[GUIDE] How To Backup And Restore Credentials In Windows 10

If you’ve an account, you must have its credentials as well – which can be used to manage the account. Windows have the built-in Credential Manager snap-in which stores your login identities. You can manage your credentials inside it by removing, creating their backup and restoring them from a backup.

The Credential Manager is our prime concern here because it stores passwords from your web surfing, your apps, your Desktop software like Microsoft Office etc. In this article, you’ll see step-by-step process for creating backup and restoring credentials from backup in this snap-in.

So without any further delay, let us see how to manage your credentials:

How To Backup And Restore Credentials In Windows 10

Part 1 – Creating Backup Of Credentials

1. Press  + R and type explorer shell:::{1206F5F1-0569-412C-8FEC-3204630DFB70} in the Run dialog box, hit Enter key to open Credential Manager snap-in.

See this fix if you can’t open Credential Manager in Windows 10.

2. Switch to Windows Credentials tab. Then click Back up Credentials link.

3. Now the backup wizard has started and in the below shown window, click Browse button to choose a backup location.

In Save Backup File As… window, you can choose a convenient location for storing backup and then click Next in above shown window.

4. Next, you’ll be asked to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE keys simultaneously to continue, hence do the needful.

5. Then in the next window, type in the password to protect the backup file. We suggest you to use complex password here because all your other credentials will only safeguarded if you choose tough password here. Click Next.

6. Finally, you’ll get the backup was successful message and you’re done. Click Finish to close the wizard.

In this way you can backup credentials. Now lets see how to restore credentials from this same backup.

Part 2 – Restoring Credentials From Earlier Created Backup

1. Open Credential Manager and switch to Windows/Web Credentials tabs, depending upon for which side you want to restore credentials. Click Restore Credentials link there.

2. Next, open the backup file in following window. The file must be having .crd extension.

3. Now you’ll be asked to press CTRL+ALT+DELETE keys to continue. Hence, press the key combination simultaneously and go ahead. Then in restoration wizard window, type in the password of this backup file. Click Next.

4. Once you clicked Next in above shown window, your credentials are restored. The confirmation window you get after successful restoration is shown below.

So this is all about from restoration point of view. This guide is summarized in following video:

Hope you find the guide useful! Go here to learn how to disable Credential Manager in Windows.