Passwords are the keys to our digital lives, and it is essential to keep them secure. With so many passwords to remember, it’s easy to fall into the trap of using the same one for multiple accounts or writing them down on sticky notes. However, these practices are not secure and can put your personal data at risk.

In this blog post, we will explore how to save passwords securely in Windows using PowerShell. PowerShell is a powerful tool for managing Windows, and it can be used for password management as well. We will use the ConvertTo-SecureString cmdlet to encrypt the password and then save it as a string in a text file, which can be used by a scheduled task running as the user who needs it.

The first step is to open PowerShell and run the following script:

$password = ConvertTo-SecureString "password here" -AsPlainText -Force

# Get content of the string
[string]$stringObject = $password |  ConvertFrom-SecureString

@"
 [string]`$encPassword = "$($stringObject)"
 [SecureString]`$securePwd = `$encPassword  | ConvertTo-SecureString
 `$password = [System.Net.NetworkCredential]::new("", `$securePwd).Password
"@ | Set-Content -Path "cred.txt"

This script will create a text file named “cred.txt” containing the script to decrypt the password and the encrypted password. The contents will look similar to the following:

[string]$encPassword = "encrypted password"
[SecureString]$securePwd = $encPassword  | ConvertTo-SecureString
$password = [System.Net.NetworkCredential]::new("", $securePwd).Password

Place that code at the top of any PowerShell script you have scheduled, and it will be able to decrypt that password. If your scheduled tasks are running as a user that you can’t start, then use a scheduled task as that user to run the first script and get the code you need.

In conclusion, saving passwords securely is crucial to protecting your personal data. PowerShell provides a simple and effective way to do so in Windows. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can securely store your passwords and use them when needed.