Enpass has officially launched Enpass Portable, version of the password manager that lives on a USB drive and is meant to make accessing your passwords easy from any computer. While the Enpass Portable was previously available to anyone through the password manager's beta program, this launch marks the end of the beta and the start of general availability.
What's interesting about Enpass Portable is that it allows you to have access to your stored passwords from any desktop platform. While that won't necessarily mean much if you use the Enpass mobile apps, it could come in handy for quickly snagging your login information on public machines, like those at a library. Enpass explains:
As the name suggests, a portable program is a software which requires no installation. Enpass Portable brings all the functionality of the Enpass desktop app with the ease of using it directly from your USB thumb drive.
You don't need any admin permissions to install Enpass… essentially, you don't even need to install it before using it. Just plug in the flash drive, launch the Enpass app, and remove when done. As easy as it sounds!
All you need to get started is Enpass Portable and a spare USB drive and you're good to go. If you're an Enpass user interested in trying out Enpass Portable, you can download it for free from Enpass now.
Reader comments
Enpass Portable now available to take your passwords on the go with any USB drive
Is this version the same as when this was in beta? I signed up for the beta and when I went to re-download the "official" release it looks like it's the same version.
Enpass is a great password manager. Glad for the portable version. The only thing I'd like them to add is the ability to customize the default sidebar items and their icons.
Pretty sure you can add/remove sidebar items in the UWP app, not sure about changing the icons though
Some people have voiced concern with plugging a USB drive with this app on it into a "sketchy" PC. Which is a valid concern, once you launch the app and put in your password, all or portions of you passwords will exist in memory unencrypted and could be swiped by malware on that PC.
However any properly managed corporate PC would most likely consider your USB drive to be sketchy and block any executable files, if not the entire drive from being accessible. At the least it doesn't work, at the worst you just got fired for not understanding your enterprise security policies.
It is a major headache every time someone releases a new app or device that is intended to be more convenient to users. I spend most of my time explaining to users that convenience usually comes with security risks that we cannot accept around our business data.
I prefer Keeper.
Business, personal, and family plans (5 users).
Unlimited password storage
Unlimited devices + sync
Unlimited secure cloud backup
Unlimited secure record sharing
10GB Secure File Storage
Fingerprint login (Andoid,IOS)
Web app
24/7 support
Redesigned UI for Windows 10 using new Microsoft UWP Platform
Continuum support for Windows Phone
Real-time record sync with notifications
Shared folder support allowing the sharing of records across your personal folders with other Keeper users
Enhanced account management providing account summary and recovery
Measure your password strength and security score with new security audit features
You can mark and filter your favorite folders and records
Platforms include((iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android, Kindle, Nook, Surface, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Desktop App, Web App, Windows 10 App). First year I got half off. Family plan price was worth it to me to have this user/device/platform flexibility and the ability to store 10gb (or more-paid) of files encrypted. The interfaces are intuitive. I have it installed on my 950XL, Nexus 5x, Surface 4, Desktop. It's a mature, fun (if you can call this kind of needed utility fun), professionally developed and maintained product that I feel after trying 1password, Password Padlock, Last Pass, Key Pass 2, OneLocker, enpass, offers the best protection, full functionality and features, intuitive interface, and value. One downside is no Edge extension, yet. But this is promised from their comments in the Windows Store.
Anything that involves storing your passwords on another companies server can be a big problem for some users. Until Enpass I just used KeePassX as I have full control over the encrypted database
What if you forget to remove the thumb drive and leave the computer? Isn't your passwords exposed?
If it's using a similar approach to their other apps, which I think it is... Then it will lock after a minute of not using the app (default option) and require your password to open the software and view the files. The files stored are all encrypted too, which means that you're secure as long as nobody opens the app within a minute if you leaving the computer.
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
You specify how long the program and/or PC may remain idle before Enpass locks itself up and requires you to reenter the password. It's really no different from the lock screen on the PC. If you leave your desk, you first make sure the OS is locked. Enpass will then also be locked.
These folks are great. Love their product and commitment to it
Lastpass is still the one to beat. Tried Enpass, not impressed.
In what way?
That the app is now portable is a big step forward! What still completely sucks is their UI. A more professional approach would separate the core application from the UIs (browser plugins and the app UI itself). We could then add the core application to the Windows startup sequence, so it would always start together with Windows but not always pop open the UI which is almost never what we want (once the passwords are entered, most people use Enpass only from the browser plugin). That's the big one. Their main UI also has a dozen or so usability issues that should be improved upon, but I won't get into those here.
Ok makes sense. I use it differently. mainly to centralize account info to share with my wife and her devices and my devices. For that it's perfect. We still use roboform for browser auto-fill
Prefer LastPass myself, Edge extension works well too, even better than the plugin on IE11. Just wish they would update the Windows App to be more like the web version of the vault.
All I'm waiting for.is the edge extention. I wonder why its taking so long.
There is a beta, works quite well
How do we get the beta?
The details are on their website.
There was an article about this already, but basically the APIs for the UWP apps im general isn't fully read so it can't work yet or at least in the official way. So they said they are keeping it a beta until Microsoft finished the API. Right now extensions only work with the desktop app open.
