Subrosa

With most services requiring you to create a strong, different password and have it remembered to be able to access your data, it gets really difficult to keep track of all your credentials. Luckily, specialized computer applications such as Subrose give you the possibility to keep login details safe and sound in an encrypted file.

The application is portable, which gives birth to a few good consequence. For starters, you don't have to go through a setup process. What's more, the PC you run it on remains intact, with little system resources used and the possibility to take it anywhere you go.

In terms of design, the interface is plain and simple, with no shiny elements to distract you. The workspace is split into two panels to cleverly differentiate the two application components, namely the password database and the generator.

As mentioned above, you can store names and passwords for any type of account. This comes in handy, especially for services that force you to use a specific password. Although not mandatory, an upper field can be filled in to add an extra layer of security over your database. Writing down a master key allows the application to use the Blowfish algorithm to encrypt your data, while granting access to it only if the key is provided.

All entries are stored in a list, with no info displayed other than the name. Adding details is as easy as writing down the password and additionally the target service name or simple remark so you know where it's used. There's also a button to have all generated passwords imported and this brings us to the second component.

Based on a small number of configurations, the application is capable of generating up to a thousand different passwords that combine up to 255 characters. These can be symbols, numbers or alphabet characters, but no option to specify letter casing. Hitting the “Generate” button instantly creates multiple different security keys to use.

Unfortunately, when saving the file it's only exported under the application specific format, which means it's only accessible through the main window. It's a shame there's no possibility to at least save all passwords to a plain TXT file, although this is only for security reasons.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Subrosa might not look like much, but it's a simple, straightforward method of storing different credentials in a safe database. Flexibility is not the application's strongest point, but simplicity makes it practical enough, with the whole process taking a little while, especially with the help of the built-in generator.