Why would passwords (Outlook, Win Live Mail, Skype etc) be lost upon restart?

I've noticed that with almost every restart (not all) of Vista SP1 x86 that
certain programs lose their passwords: Outlook 2007, Windows Live Mail,
Skype, AIM, and one or two others (not IE).

Since Protected Storage is read-only[1] in Vista, I take it that all these
programs use the newer Data Protection API[2].

Question: Why does this happen and what can be done about it? It's quite
annoying to have to re-enter all the passwords each time you boot, though as
long as I don't reboot the apps remember them perfectly (this isn't the old
"Outlook doesn't remember my password" problem).

I've seen some advice to delete the contents of this folder (there about 10
small files in it dating back over the last several months), but I'm not
sure it applies in this case.
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Protect

[1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb432403.aspx
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_protection_API

Thanks

Never had that problem here. I would suggest something got into your machine
or scrambled needed stuff. I would run an SFC /scannow and then if that
doesnt fix it, uninstall Office 2007, reboot and install it again. The only
time I had passwords not working was with Outlook 2002 and Vista. It wont
remember the passwords with that version.

"Milhouse Van Houten" <> wrote in message
news:%...
> I've noticed that with almost every restart (not all) of Vista SP1 x86
> that certain programs lose their passwords: Outlook 2007, Windows Live
> Mail, Skype, AIM, and one or two others (not IE).
>
> Since Protected Storage is read-only[1] in Vista, I take it that all these
> programs use the newer Data Protection API[2].
>
> Question: Why does this happen and what can be done about it? It's quite
> annoying to have to re-enter all the passwords each time you boot, though
> as long as I don't reboot the apps remember them perfectly (this isn't the
> old "Outlook doesn't remember my password" problem).
>
> I've seen some advice to delete the contents of this folder (there about
> 10 small files in it dating back over the last several months), but I'm
> not sure it applies in this case.
> %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Protect
>
> [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb432403.aspx
> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_protection_API
>
> Thanks
>

"Hugh Jeego" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Never had that problem here. I would suggest something got into your
> machine or scrambled needed stuff. I would run an SFC /scannow and then if
> that doesnt fix it, uninstall Office 2007, reboot and install it again.
> The only time I had passwords not working was with Outlook 2002 and Vista.
> It wont remember the passwords with that version.
>
> "Milhouse Van Houten" <> wrote in message
> news:%...
>> I've noticed that with almost every restart (not all) of Vista SP1 x86
>> that certain programs lose their passwords: Outlook 2007, Windows Live
>> Mail, Skype, AIM, and one or two others (not IE).
>>
>> Since Protected Storage is read-only[1] in Vista, I take it that all
>> these programs use the newer Data Protection API[2].
>>
>> Question: Why does this happen and what can be done about it? It's quite
>> annoying to have to re-enter all the passwords each time you boot, though
>> as long as I don't reboot the apps remember them perfectly (this isn't
>> the old "Outlook doesn't remember my password" problem).
>>
>> I've seen some advice to delete the contents of this folder (there about
>> 10 small files in it dating back over the last several months), but I'm
>> not sure it applies in this case.
>> %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Protect
>>
>> [1] http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb432403.aspx
>> [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_protection_API
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>
A similar thing happened to me when I removed the logon password. All the
mail user names and passwords were erased. Had to re-enter all of them.
Avraham