How to have Windows 7 remember a password for a Domain
- by Kelly Jones
About eighteen months ago, I wrote a post covering how to clear saved passwords in Windows XP. This week at work I was reminded how useful it is to not only deleted saved passwords, but to also setup wildcard credentials using this same interface. The scenario that I run into as consultant working at a client site, is that my laptop is not a member of the Windows Domain that my client uses to secure their network. So, when I need to access file shares, shared printers, or even the clients internal websites, I’m prompted for a name and password. By creating a wildcard entry on my laptop (for the user account that the client issued to me), I avoid this prompt and can seamlessly access these resources. (This also works when you’ve configured Outlook to access Exchange via RPC over HTTP.) How to create a credential wild card entry in Windows 7: Go to your Start Menu --> Type "user" into the Search box Click on the “Manage your credentials” in the column on the left Click on the “Add a Windows credential” link Enter the Domain (in my case my client’s domain), something like this: *.contoso.com Enter the username and password That’s it. You should now be able to access resources in that Domain without being prompted for your name and password. Please note: if you are required to change your password periodically for that domain, you’ll need to update your saved password as well.
