Microsoft recently enumerated the changes it incorporated in Password Policy and Autocomplete Forms in Internet Explorer 11, to reduce the confusion in users about their passwords being recalled on one site but not another.
People, although not inclined, have the tendency of creating weak passwords and using the same for every site. The very exercise exposes them to the dangers and vulnerability of identity theft. Thus, having a secure, reliable password manager at hand appears to be the best method in keeping such perils at bay, apart from creating and using strong, unique passwords for every site.
Internet Explorer 11 helps do this. It makes signing into sites faster and more reliable as well as give users more control when saving credentials. In addition, IE11 now roams credentials to IE11 on Windows Phone 8.1. This significantly speeds up your sign-in experience across apps and devices.
Changes in IE11 password storage policy
The changes introduced in IE11 have beefed up login form detection which is indicative of the fact that the browser will now prompt to remember passwords on over 90% of login forms on the Web.
Second – Microsoft has tried to hand over the steering wheel of the browser control back to users when deciding to save passwords on a given site. IE11 will now prompt the user to save passwords even if the autocomplete attribute is set on login forms. Furthermore, it will continue to honor this attribute on all other form fields (e.g. username, credit card, address, name, etc.).
Third – IE11 will help you sign in faster! Internet Explorer aims to reduce sign-in time by pre-populating your credentials following the loading of the page, automatically. Earlier, users were required to select the username field and password field later, then click or tap again to select the username to populate the password.
On touch devices, a double-tap resulted in a zoom – which was a problem. The change in Autocomplete behavior on login forms will be secure, as IE will revert back to its old tap-and-select behavior when the site does not meet certain security criteria.
Fourthly – Sign only once, get access everywhere!
Beginning today, re-entering a user’s credentials for the same domain won’t be marked as essential. Meaning, with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, users will do away with the need of entering again the credentials for the same domain in a Windows or Windows Phone Store app that have been previously saved in IE.
This step will speed up your sign-in experience across apps and devices.
To conclude: Internet Explorer 11 now makes signing into sites faster and gives users more control when saving credentials. In addition, IE11 will now roam credentials to IE11 on Windows Phone 8.1. The login form detection has been strengthened, meaning that that IE will now prompt to remember passwords on over 90% of login forms on the Web. It will save you time by automatically pre-populating your credentials after the page has loaded when it is safe to do so. Moreover, with Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, users don’t have to re-enter their credentials for the same domain in a Windows or Windows Phone Store app that they’ve previously saved in IE.
Web site passwords can be managed in the Credential Manager desktop control panel on Windows. This post talks of how to manage passwords in Internet Explorer using Credential Manager.
