERY VERY expensive. Well, the Ferraris that Brave company directors are driving aren’t gonna pay for themselves now are they?
Like I said, all browsers today are more or less garbage. I use Chromium, from woolyss (the Hibbiki installer version), it’s the least garbage option I found. Far from perfect, but this is how I roll. If they had an included autoupdater I could recommend it to everybody, but they don’t, so I won’t. Yeah, spare me of your tips on how to autoupdate it, I know all this, that’s not the point. I doesn’t autoupdate, end of story. I do manual updates, everyday Joe and Margaret do not.
@Your Saviour
> Brave is not your friend, Brave wants money.
Are you implying that the developers need to eat as well? If so, well done. This is not a hobbyist project, and if a surplus is left at the end, good for them. I tell you the solution if you do not want them to get any money, this is what a great part of the Brave user base does: Do not turn on Brave Rewards (because remember, it is off by default). Problem solved.
> Because developing free software using free open source software as a base is VERY VERY expensive.
Dude, Chromium was picked because it can explicitly be used by anyone (open source), but more importantly, because it is already supported by all web devs! Developing your own browser from the ground up, if even possible unless you are an industry giant, would have implications for web compatibility. Most websites will not work with your stuff unless you show up with some noticeable market share, but you only acquire market share when your shit works with websites to begin with. Chicken and egg, you see.
> Like I said, all browsers today are more or less garbage. I use Chromium, from woolyss (the Hibbiki installer version), it’s the least garbage option I found.
Dude, you are accusing Brave of being a cheap hackjob based on Chromium when your own browser is the very hackjob of hackjobs, a total hobby project. OK, what valuable thing does Ungoogled Chromium do except stripping out the Google connections? Where are its web-facing protections? Where are the FP protections? Where is the CNAME uncloaking? Where is the adblocker that can resist Manifest V3? My main man, there are more things to privacy protections than stripping out some Google connections from the browser, lol…
If I thought that Ungoogled Chromium was better than Brave, I would probably use it. But it doesn’t actually do anything outside of stripping some Google connections. Brave is objectively better for privacy protection, do your own research on the subject.
Use what you want, but please stay realistic when discussing things.
@Iron Heart
At what point during your rant did you realize you think Chromium and Ungoogled Chromium are the same thing and smelled the turd you stepped in? Must have hurt not being able to delete the rant instead of now just hoping this goes unnoticed instead, so no one will know what an amateur you are. But thanks for the laughs, not everyday you see someone using words like “dude” and “lol” anymore.
In 2022 Chromium is the least annoying browser, period.
@Your Saviour
Chromium and Ungoogled Chromium are the same thing except for the fact that Ungoogled Chromium strips the Google connections. My point is, this is not the same as effective privacy protection, at all.
And annoying? Wait until Chromium and Ungoogled Chromium have no workaround for Manifest V3, then we’ll talk about annoying… very soon.
Should you clear data from Edge and also of course wipe the passwords, this new handy feature let’s you restore them very easily. Just sign up for a microsoft account, set Edge as your default browser, Bing as your default search engine and finally enable 32 step verification by installing Edge on your phone your car your computers bios and every internet connected thing you own. Plus pay a tiny little monthly fee of 25 dollars, if you allow ads in all said devices. If you don’t allow ads, the fee is 75 dollars and the ads will be less intrusive. Alternatively, remember your passwords, use linux and never ever install anything related to microsoft.
You’d like this:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-skype-challenge-can-you-solve-this-puzzle-10-times/
Geesh! Determined to kill Sky Pee for good!
And the bloating of Edge continues? When will they stop? Will they be satisfied after they implement the functionality for running virtual machines inside of Edge? Or will they build a whole metaverse with NFTs and Cryptocurrencies inside it before Edge is considered feature-complete?
Or will Microsoft partner with NASA and implement all the software to control space devices inside Edge?
We will never know… because we and our great-grandchildren will be long dead before Edge will be finally feature-complete and bloated to boot.
Very interesting info, thanks @Ashwin! :]