Ondrej Sevecek's English Pages

We have the password reveal button (aka show password button) in most password entry GUIs since Windows 8. It is the small eye icon showing at the end of password entry edit boxes which, when you mouse-click onto it, reveals the currenlty typed password which would normally be hidden under the stars or dots. People like to lookup the value in order to prevent failed password attempts especially when the computer is configured with several national keyboards or just to be sure. Internet Explorer have had the button included since its version 8 regardless of Windows version.

Is there a keyboard shortcut that would allow you to display the password as you type instead of leaving the keyboard and scrabble around for the mouse? Moreover we server oriented geeks sometimes do not even have mouse available at all.

How to display the password using a keyboard shortcut

Yes there is. Only since Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016. But finally.

Alt-F8

On the other hand, secure corporate environments may, according to some information security standards such as the ISO/IEC/EN/CSN 27001/27002, need to disable the password reveal button completelly. As people get accustomed to always showing their password for prior confirmation, they may forget about others watching. There are also survailence cameras etc.

How to disable the password reveal button

There is a Group Policy setting to disable this option available ever since the button exists (Windows 8 and latter). You will find it in a GPO (Group Policy Object) exactly here:

Computer Configuration
  Policies
    Administrative Templates
      Windows Components
        Credential User Interface
          Do not display the password reveal button

and

Computer Configuration
  Policies
    Administrative Templates
      Windows Components
        Internet Explorer
          Security Features
            Do not display the password reveal button

If you want to disable the show password button both in general user interface and in Internet Explorer you simply Enable both settings. It applies to the new Edge browser as well.