Password Security Scanner is a useful portable tool which makes it easy to assess the strength of any Internet Explorer, Outlook, Firefox, Live Mail or Windows Messenger passwords which might be stored on your PC.
A little surprisingly, the program doesn't display the passwords itself, instead just showing you information about them: the password length, the number of numeric, lower and upper case characters, and other details, as well as then using all of these to calculate a score defining the password's overall strength. (Which the author defines as, Very Weak: 1-7, Weak: 8-14, Medium: 15-25, Strong: 26-45, and Very Strong: 46 or over.)
The author is assuming that you'll be using Password Security Scanner on a PC with several users, though, and so this approach does make some sense. It means you'll be able to tell if a particular person is creating very short passwords, say, without them feeling their privacy is compromised by the program revealing the full password to you.
Of course if your PC has a large number of users, most of them using Internet Explorer and saving their passwords, then you may have a very long list of entries to explore. You can sort the Password Security Scanner report by clicking individual column headers, though, so selecting "Password Strength" will highlight the weakest passwords immediately.
And if you select Options > Advanced Options, then you're also able to tell the program to display only passwords below a particular strength value, so again your attention will be drawn to the "problem" passwords right away.
Version 1.45:
Added 'Quick Filter' feature (View -> Use Quick Filter or Ctrl+Q). When it's turned on, you can type a string in the text-box added under the toolbar and Password Security Scanner will instantly filter the passwords list, showing only lines that contain the string you typed.
Full Changelog
Verdict:
Password Security Scanner offers a simple way to audit the strength of many passwords stored on your PC. It would be more useful if it displayed a text description of that strength as well as a figure, though, so you didn't have to try and remember what 27 or any other figure actually meant.
Your Comments & Opinion
Generate one password or hundreds with a click
Quickly check all the devices and computers that are currently connected to your network
A cross-platform password manager that secures you login credentials and more
Free your Firefox passwords and use them independently using this official app
Turn any USB flash drive into a key that will lock your PC when you're away
Store all of your passwords securely on your computer with this free password manager.
The secure chat app is now available everywhere
The secure chat app is now available everywhere
A powerful security tool to monitor data sent from your computer
Quickly scan your computer for possible infection with this free portable tool from Microsoft
Quickly scan your computer for possible infection with this free portable tool from Microsoft