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Suggestion: Password Protect Log Viewer
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Dex Luther
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O.P. Suggestion: Password Protect Log Viewer
Currently I can password protect offline logs, and the online logs are password protected through the website. However if I open up the log viewer and click on the Online logs option, they all appear. No password. Completely unprotected.

As it is now, a guest can get on my computer, log into his WLM account, open the log viewer, and have access to all the conversations I've had.

It's not that I don't trust my guests, but I know sometimes curiosity gets the better of us.  I also don't want to be one of those people that allows someone to use the computer and then watches over their shoulder the whole time.

My quick solution would be to add a check in the preferences & options panel in the passwords section:

- Also protect Log viewer

This would prompt the user for the password they set to protect their preferences.

Alternatively, the option could be placed in the logs section of the preferences, and prompt the user for the encryption password when trying to access the "Online" section of the Log Viewer.

Or maybe prompt them for the MyPlus account password associated in the preferences.

This post was edited on 03-22-2011 at 07:09 AM by Dex Luther.
03-22-2011 07:00 AM
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CookieRevised
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RE: Suggestion: Password Protect Log Viewer
quote:
Originally posted by Dex Luther
As it is now, a guest can get on my computer, log into his WLM account, open the log viewer, and have access to all the conversations I've had.
No he can't.
At least not as such. Because the Log Viewer will try to open the MyPlus! account of that guest in that case, not your MyPlus! account. The credentials of the MyPlus! account are stored per user.


However, he could copy the appropiate registry settings from your Windows Live Id to the registry settings of his Windows Live Id and get access in that way.

To prevent that, simply disable the option "Connect me automatically to Messenger Plus! website" (in Passwords > MyPlus!), while keeping "Enable online chat logging" (in Logs > Chat logging) enabled.

This will prompt you with a password dialog box each time you open the Log Viewer and each time you open a chat window (very annoying though).

But it would be nice if that login and password is remembered as long as you are signed in into Messenger though, so that you don't need to enter it each time you open the Log Viewer, or open a chat window, so that online logging would still be possible.

Also note that your suggestion of protecting the Log Viewer itself wont do any good either and will make everything even worse (more passwords to remember while having no additional security whatsoever).

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A trick to at least remember your MyPlus! login email (so that you at least don't need to enter that each time you open the Log Viewer) is:
1) Enable "Connect me automatically to Messenger Plus! website" in Passwords > MyPlus!
2) Fill in your MyPlus! login and password.
3) Open your registry editor
4) Navigate to HKCU\Software\Yuna Software\Messenger Plus!\Windows Live Messenger\<your windows live id>\Preferences
5) Remove the key MyPlusPwd.

Each time you open the log viewer now, and it prompts you for your MyPlus! credentials, the email will already be filled in.

However, note that as soon as you open the Preferences & Options of Plus! and you open up the Passwords > MyPlus! panel, Plus! will refuse to save your new preferences as long as you didn't enter the password. So, when you do the above trick, make sure you don't open the Passwords > MyPlus! panel. You can open and change stuff on any other panel though, Plus! will save it. In essence this can be seen as a bug I suppose. So this might get fixed in the future, meaning you wont be able to do this trick anymore then.

But also note that this trick (prefilled email address) wont work when you open a new chat with someone though (again an inconsistancy/bug). In that case you again need to fill in both your email and password. However, you do have the option to "Remember me" in that dialog box. But selecting that option will store you password in the registry again (though, encrypted of course). Aka: it will always be remembered again ("Connect me automatically to Messenger Plus! website" will be enabled again), it is not to remember the credentials for just the current Messenger session.

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In short: it is already possible what you ask for. However, in that case, you need to fill in your MyPlus! credentials each time it is needed (when opening the log viewer or when opening a chat window); the credentials wont be remembered during a Messenger session. Which can be a very big annoyance.

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Imo, that whole MyPlus! credentials system should realy be looked at again and be changed. The Log Viewer even crashed again (with build 706) when it asked for my credentials (when "Connect me automatically to Messenger Plus! website" was disabled) and tried to connect to my MyPlus! account. :/

This post was edited on 03-22-2011 at 08:25 AM by CookieRevised.
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03-22-2011 07:23 AM
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