Forget to remember your passwords

Q: Whenever I go to my MySpace page, my computer asks me if I want to remember the password. I always click No but the other day I accidentally clicked Yes. Now it never asks me for my password any more. I don’t like that anyone using my computer can go directly to my MySpace page without a password. How do I get my computer to stop doing this and ask me for my password again?

A: Whether or not your Internet browser automatically enters a user name and password for you is generally maintained as an option in your Internet browser software. Because you didn’t mention which browser you are using, I will explain how to change this setting using version 7 of Internet Explorer, one of the more popular browsers in use today.

In Internet Explorer click the Tools button and select Internet Options. On the window that appears, click the Content tab near the top of the window. Once you do this, you should see a section titled “AutoComplete” which contains a Settings button. Clicking the Settings button will display a set of checkboxes indicating what elements your browser will auto complete (i.e., remember) for you. To prevent your browser from auto completing passwords, clear the “User names and passwords on forms” checkbox. Note that this will also stop the browser from asking you to save passwords in the future.

There is still one more step you need to take and that is deleting the stored passwords that your browser is already auto completing. To do this, click the General tab and then click the Delete button under the Browsing history section. From here you can click both the Delete forms and Delete passwords button to remove all stored user names and passwords.

One final note. It is a good practice to not let your Internet browser remember your user names and passwords. If you do let it remember these, anyone that uses your computer can gain access to all of your personal information with the simple click of a mouse

This post was originally broadcast Friday, February 16, 2007 on “Tech Talk with Noobie”, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday at 11:30 a.m. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .