Windows does not save passwords

J

Jeffrey

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May 14, 2015
Posts
76
Hi, there,

I upgraded my girlfriend's desktop from Windows 7 to Windows 10 a few days ago. Windows 7 always booted straight to the desktop after briefly showing the login screen, & now so does Windows 10, without requiring a password. Not requiring a logon password is her preferred choice & that's fine.

We found that she could not automatically connect to her wifi router because the pass phrase was not saved. Once she connected manually, wifi worked fine until a Windows reboot or shutdown/startup sequence at which time she had to connect manually again. 'Connect Automatically' was chosen each time but the pass phrase was not saved.

I ran SFC /SCANNOW & it found a few problems that it could not fix.

I did an in-place repair upgrade of Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool on my own PC to make new up to date Windows 10 installation DVD.

I ran SFC /SCANNOW again & it came back clean.

However the problem is still there.

I thought that not setting up a user password & going through the the boot screen & login screen might be part of the problem, so I setup her User account with a password & rebooted.

When I went to login on the logon screen, Windows did not recognize the password I had just set !

I tried the password several times but with no joy.

I finally had to boot from a rescue CD & use System Restore to roll back to before I set the password to get Windows to boot to the desktop again.

So, it appears that Windows itself cannot save passwords.

However, IE doesn't have this problem (doesn't need to ask for username or password for Netflix), nor does Firefox.

I have the 'clean' CBS log if you need it.
 
Hi Jeffrey

Since you mentioned that you'd recently upgraded, I looked at your posts for that adventure. I think you'd quickly agree that some computers upgrade more easily than others.

There are a few places that control password settings in Windows, and a few different methods for managing them. Depending on what method was used in Windows 7, it could well be affecting your experiences in Windows 10 - since the upgrade process tries to let you "have it your way".

Automatic logins do not mean that no password is in use ... it just means that Windows saved the original password and has been entering it automatically for you. Have a look at the article I've linked below, and check those settings. I recommend the first method in that article as the easiest to use - and I'm guessing that it is likely the setting you inherited from Windows 7. But I'd recommend visiting the Registry entries mentioned in the second method also, to make sure that those settings aren't unnecessarily tangled.
How To Automatically Login In Windows 1

There is also a simple tool from Microsoft/SysInternals called "AutoLogon" that is very simple to use. If you want to view information about that applet, here is it's page over at TechNet:
Autologon
______________

If you also would like for Windows to not require a login after Screen-savers or sleep/hibernation, you can change a few settings for that to happen:

Screen Saver (Power Options):
...a) Right-click the Windows Start Menu icon
...b) Select Power Options
...c) Select Require a password on wakeup
...d) Select Change settings that are currently unavailable
...e) Select Don't require a password (in the Password Protection on Wakeup section)
...f) Select Save Changes


Screen Saver (Personalization)
...a) Right-click the Windows Start Menu icon
...b) Select Control Panel
...c) Select Personalization
...d) Select Screen Saver (it's on the lower right corner)
...e) If there is a check mark in the option box in front of "on resume, display logon screen" - remove that check mark by clicking on it.
...f) Select OK

Account (no password required after wake from sleep)...a) Click on the Windows Start Menu icon
...b) Select Settings
...c) Select Accounts
...e) Select Sign-in options
...f) In the drop-down menu under Require sign-in, select Never

___________________________________

I believe your problem with saving passwords for wireless network connections is unrelated to your trouble with the startup/wake/sleep/hibernate/screensaver password trouble. For a first attempt at fixing, I'd remove the wireless network that is having the trouble:
1) Left-click or tap the Wireless Network icon in your system tray
2) Select "Network Settings"
3) In the WiFi section of the screen that opens, select "Manage WiFi settings"
4) In the "Manage Known Networks" section, select the Wireless Network with the password saving problem, and then select "Forget".

Restart your computer. When Windows is fully up and running again, click on the Wireless Network icon again, select your wireless network from the list, and enter the network password. Windows will automatically save it as long as the "automatically connect" option has a checkmark in its option box (which it should have, by default).

