Nowadays, most of the accounts and services we use are cloud-based and we have to use web browsers to access these services. In this article, we will discuss how to generate a secure password right from your browser. So let’s start with Google Chrome.
Secure password generator in Google Chrome
Google Chrome has a built-in secure password generator. It is enabled by default. If it is not enabled for you, you can follow the steps below to enable it: Once the password manager is enabled, you will see an additional context menu item when you right-click on any password field. Clicking on Suggest password… will show an automatically generated secure password for your usage. Clicking on the password will automatically fill the password fields along with the confirm password field. It will also synchronize the password to your logged-in Google account. The saved credentials are available where you have signed in to the same Google account. Whenever you have saved a password of a specific site in Chrome and you open the site again, you will see a lock sign in the address bar field. You can click on the lock sign to edit the credential details.
Secure Password Generator in Firefox
Firefox also comes with a built-in random password generator. It also saves the password in its own Lockwise password manager. The password generator in Firefox is enabled by default and it will suggest a random strong password as you click on the password field on any signup form. For example, I wanted to signup for gtmetrix.com account and here are the steps I took: Firefox secure password generator works for all HTML based forms. If the automatic password suggestion drop-down is not coming up for you, you can right-click inside the password field and select Fill password –> Use a securely generated password. Whenever you have saved a password of a specific site in Firefox and you open the site again, you will see a lock sign in the address bar field. You can click on the lock sign to edit the credential details.
Limitations of the built-in password managers of Chrome and Firefox
Although it’s very convenient to have a password manager built right into the browser they have certain limits. Limits like being unable to edit the password you saved first, unable to organize the credentials, etc. are where full-featured password managers come in. Password manager apps can synchronize credentials across different browsers and different platforms. If you use multiple platforms, then you should certainly be using a third-party full-featured password manager app instead of the built-in password managers.
Password Manager Apps for your browser
If you are not satisfied with the built-in password manager, you can use a third-party full-featured password manager. Here’s a list of some popular password managers: These password managers will do the job of automatically generating and saving a random secure password for each site you sign up or sign in. They will also let you organize your credentials information into folders and sub-folders. You will also be able to create auto-fill information of the fields other than username and password.
Online password generators
There are times when you only need to generate a random and secure password. If this is the only task, then you should be looking for online password generators. Let me list down some of the good online password generators here:
