Windows 10 can’t remember passwords for some users, Microsoft has confirmed. Here’s the 5 step workaround.
Windows 10 users have complained about apps, including Outlook, OneDrive, Chrome and Edge, forgetting their passwords since the May 2020 update. That update to Windows 10 2004 happened back in April, yet the password problem still remains.
Luckily, there is a solution, albeit a workaround one, rather than an actual operating system update fix. Still, that’s better than waiting until Microsoft issues a proper patch seeing as we have no idea of when that might be. I have reached out to Microsoft and will update this article if I hear more.
The Windows 10 password memory bug
Although the bug doesn’t affect the Windows 10 login itself, nor does it impact every user, it is a significant problem for those who are caught up in the operating system password memory issue.
App username and password credentials are required every time Windows is rebooted.
Password prompts every time a PDF is being loaded.
There are even reports of password managers requiring a master password when they are configured to use a fingerprint.
What has Microsoft confirmed so far?
Microsoft is aware of the problem, as a November 6 Outlook for Microsoft 365 support update posting confirmed.
“After installing Windows 10 Version 2004 Build 19041.173 and related updates you find that Outlook and other applications do not remember your password anymore,” Microsoft said.
Notably, while not giving any idea of when a fix will be made available, it does seem that Microsoft knows what is happening, at least.
Rather vaguely, the support posting confirms that the password memory problem “occurs when some Windows 10 Task Scheduler Tasks are configured in a certain way.”
Here’s how to fix the Windows 10 password memory problem in 5 steps
So, given that a permanent fix isn’t available yet, what can Windows 10 users do to prevent this from happening every time they reboot their device?
Microsoft has come up with a workaround that, as you probably will have guessed, involves disabling tasks using the Task Scheduler.
1. Select Windows Powershell (as admin) from the Windows 10 start button after a right-click.
2. Paste the following into Powershell:
Get-ScheduledTask | foreach { If (([xml](Export-ScheduledTask -TaskName $_.TaskName -TaskPath $_.TaskPath)).GetElementsByTagName(“LogonType”).’#text’ -eq “S4U”) { $_.TaskName } }
3. Press enter and note any Tasks that are listed in the output that follows.
4. Open Windows Task Scheduler and disable those tasks by right-clicking on each one.
5. Restart Windows 10.
And that should be it, although Microsoft does state that the missing passwords may need to be entered one final time, after which they should be saved OK.