See if that does it.

Let us know if things go sideways and get interesting.
 
Her PC is now the 7th I have upgraded & I have not posted about this one before. I only did it last Saturday, 5/28. I think I posted earlier about the 4th PC I did which is the one I am using to write this; thanks to you guys it works great !

Just working with her wireless networking problem:

Under "Manage WiFi Settings", it only has "WiFi Sense" & "Paid WiFi Services"; there's no place to display the networks except in the tray icon & that only offers to "Disconnect", not "Forget" the network.

Even after making a desktop shortcut with this command line, "ms-settings:network-wifi", which does show all the nearby wifi networks, there is no "forget" option.

In addition, we brought her desktop PC to my house for the upgrade & I used a Windows 10 install DVD to do it with the computer connected to my Ethernet (which works fine, still).

I only checked the wifi because she uses wifi at her house. The upshot is that this PC has never been connected to my wifi until AFTER the Windows 10 upgrade.

I haven't looked at the Windows logon password problem yet.
 
About Windows 10 logon,

In your link at the 'Into Windows' website, in the Registry section, it talks about some of the settings in this Key:

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon"

Specifically,

"DefaultUserName", which should be there already.

"DefaultPassword", which I might have to create myself.

"AutoAdminLogon", which should already exist.

I have none of those in that key !

See attachment


In addition, under Settings > Account > Sign-in Options > Password, it says "Your account doesn't have a password. You must add a password before you can use the other sign-in options." Then it repeats, "You must add a password before you can use the other sign-in options." in RED. I don't know if this is 'special' to this PC's situation or not since I don't have any other computers that don't use a password for system logon.
 

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Hi again

Wireless Forgetfulness
The system seems to be hell-bent on forgetting things, huh. Try:
1) Right-click the Win10 Start menu icon
2) Select Device Manager
3) Click on the right-facing arrow in front of "Network Adapters"
4) Right-click on your wireless adapter
5) Select "Uninstall"
6) Reboot the computer.
7) Once fully started up, try connecting wirelessly, and saving the password.

As time allows, see if the password finally saves as it should (and if the wireless network finally shows up, along with the "Manage Known Networks" section in WiFi settings .... it likely didn't show earlier because you didn't have any "known networks".... too much wireless amnesia going on.... )

No Windows Passwords Anywhere
"Rime of the Passwordless PC" ...
It would seem that when installing Windows 7 years ago, your girlfriend decided against using a password. That setting seems to have stubbornly stayed in place. It seems it certainly isn't requiring any passwords - and if she doesn't anticipate needing to create any other accounts, she can live with it as it is (assuming her original passwordless user account is still there & working OK). I'm guessing that the trouble assigning a password to the new account you created is caused by the choice of no passwords during Windows 7's installation.

I would imagine you could reverse all that by using the Advanced User Account applet, and placing a checkmark in the option box "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer". You would likely then need to visit User Accounts in Control Panel and create a password for the main account.

In short: if the original account is still working OK without a password - and she likes it that way - then you don't need to change anything - and you can delete the added user account if she is going to be the only user. Might want to use a fairly strong antivirus package to protect things, though.
_______________

Let's hope that the adapter reset fixes the wireless amnesia....
 
OldGrayGary said:
Hi again

Wireless Forgetfulness
The system seems to be hell-bent on forgetting things, huh. Try:
1) Right-click the Win10 Start menu icon
2) Select Device Manager
3) Click on the right-facing arrow in front of "Network Adapters"
4) Right-click on your wireless adapter
5) Select "Uninstall"
6) Reboot the computer.
7) Once fully started up, try connecting wirelessly, and saving the password.

As time allows, see if the password finally saves as it should (and if the wireless network finally shows up, along with the "Manage Known Networks" section in WiFi settings .... it likely didn't show earlier because you didn't have any "known networks".... too much wireless amnesia going on.... )

No Windows Passwords Anywhere
"Rime of the Passwordless PC" ...
It would seem that when installing Windows 7 years ago, your girlfriend decided against using a password. That setting seems to have stubbornly stayed in place. It seems it certainly isn't requiring any passwords - and if she doesn't anticipate needing to create any other accounts, she can live with it as it is (assuming her original passwordless user account is still there & working OK). I'm guessing that the trouble assigning a password to the new account you created is caused by the choice of no passwords during Windows 7's installation.

I would imagine you could reverse all that by using the Advanced User Account applet, and placing a checkmark in the option box "Users must enter a username and password to use this computer". You would likely then need to visit User Accounts in Control Panel and create a password for the main account.

In short: if the original account is still working OK without a password - and she likes it that way - then you don't need to change anything - and you can delete the added user account if she is going to be the only user. Might want to use a fairly strong antivirus package to protect things, though.
_______________

Let's hope that the adapter reset fixes the wireless amnesia....
Click to expand...

May I add that between 5 and 6, it sometimes helps to delete the driver software for the wireless device when prompted (make sure you have the driver installation application handy in case Windows doesn't find an appropriate driver if you rely solely on wireless for your internet connection).
 
I think you mean that it helps to NOT delete the drivers ... we just want it to go back to default settings by reinstalling the existing driver.

It wouldn't hurt (& indeed might help) if a sparkling and fancy new Windows 10 compatible driver was available for the wireless .... but yes, that would require visiting the laptop's support website & grabbing the newer driver beforehand ... or connecting the Ethernet cable (like they did during the original Windows 10 upgrade).....

Cheers, all
 
OldGrayGary said:
I think you mean that it helps to NOT delete the drivers ... we just want it to go back to default settings by reinstalling the existing driver.

It wouldn't hurt (& indeed might help) if a sparkling and fancy new Windows 10 compatible driver was available for the wireless .... but yes, that would require visiting the laptop's support website & grabbing the newer driver beforehand ... or connecting the Ethernet cable (like they did during the original Windows 10 upgrade).....

Cheers, all
Click to expand...
No, I meant it may help to delete it. All the times I've run across wireless issues on my systems with Windows 10, I deleted the driver and let Windows install it fresh. I then was forced to enter the password for my wireless device. Not deleting it may be the easier route, but deleting it is an alternative route if the simple removal doesn't work. I was just letting Jeffrey know about both methods.
 
Ah ... yes, that makes sense. It could turn out the old driver might not yet have updated from an old Windows 7 version to a newer Windows 10 version. Win10 has proven to be a picky soul about drivers.
 
It's a desktop.

I was using a Rosewill RNX-N180UBE USB wireless network adapter since she uses one of these herself at her house. Uninstalling in Device Manager & rebooting didn't change anything.

Next, I tried an Asus USB-N53 adapter with the same result, even after uninstalling & rebooting.

No change in the situation; never tries to even connect by itself automatically, pass phrase doesn't save, & no "Manage Known Networks" section below the "Paid Wi-Fi Services" section in "Manage Wi-Fi Settings".
 
How would I go about deleting the drivers for these two network adapters ? I have install disks for both.
 
The Asus USB-N53 driver in Device Manager has a date of 4/5/2016. Searching for a newer driver, Device Manager says it is the latest version.
 
Hi again

Can you check in "Programs & Features", and see if a networking utility from the manufacturer might be getting in the way? If her desktop is store-bought (rather than home-built) - such a utility could be causing trouble. The built in networking utilities in Windows 10 work very well -- the vendor utilities are somewhat infamous for not being quite so well behaved. So - if you find a manufacturer's networking utility installed, try uninstalling it.
 
The Asus USB-N53 driver in Device Manager has a date of 4/5/2016. Searching for a newer driver, Device Manager says it is the latest version. I deleted it anyway.

I also found the Asus software for the adapter in "Programs & Features" & deleted them.

It's an HP desktop, a CQ5521F, but I don't believe it came with wireless networking, only Ethernet on the main board & a dial-up modem card.

