Microsoft Edge is getting a vital password security tool

(Image credit: Microsoft)

With most of us now reliant on an ever-growing number of password-protected online accounts and services, the number of login credentials we need to remember is staggering.

Thankfully, modern web browsers can help out, storing and filling in passwords for us - and Microsoft is expanding the capabilities of Edge's Password Manager tool to do just that.

The password manager feature itself is far from new, and it has been able to let you know if any of your stored passwords have been involved in data breaches for quite a while. But Microsoft has now added a new password heath feature to provide at-a-glance information about credentials.

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Password Health can be found as an optional toggle on the main Password setting page in Edge – edge://settings/passwords. With the toggle enabled, a new Health Column appears on the page, complete with an icon to indicate the health status of each of the passwords you have asked the browser to save for you.

An icon featuring a single line indicates a Weak and reused password, while one with two lines indicates a Weak password (or) resused password. An icon with three lines means that there is No known vulnerability for the password, while a red circle is indicative of a Leaked password. a fifth icon is used to indicate those passwords you have told Edge to ignore.

Health checkup

As the health information is displayed in a sortable column, it is possible to quickly and easily group all of your weak, resused or compromised passwords together. This makes the process of changing them to boost security a much simpler one.

At the moment, the Password Health functionality is only available in Microsoft Edge Canary 93 which is available to download here. If you're not keen on using a potentially unstable version of the browser, it should only be a matter of weeks before the feature progress to the Beta builds, and ultimately the main release version of Edge.

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Via Techdows

Sofia is a tech journalist who's been writing about software, hardware and the web for nearly 25 years – but still looks as youthful as ever! After years writing for magazines, her life moved online and remains fueled by technology, music and nature.

Having written for websites and magazines since 2000, producing a wide range of reviews, guides, tutorials, brochures, newsletters and more, she continues to write for diverse audiences, from computing newbies to advanced users and business clients. Always willing to try something new, she loves sharing new discoveries with others.

Sofia lives and breathes Windows, Android, iOS, macOS and just about anything with a power button, but her particular areas of interest include security, tweaking and privacy. Her other loves include walking, music, her two Malamutes and, of course, her wife and daughter.

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