Password Manager Primer

Step 1: Creating a Password Database

Start Password Manager. If you don't have a password database (and if you start it the first time, you don't), the manager will offer to create one:

Press OK and the manager will ask you to enter a password to protect your new database with:

“Password for password database” may sound a bit strange, but it is a necessity. Unprotected password database is nothing better than a plain text file with passwords – anyone who can briefly access your computer can copy your passwords.

After you enter a password for the new database, the Password Manager's window appears:

The database is empty so you need to add at least one password to make it usable. Select Edit / Add.... The password window appears again, and this time it is for the password that you will use to encrypt your data.

After the password is entered, Password Manager asks you to add a password description:

It is not possible either edit or view the actual encryption password; the passwords in the database are always referred by their description strings (or handles). Enter some description, press OK, and your new password will be added to the password list:

Your new password database is all set, but there is one important step before we proceed.

Step 2: Backup is Important

It has already been said a million times before, so we will not tell you again how and why it is important. It should be quite obvious for anyone that a file containing all encryption passwords is pretty valuable and is worth spending two minutes to backup it.

Now, when your database is updated, it is time to ensure that your modifications will not be lost. First, select File / Exit. All the changes are stored in the database file on exit so exiting Password Manager is necessary to finalize the changes.

Open Windows Explorer and select My Documents / Kryptel Data folder.

The file Passwords.edb is your password database. It is an ordinary Windows file, which you can copy like any other file. Copy it to your backup storage.

Step 3 and Further: Using the Password Manager

Now that all the preliminary steps are done, the rest is simple. Start the Manager again and enter the password to access the database. When the main window appears, click the cross button in the top right corner:

Password Manager will remove its window from the screen, running in the backround and waiting for key requests. Try to encrypt something, and its window will pop up. Just double-click a password to use it for encryption.

On decryption the Password Manager serves passwords quietly without showing its window. You will see the password box only if the required password is not in the database.

When the Password Manager is in the background, it places its icon in the system tray (the bottom right corner of the screen, where the system clock is):

If you need to open the Password Manager's window again, click its icon in the tray.