Well, this is how chrome extension currently works (requiring desktop app running). I don't understand why they require new APIs in UWP app. They could release the extension by requiring the desktop app that I have installed and running anyway (for chrome extension).
You're assuming that Edge extensions work identically to Chrome extensions....Edge extensions may not officially allow any interaction outside the browser right now
For any KeePass users out there wanting a UWP app to open their .kbdx files, check out PassKeep on Windows Store. Nice little app and very approachable developer on reddit.com/r/passkeep. If you enjoy it don't forget to donate, report bugs and spread the word.
Is it better than 7Pass? My main gripe is 7Pass was made for Windows 8 and it hasn't been updated since.
Also, does it support Windows Hello for unlocking the database?
Definitely better than 7Pass. Windows Hello is supported, though I have not tried that. Works with KeePass files stored on OneDrive, if you want to do that, which does make it easy to use across all your devices.
Remember using Hello means also allowing the database to be opened with the devices PIN (due to the way MS lets us use Windows Hello)
So make sure the PIN is hard to guess and preferably long
Digging it...
Am I the only one that thinks plugging a USB drive with all your passwords into random computers is a little risky? I just don't get this.
Especially when enpass has Onedrive back up built in....
I don't get a lot about this one password for all things concept. To me it doesn't seem safe, then again use simular passwords for most things, so I guess I shouldn't judge.
It's not really unsafe as long as you know how to protect the database. What is unsafe is if you are using the same password on every website you register in, this password manager prevents that from happening.
not just the USB but using an app to store all your passwords is a very BAD idea no matter what the company claims its never safe enough to trust anybody
If the database is encrypted with a good algorithm (like AES256) you have no reason to worry, what's important is that they don't keep a copy of your database on their servers (like Enpass or LastPass do, for example).
Anyways, using a password manager of any kind is still more secure than using the same password everywhere
Enpass doesn't keep a copy on their server. It's all stored locally. You can however use your own cloud storage like OneDrive or Google Drive as a storage medium, if you choose this method an encrypted file is stored on them servers.
All in all its very secure as long as your main password is secure. Without that it would take more than a lifetime to crack. Enpass is a lot more secure than LastPass.
Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
You can also use things like OwnCloud too I believe, so it can be on a private cloud for sync/backup if you wish too
Thanks for the clarification, I was thinking about LastPass when I mentioned the db being on 3rd party servers and I assumed Enpass was doing it as well (I thought their browser extension used that method to keep the db synced with the one used by the app on the various devices)
Nope. Enpass uses the desktop application to provide the browser extension passwords for specific websites. So when you need to use the browser extensions you need to have the desktop application running in the background.
But, as you mentioned LasPass does use an online database, which is why LastPass already has a working Edge extention. Due to the nature of Enpass not having a database online to store passwords they seem to be running into an issue creating a link between the Edge extension and the desktop application, which is slowing development. But the main advantage of the model they are using is that the user is in complete control of their data and it's more secure. You can choose if you want everything stored online or locally.
Hope that helped :)
It is risky, but only because an unknown PC may have keyboard loggers or something similar installed, which could be used to intercept your master password. The fact that all your passwords are stored in an encrypted file on the stick is irrelevant though. You could host that password file on a publicly accessible website and still be absolutely safe.
I just launch 1password on my phone to look up a password when needed.
I could see using this on my work pc though.
Partially answered already, but the point is to have the actual enpass program portable so you could say plug it in to your friends computer without having to install enpass directly to his computer. The data is still encrypted and syncs to OneDrive so no, you're not just leaving your passwords on a USB drive for anyone to see.
Hi @BryceMD,
Yes, plugging a USB Drive with all your passwords into random computers is a little risky. So we always recommend our users to use Enpass Portable only on trusted computers.
The Enpass portable version is specially developed on the requests of those users who reported that they want to use Enpass app, but they can't use it due to system administrative rights. So we came with Enpass Portable solution, a standalone app that offers all the functionality of the Enpass desktop app and doesn't require any installation. You can use Enpass freely anywhere i.e. at work or at a library without any restriction. The same thing is being discussed here at Enpass forums: https://discussion.enpass.io/index.php?/topic/3-portable-windows-version/.
But there are few things that you should keep in mind before using Enpass Portable. It's designed on certain requests and for exclusive purposes. So if you want to use Enpass on your personal desktops (maybe 2 or 3), then we strongly recommend to use Enpass desktop App only.
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Although in case if you can relate yourself with any of the following conditions, Enpass Portable is for you.
There's another benefit to this as well. I occasionally clean install Windows. That means reinstalling software (which I hate). If you store portable apps on a separate drive or partition however, then that isn't necessary, as portable apps don't need to be (re)installed! I can now also use Enpass in that way. Thanks!
Any chance you could split the desktop client into a small, native (portable c/c++), headless, core application AND a separate UI? This way, adding the core application to the windows startup sequence wouldn't noticeably slow down the boot process and, most importantly, wouldn't always pop open the application UI. Like most people, 95% of the time I use Enpass from the browser, in which case the application UI only gets in the way. On desktops the application UI really should be a separate executable.