Awesome Password Generator

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on August 07, 2012

When a Web site or app rejects your password as weak, the wrong length, or containing the wrong characters, don't swear and start adding stuff to an existing (and expired) password; download and run Awesome Password Generator instead. This simple, free tool from InfoPro quickly creates strong, random passwords and WPA passphrases of just the right length, type, and number of characters, and other parameters you set. But it doesn't just generate random strings of characters; its algorithms can create strong passwords that aren't difficult to type or that omit confusing characters such as 0 (zero) and O (capital "o"). It can copy passwords to the Windows clipboard automatically and clear them on exit, and even generate bulk passwords. Awesome Password Generator is open-source freeware.

Awesome Password Generator's ultracompact, dialog-style user interface expands from a simple menu view into a series of simple (and essentially identical) tools for generating passwords or WPA passphrases for Wi-Fi devices, covering Password, WPA (Wi-Fi), Single password generation, Bulk password generation, and Command Line Builder, an extra feature for advanced users. It automatically builds scripts based on your settings in the GUI. We stuck to the basic password and passphrase tool, though. Awesome Password Generator is extremely easy to use: set password length (to three digits); case, numbers, and special characters (including a user-defined character set option) and select check boxes for easy-to-type passwords, to exclude confusing characters, and to automatically copy and clear passwords in the clipboard. Prominent Refresh and Copy buttons are the only controls. Awesome Password Generator also rates the strength of the passwords and passphrases it creates, which might save you some time. The WPA tool let us specify a 265-bit WPA key. The bulk password and command line tools will be of interest to net admins and advanced users, but most regular folks can ignore them.

Awesome Password Generator doesn't store or manage your passwords; it just generates them. But it certainly takes care of the frustrating problem of creating strong, safe passwords that are relatively easy to type and even to remember, and it saves a lot of time in the process, too.