How to View, Backup And Delete Saved Passwords In IE

Whenever you visit a website like Gmail or Yahoo! that requires you to enter login details, your Internet Explorer will prompt you "Do you want Internet Explorer to remember the password for xyz website?" If you click 'Yes', then you will not be required to enter the login details again when you visit that site. This removes the hassle of entering the login details every time you visit that site.

That is surely a good thing... but have you ever wanted to know how to view, backup and delete those login details? This article will show you exactly how it's done:

Internet Explorer stores all your login details in an encrypted format in the Windows Registry. Nobody can see the saved passwords in text format either in Internet Explorer or by getting inside the Windows Registry. In case you desperately want to view the saved passwords, you'll have to use a third party program. Such software will search for the saved passwords of IE in the Registry and show them to you in plain text format.

Viewing Internet Explorer Saved Passwords

Caution! Using a third party program to view saved passwords is a risky proposition. If the software is not legitimate, it can make your computer vulnerable to virus attacks. That is why many anti-virus programs will alert you or not allow you to install even legitimate software that can effectively be used to view saved passwords in IE.

IE PassView is a freeware that can be downloaded from any popular software download site such as download.com or softpedia.com. While installing it, your antivirus may alert you about this utility. You need to ignore all the alerts. After the installation is finished, you only need to run the IE PassView software and it will show all the stored passwords of IE along with the respective website and username.

Backup Internet Explorer Passwords

The stored items shown by IE PassView can be exported in various formats such as txt, html and csv. This way you can effectively use the same software to create backup of the stored IE passwords.

You can also backup IE passwords without using IE PassView. By default, all the Internet Explorer saved passwords are stored in the following location in the Windows Registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\IntelliForms\SPW

To backup, you need to hit the Windows Start button and then type 'regedit' in the search box and press Enter. This will launch the Registry Editor.

Click once on HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder.
Click once on Software folder.
Click once on Microsoft folder.
Click once on Internet Explorer folder.
Click once on IntelliForms folder.
Click once on SPW folder.

If you see some cryptic info on the right side of the Registry Editor, you have already selected the SPW folder. You need to backup this folder. To do this, click on File on the Registry Editor and then click on Export and enter a suitable filename. By doing this you have completed the backup of your saved passwords in IE. In order to restore, you need to double click on the newly created .REG file and then click on Merge.

Deleting Internet Explorer Saved Passwords

To delete all the saved passwords stored in your Internet Explorer, you just have to click on the Settings icon located in the toolbar of your IE, then click on Internet Options. You will now see a new window of Internet Options.

In the General tab, go to the Browsing history section and click on the Delete button which will open another window with a list of options such as temporary internet files, cookies, history and other items that can be deleted.

Here, you need to put a check mark near Passwords to delete all the saved passwords and then click on Delete. That'll do the trick!

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-By Dominic

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