The ability to define Custom Accounts is one of
many things that sets PASSWORDMAKER apart from any of the other Password utilities out there, but it can also be a source of confusion for people new to PWM. The purpose of this post is to try to help clear up some of that confusion.
The bottom line is, there are really only two good reasons to create a Custom Account:
1) sites that require Settings that are different from the ones you specified in your 'Defaults' Settings, and/or
2) sites that are of a sensitive nature, like, for example, banking/financial sites, Domain Registrar accounts, and Remote Control Accounts like LogMeIn or GoToMyPC, etc. There are others of course, but only you can answer the question of whether or not an account is sensitive for
you.
You are encouraged to use the 'Defaults' Account/settings for all other sites that are of a
non-sensitive nature.
Don't misunderstand me, though. This does not mean that you
shouldn't create Custom Accounts for every single one of the sites you access - by all means, if you
want to, then do so. I just wanted to make sure that you understood that it wasn't absolutely necessary to do so just to use PWM.
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See
this topic for a detailed description of a simple concept for how to make your usage of PWM
much more secure.
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Allow me to elaborate on some ways that Settings requirements might create a situation where you would need to create a Custom Account, and some Tips that will help to minimize such situations.
In the 'Defaults' Settings, you can specify a Username, which is not only used to log into the site - and which can also be automatically populated into the Username field on the login page - but it is also one of the items used to generate your passwords.
However, if one of your sites requires a different Username from the one you specified in the 'Defaults' Settings, then you would have to either manually change the Username on the login page every time after PWM populates it (because PASSWORDMAKER would have populated it with the one from the Defaults), or, create a Custom Account for this site with the correct username. So, with this in mind:
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For non-sensitive sites for which you want to just use the 'Defaults' settings, pick something for a username that is almost certain to not be used by anyone else - something not a word, or a word that contains special characters in place of certain letters (example: 'mikemybirthyear' instead of just 'Mike') - this will make using the 'Defaults' settings/Account much easier and more convenient.
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Another example is that some sites impose special limitations/requirements with respect to the number of and/or types of characters that are allowed to be used for Passwords which differ from what you specified in your 'Defaults' Settings. For these sites, you would have to define a Custom Account that reflects the different Settings needed to allow PASSWORDMAKER to work properly with that site. So, with that in mind:
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Use only lowercase letters and numbers for your 'Defaults' settings, with a lower number of characters - say, 10. Since you are only using the 'Defaults' settings/Account for non-sensitive sites, this will still give you reasonably secure passwords for your non-sensitive sites, while allowing you to not have to create Custom Accounts for most of them.
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Hopefully this is enough of an explanation of the 'Defaults' Account/settings vs. Custom Account/settings to allow you to make an informed decision on when - or even if - to use the 'Defaults' Account/settings, or to create a Custom Account, for any given site.