Password, countersign. By its intrinsic resonance one can clearly learn that they are not for everyone. And that only certain privileges allow you to know such a word which opens in its turn the door to other privileges. Over the centuries we have learned that a password is the forbidden fruit everybody longs for and that we should keep it as secret as possible.

A password can take many "faces". It can be a single word, a phrase, an expression or an image. A password can be anything from what I know. But one thing is certain: a countersign is secret and it is also the key to a bigger secret.

If you look on the Internet you will find that there are lots of applications designed to store your passwords for you. You tend to set up a password that is easy to remember and personal things are generally easy to remember. Hence the insecurity provided by the password. However, the softwares I am talking about are designed to create passwords for you. The parameters can be set by the user and so is the length.

Olaf Koch Software has developed an easy to use password manager that also comes to a reasonable price for some of the users. The cost of the application reaches $18.50 and the trial period offered by the developer will fully let you test all the features for a period of 30 days. It is more than enough time to test the application.

The application is very easy to use once you get the hang of it. It is even equipped with a password generator that can be configured to create a password of up to 55 characters and using almost all the signs on the keyboard (small and capital letters, numbers or the special characters).

The interface is somehow arid and lacks in color and options that allow the user to store countersigns for all sort of data, not only websites. I thought that this can be changed in the Options menu and that I would also get the chance of adding some new fields by myself. Unfortunately, what you see is what you get in this case and the software has no ace hidden up the sleeve.

In the Options menu there are only two tabs (Program and Passwords) that contain very few options. Program tab for instance provides two sets of options: one for starting the program and one for the top window. In Passwords things are less "complicated" and the user can choose to show or to hide the passwords so as they appear as a row of asterisks and the amount of time for the passwords to remain in the buffer (15, 30, 45 or 60 seconds). After the time expires, the passwords will be automatically deleted. Do not get alarmed, as the buffer I am talking about here is Windows'. That is when copying the password, for how long should it be stored in the clipboard.

There are three windows available from the main application screen. The first one is called Survey and it will simply display the name, website, username, password and comments. According to your setting in the Options menu the passwords will be visible or not.

In Records, the user can add more data to the password collection. In here is the Password generating tool also. By clicking the arrows at the bottom of the window you can browse through all the records and edit them. Top Window is the abridged version of Survey, but it allows the user to copy both the username and the password. It does not matter if the passwords are visible or not because using the "Copy" function available will work just fine. Test it by pasting the asterisks into a text editor.

The Good

It is easy to use and is equipped with pretty minimal options that will not pose any problems. It will do the job no questions asked.

The Bad

The trial version will not let the user begin a new database from scratch. Also, displaying the error messages in German does not add value to the software either.

The fact that you are not provided with the opening password to the demonstration database is also a drawback.

The lack of flexibility constitutes another downside of the software. Thus, the user can store only website login passwords and usernames. If you want to keep safe an account number or the PIN to a card then choose an application like Password Manager XP.

The Truth

Given the options provided by the application, the price is a bit too much for me. But you should give it a try and see what it can and what it cannot do for you. Judge for yourselves and make the right decision.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: