The Credential Manager
Windows 7 includes a feature known as the Credential Manager to help users save their credentials to a vault. Although this is not a new feature, in this version it has the ability to back up and restore the vault. In the Credential Manager, all the credentials are stored in a secure location known as the Windows Vault.
To use the Credential Manager, go to Control Panel→User Accounts and Family Safety→Credential Manager. There are three types of credentials you can store using Credential Manager (see Figure 4-8):
- Windows credentials
Stores the credentials of resources such as servers, printers, and the like.
- Certificate-based credentials
Stores certificate-based credentials, such as those from a smartcard.
- Generic credentials
Stores generic credentials, such as online IDs.

Figure 4-8. Launching the Credential Manager in the Control Panel
Using the Credential Manager
Note that the Credential Manager is designed to work with resources (such as servers and websites) that make use of the Credential Manager API to retrieve the username and password from the Credential Manager. A good example is Windows Live Hotmail.
When you first log in to Windows Live Hotmail, you have an option to save the password to your computer. When you check the “Remember my password” link (see Figure 4-9), the credential (Windows Live ID and password, in this case) is automatically saved into the ...
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