Solving Sign-up Anxiety

Every once in a while, you come across software that solves a problem you never knew you had. Finding KeePass was like that for me.

Being a long-time web user, you’ve probably signed up to a lot of sites. If you’re like most people, you guiltily use the same password on all of them. But every time you register for a new site, somewhere at the back of your head you’re thinking, “Will I remember the username? Is it really ok to use the same password, again? Will I even remember that I registered for this site?”. You’re not aware of it, but you’ve got Sign-up Anxiety. The little niggling at the back of your head you get when creating a new user on a site, because you know that it’s another piece of information to store in your already-overburdened memory.

Enter KeePass. KeePass is a password manager. It’s pretty simple: every time you sign up for a site, you add your username and site details to KeePass, which will generate a password for you. This all gets saved in an encrypted file on your computer. When opening the file, you’ll be asked to type your master password, after which the program will stay around in your tray to help you auto-login to various sites.

On the surface, nothing to write home about. But this program solved the sign-up anxiety I never knew I had. I now happily create accounts on sites even if I know I’ll never visit them again, because why not? It’s a random password, and it’s all stored on a file on my computer. No need to commit anything to memory. This sounds like a small deal, but it fits right in with the Getting Things Done philosophy: storing all these things externally causes us to stop worrying so much, if when we don’t realize we were worrying in the first place.

Using KeePass effectively

I’ve developed a few routines for using KeePass effectively, which I thought I’d share. These mostly focus on doing as much as possible with the keyboard, and making sure you don’t lose important information for later.

Note: You may have to enable some of the shortcuts I use in the KeePass options for some of the tips to work.

Signing up to a new site

Whenever I need to sign up to something, I do the following:

1. Enter the username I want on the site’s registration form. This is sometimes a regular username and sometimes a password.
2. Hit ctrl+alt+k to quick-open the KeePass window (entering my master password if need be).
3. Hit ctrl+y to create a new entry.
4. Give the site’s name as the title (this is important for auto-logging-in later), and enter the username I chose.
5. Hit OK. This will save the entry, making it much easier to copy the password into the registration form.
6. Now, you’ve got an entry for the site that you can use, with the password already saved. Ctrl+c to copy the password to your clipboard, enter it on the site, and complete your registration.
7. Save the KeePass file, and you’re good to go. If there was a problem with the registration (username was taken, for example), just hit enter on your entry to edit it.
8. I usually add the email address I used in the “Notes” section of the entry, since I tend to use many addresses, but your mileage may vary.

Logging in to a site

This is where KeePass really shines. It has a keyboard shortcut, ctrl+alt+a, which will enter your username and password for you. It works by looking at the current window title, checking if you have an entry whose title matches, and then performing an auto-type of the username and password for you. A few tips:

• The auto-type feature only works with window titles that match (a loose matching: the title “Gmail – log in” will work with the entry “Gmail”) . Most sites work fine, but some sites have titles that won’t work well (for example, Amazon’s log-in has the title “Log in” with no mention of Amazon). For these situations, you can choose what text this entry will auto-match against by going to the notes section of the entry, clicking on the “Tools” button at the bottom left, and choosing “Auto-type: select target window”. There are plugins to solve this issue by making KeePass look at urls as well as window titles, but I don’t have experience with any of them.
• By default, KeePass will auto-type the sequence: “username {tab} password {enter}”. This can be changed for sites that require other things (your SSN for example). Just open the entry, go to the “Notes” section, then click the “Tools” button at the bottom left and choose “Auto-type: Customize Sequence”.
• For sites that simply won’t work with auto-type (for whatever reason), you can alway do this: ctrl+alt+k to bring up KeePass, ctrl+f to find the entry you’re looking for, then hit ctrl+v to cause the auto-type behavior.

Tips and tricks

There are a few other things I do to get the most out of KeePass.

• Since you’re putting so many eggs into the KeePass basket, backing up your KeePass databse file must be a top priority. I back up to my disk-on-key, as well as continuously backing up to Dropbox (referral link). If you’re worried about the security implications, look into using a key file which doesn’t get synced.
• To make sure I have my passwords wherever I go, I also keep a portable copy of KeePass on my disk-on-key. For this reason, I use version 1.17 of KeePass and not 2 (the 2 versions require the .NET framework, which makes them a tad less portable).
• I keep mentioning that I use KeePass for websites, but it’s actually geared just as much towards using it for software (logging in to your Skype, for example). I also keep all my login details for my projects in my KeePass database (MySql password, etc).
• I keep a few other details in my KeePass, things I don’t just want to throw on my computer in a regular file, but which are handy to have. For example, various credit-card numbers can be stored there for easy access when purchasing things online (this can also be a bad thing if you’re trying to spend less, I’ve discovered).
• KeePass comes with many security precautions. For example, you can chose how often it locks the file you’re viewing, forcing you to reenter your password. Other security measures are automatically clearing passwords from your clipboard after ten seconds of use. If you’re interested in extra security, read up on the subject at the KeePass website.