Anyway, after rebooting nothing has changed; still not connecting to wifi automatically, pass phrase doesn't save, & no "Manage Known Networks" section below the "Paid Wi-Fi Services" section in "Manage Wi-Fi Settings".
 
Hi again

Looks like a Canadian model? (and a HP-branded version of an originally Compaq design ... common after their merger)... Ugh. I really came to dislike the Nvidia chipset based motherboards. [I was happy to see them go ....]. I wonder how well that Nvidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 chipset gets along with Windows 10 .... Well, if we're lucky, the lousy chipset might not be the problem....

That model came with quite a lot of software that probably shouldn't be hanging around in a Windows 10 machine:
Norton Internet Security 2010
Norton Online Backup
HP Advisor
HP Help & Support Center
HP Support Assistant
HP Recovery Manager

If any of those dinosaurs are still around, remove them just because they should be removed. If you need a system backup, create your own system image with File History & plop it on an external drive (you could then get space back from the HP/Compaq "Recovery" partition...)
______________________

If none of the dinosaurs are involved in Windows 10's wireless issue, and you have a spare drive available - it might be an interesting tactic to try a clean install using the spare drive (removing the current one safely first, of course). Things might work better. Might not. This does seem like a lot of work, though, for a simple network key saving problem.
______________________

Tell you what: is your Wireless network "hidden"? (in other words, it doesn't broadcast it's Network Name [SSID])? If yes, try temporarily changing that to broadcasting the SSID, and see if it then shows up in the list of "known networks". Then you could try removing it, and then entering the password anew when it shows up again, and seeing if it allows itself to be set as "Automatic".

You've got quite a puzzle there.
 
Got rid of the Norton stuff years ago & the HP stuff now. It makes no change of course.

The upgrade went well by using the install DVD. The Windows 10 tray upgrade program originally said it could not be upgraded because the video was not supported but Nvidia display drivers v 309.08 work fine if added afterwards.

I guess she'll just have to live with logging onto her wifi every time. But it boots without asking for a password, so that's half a dozen or six of the other, right ?

But, if you think of anything else to try . . .

Thanks
 
You know, Windows 10 has a bunch of different ways of getting to things.... so, let's see if anything changes by going to the settings "the old fashioned way".

Try:
When her computer is on, connected wirelessly to her network:
1) Right-click the Windows 10 Start icon
2) Select "Network Connections"
3) Her network should show (since it's connected) -- select its icon to highlight it
4) From the menu along the top bar of the "Network Connections" window, select "View status of this connection"
5) In the upper portion of the "WiFi Status" box, select "Wireless Properties"
6) In the "Connection" tab, make sure that a checkmark is in the option box "Connect automatically when this network is in range"
7) In the "Connection" tab, make sure that a checkmark is in the option box "Connect even if the network is not broadcasting its name (SSID)"
8) In the "Security" tab, you should see the "security type" her network uses (probably WPA2-Personal), the "encryption-type" (probably AES or TKIP), and the "Network Security Key" (her wireless password) -- you can briefly click on "show characters" just to verify that it is the correct password, and then remove that option again to hide the characters .... then press OK to save & exit.

See if that forces the connection to save & remember the password.

If not, "curiouser & curiouser" (Alice in Wonderland)
 
I am now using my laptop, also connected wirelessly, to duplicate your instructions.

In step 5), there is no "Wireless Properties" button next to the "Details" button in the "WiFi Status" box on her machine. I have one on my laptop but not on hers.
So, I can't follow the rest of your instructions.

There must be something wrong in the registry to be missing all these GUI configuration options wouldn't you say ? Some missing key or setting.
 
Hi again

I wish I had an upgrade laptop around, to see if I could duplicate the missing "Wireless Properties" button. Here's a screenshot of how things usually look (and how things probably looked on your laptop) ---
Network Connections screenshot - Win10.png

I'm going to have to dig around a bit to see what clues are available for this one. This is better than the Sunday crossword. :)
 

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