New ways to manage your passwords in Microsoft Edge

Microsoft

Microsoft Edge is committed to making web browsing safer for its users. Threats to a user’s online safety grow with each passing year, as does the value of the parts of our lives we spend online. It’s more important than ever to be sensitive to good online security habits. And although it can all seem a little overwhelming, Microsoft Edge is here to help.

 

Over the past few months, the password manager in Microsoft Edge has undergone a complete transformation. It now offers a host of new capabilities that make your browsing experience more convenient and secure, to the extent that it will make any external password manager seem unnecessary. The best part? It comes with none of the concerns of adopting a third-party application, and it’s free! Read more about the comparison between a browser-based password manager and standalone password managers here: Password Security Blog

 

If you’re short on time, or simply prefer watching a video on what's the latest in the Microsoft Edge password manager, we’ve got you covered:  Microsoft Edge | How to keep your passwords safe with Microsoft Edge - YouTube

 

The basics

The built-in Microsoft Edge password manager has helped millions of users save their passwords in Microsoft Edge, autofill them in web forms, and sync them across all their signed-in devices. Microsoft Edge autofill offers free and secure storage of users’ most sensitive data and makes it available on all your signed-in and syncing devices, no matter the platform.

 

Another benefit of using password autofill is that it is capable of defending you from phishing sites, because the password manager will only autofill passwords on the sites to which they belong. We’ve also added more capabilities to the password manager to let you edit passwords directly in Settings, view and copy your passwords, and control when the 'password reveal' icon appears inside password fields. 

 

Using the Microsoft Edge password manager is the best way to easily manage and help protect your account information.

 

Foundational features

We’ve added a host of powerful capabilities to keep you safer and more productive online. Many of you might already be familiar with several of these (and using them every day), but here's a summary of what they do:

All your passwords are scanned automatically the first time you enable this feature. Thereafter, any password you use, save or update is scanned automatically. Of course – you can run a scan yourself anytime for all your saved passwords by going to edge://settings/passwords.

Recent enhancements to this capability include improvements in manual scans (triggered using the 'Scan now' button in Settings), which includes a real-time progress indicator, a 'Stop scan' button, and a helpful summary at the end of the scan. Password Monitor alerts also offer new and more insightful information in every notification, to be more helpful with fewer interruptions.

  • Password generator: Get strong and unique password suggestions whenever you need them! For more details, see Use Password Generator to create more secure passwords in Microsoft Edge.
  • Device authentication for autofill: Add an additional layer of privacy to your saved passwords, so you can enjoy more peace of mind when your computer is unlocked or when sharing your device with others. For more info, see Additional privacy for your saved passwords (microsoft.com).
  • Password health: Learn about which of your passwords are weak or reused, or have been found in an online leak, so you can update them right away and help protect your accounts. For more details, see Password health indicator (microsoft.com).
  • Custom Autofill: Microsoft Edge now supports virtually any type of data. This opens up an exciting and wide range of possibilities. Go to edge://settings/personalinfo and select the ‘Add Personal Info’ button to add any information that you’d like to save to the browser so it’s readily available for autofill the next time you need it.

 

New capabilities

We’re also making investments to help reduce the time it takes to complete tedious tasks on the web, such as updating passwords and creating new online accounts. For details, see Create safer passwords in Microsoft Edge and Using auto account creation in Microsoft Edge. (Please note that these capabilities are still new and currently available on a limited number of websites.) 

 

Going forward

We’re constantly working to improve security and convenience for everyone using the Microsoft Edge password manager. We hope you continue to choose Microsoft Edge as the password manager of your choice, that you use strong and unique passwords for each of your accounts, and that you update any passwords that are found to be unhealthy. Microsoft Edge can help you complete each of these tasks quickly to help you remain safe and productive online.

35 Replies

@MissyQ I'm still using Bitwarden, because it has an important feature that Edge doesn't have yet. That is a built-in 2FA code generator. When it autofills a password, it will add the 2FA code to your clipboard, or you can open the extension popup and copy it from there as well.

@MissyQ 

 

Hi Missy!


Nice to see you again, it seems that Password Mointer is still failing to scan my passwords ever since it was released 🙂 

May you please inform the engineers!


