Steve Cochran: Please help, Wmail Asks for account name and password

[Steve Marriott]

Steve,

I have two users set up in Vista and I have WMail accounts set up for each
user with remember user name and password checked in the account properties.

However, when ever one user logs off and the other logs on and starts WMail,
WMail asks for the user name and password before it will get mail from the
server.

Is there a way to make WMail use the user name and password in Account
properties instead of asking?

Thanks,

Steve Marriott

 

[Puppy Breath]

I'm not Steve Cochran but if you choose Remember Password after you
succesfully enter a password, it should work, regardless of how many user
accounts you have.

 

[Steve Marriott]

Hi Puppy Breath,

Thanks for the suggestion and for trying to help.

I have checked Remeber Password after every login and that doesn't fix the
problem.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

So the Remember Password automatically goes back to being unchecked?

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Steve Marriott]

Yes, when I log off and my wife logs on, she runs WMail and when it tries to
get the mail from the server, the window asking for the user name and
password opens and the Remember Password has become unchecked.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

It sounds like you and your wife have different Windows logons,
which means you and your wife's WinMail data and settings are
kept separate. So the fact that *you* set it to Remember Password
has no bearing on your wife's Remember Password status.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Steve]

When she is logged in, she has the remember pass word box checked too. So
when she logs out and I log into my account, WMail doesn't remember my
password.

I was wrong earlier, the remember password box stays checked but WMail
forgets the password.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I'm having trouble following you.
You say "the remember password box stays checked but WMail
forgets the password."
If the password is present in the password field, yet the server
keeps asking you for username and password, it means the
password is wrong or corrupted. I would delete the account,
close WMail, open it, and recreate the account. This should
clear any account corruption.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

When she is logged in, she has the remember pass word box checked too. So
when she logs out and I log into my account, WMail doesn't remember my
password.

I was wrong earlier, the remember password box stays checked but WMail
forgets the password.

I have no trouble following what you say, and that is not how it should
work..However, I don't think we have an answer yet in Vista's WinMail. Does
IE have the same problem with Web site passwords?

(I'm not sure that it forgets, rather than asking anyway.)

Try unchecking Remember Passwords, closing WinMail and checking it again.

 

[Steve Marriott]

Sorry about the miscommunication.

The box stays checked but the password disappears when one user signs off
and another signs on and starts WMail.

If I am logged on and shut down the computer the passwords are present the
next time I power up, log in and open WMail.

It appears to forget the passwords only when one user logs off and another
logs on.

 

[Steve Marriott]

Thanks for trying to help.

If this is the way WMail is supposed to work, this is another case where it
appears to differ from OE.

As far as IE and passwords, I use Roboform to fill in user names and
passwords so I don't know if IE has the same problem or not.

Anyone know if Outlook2007 would let me set up the same mail accounts for
each user, set a common message store folder and retain passwords when one
user signs off and another signs on?

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Let's see if I have this straight. User A has saved the email account password.
User A logs out. User B logs in. User B logs out. User A logs in and opens
WinMail. User A discovers that the password field is now empty.

Most peculiar! I didn't think there could be that much interaction between
different Windows users since the WinMail data store is separate.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Steve]

That is exactly what is happening. Since user A and B want to share all
messages but want to have other personalizations of their Vista environment,
I cannot have them both use the same log in. Having to enter username and
password every time a user logs in is a pain.

I wonder if Outlook 2007 would have this same quirk? I was going to
download the trial, but it looks like MS wants me to down load a trial
version of the complete Office package.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I doubt that Outlook would have the same quirk. Outlook and Windows Mail
were coded by separate Microsoft teams.

Even though you have to download all of Office 2007, the installer is
very flexible and will let you install just Outlook.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Steve Cochran]

Sorry not to get back here sooner. I was busy.

The problem is that you are trying to share the message store between user
logons. When you do this, the password which is encrpted into the
..oeaccount is different because the "seed" used for the encryption algorithm
is based upon the user logon. The result is that the encrypted password for
you and that for your wife, even with the same account settings, is
different and so when you switch users, then it fails and you get prompted.

See the section here that deals with sharing the message store:
www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#wm

The workaround is to backup the .oeaccount files for each of you into
different directories, and then before you start Winmail as each user
overwrite the .oeaccount files with the backed up versions.

Then you won't get prompted.

steve

 

[Steve Cochran]

See my response to him. They password encryption algorithm differs between
users, and he's trying to share the store between users, which is the issue.

steve

 

[Steve Marriott]

Thanks, Gary.

I'll try the download and try it tonight.

I seem to remember in XP and OE that there was a registry key for user
Identities and by changing each user's key to the one for my account,
everyone was able to share OE without having to input user name and password
whenever they log in.

Is there something like this in Vists and WMail?

 

[Steve Cochran]

See my reply. There's no way of doing it now without the workaround I
suggested.

steve

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Steve, I don't see any evidence that the OP has configured his PC
to share the Message Store between the two users.
Unless he took a specific action to share the Message Store,
wouldn't the Message Stores be separate for different users
with different Windows logons?
With two separate Message Stores, how can the mail passwords
interact?

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I'll pass your question to Steve Cochran or Frank Saunders since I'm
not familiar with using OE Identities.

The last paragraph in the Windows Mail section here:
http://www.oehelp.com/backup.aspx#wm
mentions sharing the Message Store with more than one user,
but that workaround has the 'forgetting passwords" issue.

Good luck on your Outlook 2007 trial.

Gary VanderMolen