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I was wondering if someone could please shed some light on how Windows 8 stores password or if it does at all? I believe that Windows 8 has more cloud features and that it goes by your Windows Live ID, so does that mean it uses the password for your Live ID for when you login?

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Windows 8 stores your password in nearly exactly the same way that Windows 7 does. – Ramhound Nov 13 '12 at 1:18
Password for What? – Moab Nov 13 '12 at 4:21
@Moab When you start Windows 8 and it asks for your login... – ub3rst4r Nov 13 '12 at 4:53
Can someone please give me a definitive answer? I use my MS account for my Windows 8 login... – ub3rst4r Nov 13 '12 at 4:56
Not sure but I assume it is encrypted in the SAM file like regular user accounts. – Moab Nov 13 '12 at 20:25

closed as not a real question by HackToHell, Synetech, Moab, 8088, ChrisF Nov 13 '12 at 12:08

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Windows 8 stores your password the same way Windows 7 does or recent versions did.

If you use a local account, nothing changed at all.

If you use Microsoft account, it works similar to a domain account. Your password to Live ID account is cached so that you can login Windows even if there's no Internet connection. Windows will synchronize the passwords when you're online.

Of course, your password to Microsoft account is used by Windows to authenticate on SkyDrive to synchronize your settings and, possibly, files. Thus it works seamless, and you're not required to enter your password yourself.

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Uhm, there were several ways of storing the user's password throughout the versions. Lanman, NTLMv1, NTLMv2 for a start. – Joey Nov 13 '12 at 6:51
Kerberos too, but don't think theres 'fallover' on Kerberos so I hazard a guess it's Kerberos with NTLM fallover – HaydnWVN Nov 13 '12 at 12:34
@HaydnWVN Kerberos is used in Active Directory domain, and falls back to NTLMv2. – Alexey Ivanov Nov 13 '12 at 13:14
@AlexeyIvanov Does that also apply to Windows RT with just the Live ID? – HaydnWVN Nov 13 '12 at 13:24
For the lazy: Where are Windows 7 passwords stored? – ignis Mar 12 at 14:01

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