My Laptop is trying to drive me Crazy.

Sassycakes

Sassycakes

SF VIP
Location
Pennsylvania
I use a laptop and no one else ever uses it, nor knows my passwords. So this morning no matter what site I go in says I'm using the wrong password and some say I had changed it 3 days ago. Number 1, I didn't change any passwords. All my passwords have a meaning to me according to the place like here and Facebook. What the heck is going on?
 

I'm positive no one else ever used my laptop. I started changing my passwords to all the sites I go to as soon as I realized the problem this morning.
 

Good for you...that's what you have to do I'm afraid, you can't take the risk someone has hacked your computer, especially your banking or any site that have your bank details like Ebay etc... it's a real PITA to do, but it's an absolute must....
 
If you are on Wifi at your residence, also change your Wifi password and even consider changing the name of your Wifi. And if you know how to do it, you might want to change your router password.
 
Oh, forgot one other important note. If you on Windows and use a PIN to log into your laptop after you boot up, make sure you change that also. If you use Chrome (or most any other browsers) and are always logged into Chrome, someone can go under the Chrome settings and gain access to all of the passwords you use for Chrome using your Windows login.

If you do not use a PIN to log into you laptop after it boots up , make sure that you set one up ! It can be a pita to have to use every time you boot up your laptop but it is worth the extra step.
 
Though it makes recalling passwords easy, don't use common words or names as spelled for passwords because that makes it easy for password hacking algorithms. One good system is to confine all passwords to a theme with a long list of specifics one can easily look up if forgotten, for instance dog breeds or world country names, whatever then add a scheme. For instance instead of Costa Rica, cosTa(%rIca or cocker spaniel as cocKe(%rspanIel . Both use small letters except for the fifth letter and third to last letter are capitalized while a (% is inserted after the fifth base letter.
 
I had something similar a while back Sassycakes and again
a couple of days ago, I was asked by Mozilla if I wanted to
update and save the password, when I looked at the new
password it was 11111111111111111111111111111111111,
I have no idea how long the line of 1s was, but I had saved
it once before and had to edit it in the "Password Manager".

You can try to revert to a previous date if you can, you can check
your password manager if you use one, or you can ask Google
how to open your "Make and Model of Laptop", in "Safe Mode
with Networking", that will allow you to move all the things
that you want to another place, like a spare "Hard Drive", or
another computer, then you can go about cleaning the laptop,
if you have Windows 10, you can get a "Fresh Start", they call
it, they will re-instal windows with the latest version without
losing any data, or pictures, they say, but I would still back it
up somewhere, even the cloud if you have an account.

In safe mode you can run an anti-virus software.

I hope the above helps.

Mike.
 
I can only answer for 'Firefox' but there is a box to unclick under Settings>Privacy & Security>Logins and Passwords>'Ask to save logins and passwords for websites'. You don't get the popup to 'Save' or 'Update', if it's unflagged otherwise you'll change your stored password to whatever is current on your clipboard. I've had to disable it on several systems I've set up, I tell everyone not to accept the option on the popup. If unflagged they have to key in their userid & password. I figure it's kind of an inconvenience but necessary to avoid retrieving their password.

Not sure, but I think Chrome and other web browsers have the same.
 
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Another tip for passwords since many of us have a long list of such is to store your passwords right on all your computer devices within an encrypted file that can be decrypted with a single strong password you won't forget. If say your laptop has issues logging in to Windows, one can decrypt the encrypted file on your smartphone to recall it and vice versa. My passwords and important settings and info is in an encrypted Excel file. Of course storing passwords on computer devices is dangerous since a device can be stolen or hacked into, thus encryption is important if so. Otherwise keeping the information on say an external sheet of paper also has potential greater issues of loss or theft.
 
Sassycakes said:
I'm positive no one else ever used my laptop. I started changing my passwords to all the sites I go to as soon as I realized the problem this morning.
Click to expand...
A couple of causes could be....

1) Depending on what system you're running, you might have unintentionally started from the system's "private window" or "private browser" (it has various names).

2) If you recently changed your browser, you forgot to import your passwords and stuff.

It's just as well you changed your passwords, but odds are you weren't hacked. Probably something went wonky on your computer.
 

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