How to delete a saved password

Have you saved a password on your computer that you didn’t mean to? Find out how to delete login details from a web browser to keep your accounts secure.

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Q. Travis
I’m 64, and not exactly brilliant on the tech front. My wife has realised that I’ve saved a user name and password on my laptop for one of our bank accounts. As she’s pointed out, if someone stole my laptop, they could go to that bank URL and wreak havoc. But we can’t make the password go away. Help, please!

A. Most browsers are incredibly quick to offer to remember our login details, which can be fantastic as it saves us remembering each and every password by logging us in automatically. However, there are some websites where you just don’t want your passwords saved, especially for bank accounts, as you’ve discovered, Travis! To remove saved passwords from a web browser, follow the steps below for the relevant browser.

Firefox

1. Open browser.
2. Open the menu on the far right of the toolbar (it should be represented by three lines, next to where you type a web address in the search bar).
3. Click on ‘Options’.
4. In the left pane, click on ‘Security’.
5. Click on the ‘Saved Logins’ button.
6. You can individually select passwords that you want to remove by highlighting them and then clicking the ‘Remove’ button, or you can delete all of them by clicking on the ‘Remove All’ button.
7. To prevent any passwords being saved in the future, uncheck the ‘Remember logins for sites’ field.

Google Chrome

1. Open browser.
2. Open the menu on the far right of the toolbar (it should be represented by three dots or lines, next to where you type a web address in the search bar).
3. Click on ‘Settings’.
4. At the bottom of the page, click on ‘Show advanced settings …’.
5. Under ‘Passwords and forms’, select ‘Manage passwords’.
6. Remove any password/s you don’t want saved by highlighting the relevant site and clicking the ‘X’ on the right of the link.

Internet Explorer

1. Open browser.
2. Open the ‘Tools’ menu.
3. Select ‘Internet options’, and click on ‘Content’.
4. Under ‘AutoComplete’, select ‘Settings’.
5. Click on ‘Manage Passwords’, and then click ‘Web Credentials Manager’.
6. Use the dropdown arrow next to the relevant website and click ‘Remove’.
7. You can delete all the previously saved passwords by choosing ‘Delete AutoComplete History’.

Microsoft Edge

1. Open browser.
2. Open the ‘More actions’ menu on the far right corner of the toolbar (it should be represented by three dots).
3. Click on ‘Settings’.
4. At the bottom of the page, click on ‘View advanced settings’.
5. Under ‘Privacy and services’, click on ‘Manage by saved passwords’.
6. Remove any password/s you don’t want saved by clicking the ‘X’ next to them.

Safari

1. Open browser.
2. Under the drop down menu in the top toolbar, click on ‘Preferences’.
3. Select the ‘AutoFill’ tab.
4. Click on the ‘Edit …’ button next to ‘User names and passwords’.
5. Delete any password/s you don’t want saved by highlighting them and clicking the ‘Remove’ button in the bottom right-hand corner of the window.

Have you ever saved a password in a web browser for an account? If so, do you think it’s a useful feature, or do you worry about security issues?

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Why Firefox is the best browser
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