passwords don't save for email accounts

tuuf · External Since: Jul 29, 2006 Posts: 4

I have outlook 2002 and never had any problems when running winxp. I
recently bought a new computer running win7 and now everytime I exit and
re-enter outlook and try to access my email it prompts me to enter my
password. Eventhough I enter it and check the box to save it ----- it
doesn't retain it the next time I open the program.

Gordon · External Since: Mar 09, 2009 Posts: 210

"tuuf" <tuuf DeleteThis @discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:F045CE2C-FD81-4BFB-B843-5C6CF4F47C9D@microsoft.com...
> I have outlook 2002 and never had any problems when running winxp. I
> recently bought a new computer running win7 and now everytime I exit and
> re-enter outlook and try to access my email it prompts me to enter my
> password. Eventhough I enter it and check the box to save it ----- it
> doesn't retain it the next time I open the program.

It's s known mis-match with Outlook 2002 and Vista/Windows 7. Outlook 2002
is no longer supported so there won't be a fix anytime.

Have a look here: (yes it says Vista but it will apply to Win 7 as well)
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/vista.htm

VanguardLH · External Since: Jan 19, 2009 Posts: 111

tuuf wrote:

> I have outlook 2002 and never had any problems when running winxp. I
> recently bought a new computer running win7 and now everytime I exit and
> re-enter outlook and try to access my email it prompts me to enter my
> password. Eventhough I enter it and check the box to save it ----- it
> doesn't retain it the next time I open the program.

The following also applies in Windows 7.

Outlook 2002 will NOT remember passwords when ran under Windows Vista.
Outlook 2002 was coded to use pstore (protected storage system) in the
registry to cache the login credentials for the e-mail accounts defined
in Outlook; see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb432403.aspx.
pstore is no longer available under Windows Vista. The registry keys
are still there but are read-only so Outlook cannot record your login
credentials into those registry keys but cannot update them. Vista
dropped pstore and went to DPAPI. For information on DPAPI, read
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms995355.aspx. DPAPI has been
around since 2001 starting in Windows 2000. The result is that you will
need to supply your login credentials for each e-mail account that you
have defined in Outlook for the first mail poll performed by Outlook.
After the first mail poll, the login credentials are reused so you don't
need to supply them again. However, if you exit and reload Outlook then
you need to supply the login credentials for only the first mail poll.

Outlook 2003/2007 are coded to use either pstore or the newer DPAPI
which means they will run under Vista and pre-Vista versions of Windows.
Mainstream support for Outlook 2002/XP has ended. There will be no
further feature changes, bug fixes, or enhancements to it. That means
it will remain incompatible for use under Windows Vista. Your
Microsoft-based solutions are: suffer with the problem when using
Outlook 2002 on Windows Vista, upgrade to Outlook 2003 or 2007, or use a
different e-mail program that runs properly on Windows Vista.

Read:
http://www.msoutlook.info/question/28
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/vista.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_and_safety_features_new_to_Windo...Vista#O
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb756884.aspx

The PStore keys in the registry are read-only in Windows Vista.
Removing the read-only attribute won't fix the problem. The PStore
interface used by Outlook is not available in Windows Vista. You cannot
manually edit the registry to retrieve or enter the passwords. PStore
isn't just a location in the registry with plain text data. It is a
method of encrypting the passwords using TripleDES that are cached in
the registry in a binary construct. Once a user is logged into Windows,
the CryptoAPI can be used to decrypt that Windows account's cached
passwords from the PStore in the registry. While Windows Vista no
longer provides support for PStore, it is possible to continue
supporting PStore using a program. Alas, there will be nothing
forthcoming as a hotfix or add-on from Microsoft to support PStore
functionality in Outlook 2002 under Windows Vista because Outlook 2002
is no longer supported.

A possible solution is to use a program (as a macro that runs inside of
Outlook) that manages the encrypted password for you in the protected
registry cache. If you don't want to write the macro or cannot find a
free one already written for you, there is OLAutoPW at
http://www.mgsware.de/index.php/OLAutoPW/138/0/#403. I've never used it
(because I don't use Windows Vista). Cost is 10 euro (~$16). It may
also be possible to use AutoIt, AutoHotkeys, or other keyboard macro
programs that can trigger on specific dialog windows to answer the
password prompt for you but then you need to leave them running all the
time and write up the macro that they run along with identifying the
trigger(s) on when and in which window to run their macro.