Technical Writing ToolBox

Program Name: KeePass

Use: Password manager

Cost: Free (Open Source)

Version: Classic and Professional (based on .NET architecture) Edition. Read comparison chart for more details.

Works on:

Classic Edition: Windows 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 7 / 8 / Wine, each 32-bit and 64-bit.

Professional  Edition: Windows 98 / 98SE / ME / 2000 / XP / 2003 / Vista / 7 / 8, each 32-bit and 64-bit, Mono (Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, …)

Download Link: http://keepass.info/download.html

I love open source software (writing this blog post using firefox). They usually provide very good features at a very affordable price- for free, and I love this price!

I’ve been using Keepass for a number of years and love what it provides- peace of mind! Keepass is a free, open source password manager that allows you to save your password in its highly secure database.

Technical Writer (in fact, all IT professionals) needs to create different passwords for accessing different websites and IT services. The problem becomes worse when these password needs to be periodically changed after every few weeks.

KeePass is an excellent way of managing a complete directory of passwords and other confidential information.

KeePass’s wealth of options can be noticed right from the start. You only need to create one master password to access the database and you can store hundreds of passwords, bank account details, Social Security Number and other confidential information. You can also use a file as an encryption key, or a combination of a password and a file for additional security.

KeePass encrypts the complete database, i.e. not only your passwords. This means that your master password, all the usernames, passwords, notes and other information you add gets encrypted using AES or Twofish 128-bit block size and 256-bit key size.

The file size of the database (kdbx) is only few kilobytes which can be easily shared through email or stored in a USB drive with another machine.