PassPack for the Desktop!

I've made no secret of my unabashed enthusiasm for password manager PassPack. Of all the apps I've tried and reviewed, PassPack is probably the one that gets used most throughout the day, simply because of the enormous number of accounts I need to wrangle as part of this job.

One problem that I've had frequently, however, is the lack of either an offline or mobile version. There's been many a time when I'm sitting at a soccer game or at a dance rehearsal trying to access some application on my tiny little RAZR, and can't remember a password. When PassPack's Tara Kelly told me that they were in the process of building out a desktop version, I jumped at the chance to give it a try.

Like all the cool kids in Web 2.0, PassPack Desktop is now on Adobe Air. A Google Gears beta version has been out for a while now, but Air makes it possible for those of us with incompatible systems to enjoy the benefits as well. The Air version takes advantage of all the nifty cool UI changes that PassPack has implemented over the past several months, and as long as you can run Air Apps, you can use it. The Offline version features an MD5 Checksum feature to verify the copy you've downloaded, and all the same security features, including double log-in, hidden password text, and strong password generation.

I've already submitted my feedback to the PassPack team (mainly that a compact version would be even better, since it does take up a lot of screen real estate), but mainly, this is the most welcome development to one of my most heavily used apps. A Linux version is coming soon (currently works on both Mac and PC), and some features of the online version don't work in an offline version (for example, auto-login, because you'd have to be online to do that).