Merci and thank you!


Shawn

Shawnloveshorses161_0-1641587648672.png

 

Thank you for sharing, just one feedback here which I hope the password monitor feature would expand to non-saved passwords too. For example, let say I am visiting a website but I don't want to save password but I use a leaked or weak password, it would have been nice if the Microsoft Edge would check for that too.

@Reza_Ameri Hi

Your idea seems impossible to execute in real time - without saving in Edge.

"When you turn on Password Monitor, Microsoft Edge checks passwords stored in your browser under a large database of known password leaks stored in the cloud. If any of the pairs  username and password match the pairs"

Hi @A1-A1

 

Why I do respect your opinion , just share a tip from my experience in IT and Software Engineer and it is there is no impossible in our field. It might be technically difficult but not impossible.

Technically, it is possible to do it with caching like when you enter a password place it in a temporary cache as hash and then it send over the network and then remove it from this cache. However, it required some research on privacy , security and technical perspective. 

@Reza_Ameri 

I understand, but the creation of more processes - this is another threat,

Edge currently I think is well secured, but you should not overcomplicate the user experience - this is the reason for often giving up using this browser.

Best regards

Actually Andrzej, Microsoft developers are very smart when adding new features such as the requested Bing wallpaper for desktop, better touch keyboard, and so much more in new Edge browser.

They have created an amazingly fast browser that is so easy to use, that's wonderfully designed, simple just like the Maps app. Vivaldi, Opera, Firefox, are other browsers that focus on privacy too though they have it so cluttered.

Very slow browser indeed isn't Edge browser, the social media isn't necessarily on Opera or all these other stuff.

I find the collections, citation, rewards, math solver, sidebar, coupons very helpful, a lot of people just need time to understand why this stuff are in a browser.

A lot of shopping addicts will usually want to get the lowest offer on shopping, this may be good for Microsoft but it's great for a user too as it will help make Bing a better search engine.

I believe that other browser will follow-suite, anyways the new spotlight collection and new touch keyboard in Windows 11 was more than I ever wanted and now I love it!

Patience, skill and timing will always lead to wonderful works of art!

Shawn

@Deleted 

Yes, but Edge's market share is not growing dynamically - despite improvements!

I like in Edge that I can turn off almost everything - because I don't need it, of course security is a priority! 

It is something to do with the engineers and if they engineer it well, they could make the process secure. However, the question is how it will impact the users?
In case it has a positive impact on several users they might consider it.
It depends on the complexity too.

@MissyQ 

 

How about adding a quicker way to get to the password manager?

 

In Firefox it's two clicks - hamburger-menu>Passwords. In Chrome it's two clicks - Profile toolbar button>Passwords button. In Edge it's More...>Settings>Profile>Passwords. Very irritating. Should be a way to get there in one or two clicks.

@DavidGB 

Yes Edge is great, but for many people difficult to use, this is one of the reasons for using inferior browsers, but simpler to use!

HI DavidGB, actually when you click the settings button on Edge it will go default to profiles like Chrome then you can click passwords. Are you on the new Edge or the old one please?

Thanks

@Reza_Ameri 

" It depends on the complexity too. "

I still think that if someone really needs to check the security of their Password, they will save them in Edge!

If he doesn't want to – there's no need to build a very complex and dangerous process in real time!

Consider a scenario where it is a device in the public area and many people are using it so no one save their passwords or any data.

@Reza_Ameri 

Even computers in a large organization are not public outside of isolated environments, so it would be strange to check if the password is secure!

But thank you very much for the clarification. 

@DavidGB I recommend doing what I did: add a Passwords page shortcut to your Favorites bar. You're there in one click! Easy-peasy. 

I observed this specially in universities' library where some student even forgot to log out from the public system. So we have session expiry and profile removals.
I observed the similar behavior in coffee nets.

@Reza_Ameri 

 

I'm very sorry, the whole Edge team is supposed to work to ensure the safety of people who do not care about it themselves?

 

It is actually job of the IT professionals to do it.
However, having new and valuable features will change their mind to switch to Microsoft Edge and set it as their default browser.