Enable Password URLs in Internet Explorer 8 (Windows 7, 64 Bit)

Have you ever received a link like the one below for a website where the user name and password is incorporated in to the URL?

Example: http://username:password@websiteaddress.com/

When clicked these URLs take you to a website and automatically log you in to it.

In older versions of Internet Explorer it used to just work, however in the IE7 and above Microsoft have disabled the feature for security reasons.

However this can be re-enabled if required by a simple registry fix.

• First load regedit (START - RUN - type regedit - Click OK.)

• navigate to: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME_PASSWORD_DISABLE]

• Create two new DWORD values called the "IExplore.exe" and "explorer.exe" set with the value of "0".

• Reboot your computer

The URLs should now work. You can add other Web browsers to this registry key just by adding its ".exe" to the list.

For example:

Maxthons = maxthon.exe
Mozilla Firefox = firefox.exe

Alternatively, copy the following in to notepad and save as iepasswordfix.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\MAIN\FeatureControl\FEATURE_HTTP_USERNAME_PASSWORD_DISABLE]
"wmplayer.exe"=dword:00000001
"ehExtHost.exe"=dword:00000001
"iexplore.exe"=dword:00000000
"explorer.exe"=dword:00000000

Run the file to import the information in to your registry. Remember to backup before you begin.

Further Reading