If Trend Micro’s generically named “Password Manager” product sounds rudimentary, you are onto one thing. “Keep it basic” appears to have been the guideline behind the whole lot from its bland interface to its restricted function set. That’s not essentially a foul factor, however one would count on a product this easy to work flawlessly. Unfortunately, I encountered some performance hiccups all through my take a look at drive that make it arduous to advocate in opposition to most of the different password managers in our purchasing information.
Note: This evaluation is a part of our best password managers roundup. Go there for particulars about competing merchandise and the way we examined them.
Trend Micro Password Manager gives baseline options like password seize and autofill, password technology, and a safe protected “vault” to retailer your credentials in. But it lacks many options which might be important in as we speak’s dangerous on-line atmosphere like two-factor authentication and safe password sharing.
Trend Micro’s password supervisor works fully in your browser. It installs a launcher for Windows or Mac that opens an online portal, known as the Management Console. The first time you open this portal, it prompts you to create an account, set up the Password Manager browser extension and create a robust grasp password to lock down all of your credentials and different knowledge.
The Trend Micro Password Manager browser extension prompts you to avoid wasting login credentials, nevertheless it did not work on each website.
The browser extension primarily captures your passwords, robotically logs you into web sites, and generates passwords for brand spanking new accounts. The internet app—which you’ll be able to launch from the extension by clicking a Management Console hyperlink—can do that as effectively, nevertheless it moreover helps you to enter and save kind filling data and safe notes.
Whenever you log in to a safe website, a small pop-up window asks if you wish to save your login credentials, skip it for now, or by no means save them for that exact website. If you select to avoid wasting them, they’re added to your password vault and may be launched instantly from the browser extension.
One of Password Manager’s many limitations is obvious right here. In some managers, including LastPass, you possibly can substitute a memorable nickname for the captured login file and assign it to a folder proper within the browser extension. The means to do that on the level of seize makes it much more seemingly you’ll hold your passwords organized. To do the identical factor in Password Manager, you must go to the Management Console and edit the file there. You’re in all probability not going to do this every time you save a brand new login, so odds are larger that you just’ll in some unspecified time in the future must go in and tame an unwieldy catalog of credentials.
Trend Micro Password Manager also can import passwords saved in your browser; it helps Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer, however not Safari. Importing passwords from one other password supervisor, although, isn’t almost as straightforward. According to Password Manager’s assist paperwork, it might probably solely import from LastPass and Kaspersky Password Manager Version 8. That’s a drag if you have already got an enormous database of logins in one in every of Password Manager’s many different opponents, since you’re going to must enter them once more, one after the other, both by way of computerized seize or by hand.
When you come to a website you’ve saved in Password Manger, it gives to fill in your login knowledge. If you have got a number of logins for a website, it is going to allow you to select the one you need from a drop-down menu. Alternately, you possibly can launch a website instantly from a sortable record of saved entries within the browser extension.
Michael Ansaldo/IDGForm Fill helps you to enter your private knowledge to robotically enter into kind fields. However, it is extra restricted than what’s supplied in different password managers.
In my testing, Password Manager’s seize and login function was hit and miss. While it labored because it ought to more often than not, the few malfunctions have been notable for taking place on common web sites. When I first logged in to Hulu, for instance, Password Manger didn’t immediate me to avoid wasting my credentials. After a number of extra tries with the identical end result, I entered them manually. Later after I went again to Hulu, Password Manager wouldn’t supply to fill my login data despite the fact that it was seen within the record of saved credentials. I had comparable points with Netflix. Although it supplied to avoid wasting my credentials after I first logged in, it wouldn’t fill them in on subsequent visits, whether or not I went on to the film website or launched it from the Password Manager browser extension.
I had higher luck creating new passwords with the password generator. It defaults to utilizing all 4 character sorts—upper- and lower-case letters, numerals, and symbols—and you may embrace as much as 20 characters, which is an effective size for a strong password. Once a password is generated, you solely must click on the Copy Password button and paste the password into the suitable discipline.
password supervisor doesn’t simply save your passwords however actively helps you enhance them. Trend Micro Password Manager does this by displaying the full variety of saved passwords and the variety of “unsafe” passwords on the high of the Management Console. Under the latter is a “password doctor” hyperlink that, when clicked, shows weak passwords and any passwords which have been used greater than as soon as. The knowledge right here isn’t as detailed as what you get with Dashlane’s Password Health report or Keeper’s Security Audit, nevertheless it’s serviceable. In both case, Password Manager gives a hyperlink to the related web site so you possibly can enhance or change the password.
Michael Ansaldo/IDGYou can solely add textual content to safe notes, not attachments.
The form-filling function permits you to enter private data together with private particulars, contact and mailing data, and bank card knowledge. However, it solely gives a single discipline for every entry and limits you to 1 profile. By distinction, our high picks Dashlane and LastPass assist a number of fields for knowledge entries and a number of profiles. Trend Micro’s restrictions have been compounded by the truth that I had the identical issues with kind filling that I did with passwords—Password Manager simply wouldn’t fill within the data on sure common websites. The safe notes function is equally restricted, permitting you to enter solely textual content and no attachments.
Trend Micro gives Password Manager as each a paid stand-alone product and as a part of its Trend Micro Maximum Security package deal. If you get it as a part of the latter, it is sensible to make use of it. But I can’t see a lot incentive in paying for it by itself, and also you will must pay for it because the free model will save solely 5 passwords. While the price isn’t significantly excessive—$14.95 for one 12 months of limitless passwords or $24.95 for 2 years—that cash will get you a lot extra if you happen to put it towards just about any of the opposite password managers in our purchasing information.