The reason I want it to be very simple for novice users is that I want to be able to recommend to non-tech family and friends.
These people would just use the basic options - if these users were shown the advanced options they would be intimidated and would not want to use it. The Firefox extension works very well for these users because they won't see the advanced options unless they select the advanced options from the view menu (which they won't).
This results in a slightly lower level of security for them, but it is still more than adequate for their requirements and it is probably vastly better then their current systems.
So, I'm hoping that the basic options will work for almost all sites. If the novice user encouters a site that does not accept the basic char set of password length then the user will probably revert to their old system (eg. using their standard pasword) for that site. That's ok, as long as it doesn't happen very often.
I'm not actually suggesting that the defaults be changed - I realize that they should be changed as infrequently as possible. Rather, I'm hoping that these ideas are considered the next time that the defaults have to be changed for some other reason.
What's more important for those novice users is that the web page defaults be 'in sync' with the FF extension defaults. So I've listed that issue in a seperate post.
'qwavel' "BYA" > If I may add somewhat to this, I am in agreement with "Eric H. Jung" because he is the creator and programmer, 'tanstaafl' and 'morguns' because they are more knowledgeable than myself. Any minimal settings will be very insecure, as you have noted, but; they should be easy to use for any and all, Advanced or Novice. As a very Novice myself, there are many features I have not used as I do not have the time to devote to that process at this time. The advanced options are not that difficult to learn, I am just now getting into using the "Advanced Auto-Populate," and when it comes to Banking accounts over the NET that is one that will require the tightest security you can muster. I am not a programmer nor a power user, only a very simple user but with GREAT 'curiousity', that is the one feature that will make anyone the most secure, but; how do you program that into the simple or advanced features of 'PasswordMaker', NOT possible. I feel this falls on the shoulders of those that are attempting to get others, even novices, to use a feature such as 'PasswordMaker'. Teach, Teach, Teach and when all else fails Instruct until they are able to do the simplest and hope one day they can advance enough to be as secure as possible.
Do Not attempt to use the "sync", "web site from remote". Stick only to the 'Home' system or where ever they normally use the web until they are better.
Thank you for reading my $0.0002 worth,