Where is Windows App Autofill ? Keepass has it but cant find in 1Password.

K2342
K2342
Community Member

Hello.

Tech Savy 1 Password user here, running a family account. The setup in question is with the 1Password desktop App on Win10.
I have a desktop application that spawns a login screen, which I want to use 1Password to fill.

The login screen does not allow copy and paste of credentials, only manual type - so using 1Password's "click and drag" functions or simple Copy/Paste via Quick Access don't work. It's not in a web browser so browser autofill is also off the table.
I can't find any way to get 1Password to auto-fill to this application.

And yet - downloading a portable version of open-source KeePass has me up and running in on this in about 10 mins. Keepass, free and open source, allows me to target the window and autofill from its own DB.

Keepass works perfectly here, despite being open source and free. Why can't 1Password, which we pay a premium for, do this as well ? The code is literally freely available (depending on whatever KeePass's license is of course). Am I missing the functionality in 1Password somewhere ? Or is there some reason this wasn't implemented ?

It's a pain to have to keep KeePass around for basic functionality (Desktop App Autofill) that 1Password doesnt have. I'd like to use exclusively 1Password. Please advise. Thank you.


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
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Comments

  • Ekalb
    Ekalb
    Community Member
    edited February 2023

    Hello,
    Have you tried with the quick access?
    The explanations are here: https://support.1password.com/quick-access/

  • K2342
    K2342
    Community Member
    edited February 2023

    Hi Ekalb. Yes, I mentioned that in my original post. It's not the functionality I'm looking for - on Windows it doesnt do any form of autofill (see that same page link you referenced for details).

    With Keepass, I can autofill any target window in any application. It's open source and free - so I dont understand why 1Password for Windows cannot do this as well.

  • Tertius3
    Tertius3
    Community Member

    @K2342 you mentioned "click and drag" - actually, if you open some item in the 1Password desktop app, and drag some field from 1Password to the userid or password input field of the app you want to login, the data is autofilled. From Windows' point of view, the data is simulated keyboard input with this, not copy+paste, so it should work even if your app doesn't support pasting. Did you actually try this drag+drop operation?

  • K2342
    K2342
    Community Member
    edited February 2023

    Hi @Tertius3

    Yes, that’s exactly the click and drag operation I referenced in the OP. It doesn’t work properly in some applications, including the one I’m testing, due to it not always re-focusing on the app login properly. The result is that when you click and drag - the first 1-4 chars of the field are cut off - it happens consistently for me.

    So yes - I could be opening a bug report for that - but that’s not really a good solution anyway to me. It’s still a lot of manual work - you have to have 1P open in another window and click and drag each field. It’s fragile and not auto fill.

    With Keepass, you can have the app minimized and with a single keyboard shortcut - get it to auto type directly into multiple fields and then submit the form. You are able to configure the fields and windows for this auto-type behavior on an entry by entry basis. See the docs for Keepass version 2.x here if interested https://keepass.info/help/base/autotype.html . Version 2.x’s “Global Autotype HotKey” is the specific feature I’m using.

    1Password should have the capabilities to do this - especially since the Keepass code is open source and viewable as an example. It’s a true “Autofill” and I’m sure 1P is aware of this functionality - I’m wondering why 1P doesn’t include it on Windows. It’s the only autofill we need really.

    Keepass - for how powerful and secure it is - is not “pretty” and doesn’t have any cloud functionality since it’s a purely local application. So I end up using 1P for storage and then Keepass for auto type of specific entries - which is a pain because then I’m managing two copies of an entry (the original in 1P and a copy in Keepass). I want to just use 1P instead for the whole flow.

  • Ekalb
    Ekalb
    Community Member

    Hello,
    To avoid losing characters, position the mouse cursor to the left of the data you want to copy by "click and drag"

  • K2342
    K2342
    Community Member
    edited February 2023

    Hi Ekalb - Thanks, but no. Still buggy and dropping chars.

    But again, that feature is a shadow of what is really needed anyway. This thread is about a missing windows autofill functionality.

    I have discovered 1Password has something similar to it for Mac, but not Windows. They call it “Mac Universal Autofill”. For whatever reason it’s not available on Windows - so Keepass remains what I use here.

  • Hello @K2342,

    Sorry for the delay in reply. I appreciate the help here from the community!

    Another suggestion I'd like to offer is the Type in window functionality from 1Password 8 for Windows. Could you try right-clicking the username and password fields in 1Password > Type in window > [destination window], and let us know if this works better for you or not at all?

    With regard to drag and drop losing characters, we do have an issue opened with the team. Could you let us know what desktop application you are having troubles with so I can pass these details along to the team?

    Finally, regarding to the Windows equivalent Universal Autofill for Mac, this is on the Product team's roadmap, but I have no further news to share. Keep an eye on 1Password Releases for the latest updates and new features added to 1Password 8. Thanks!

    ref: dev/core/core#13810

  • K2342
    K2342
    Community Member

    Hi @ag_mike_d

    Thank you. No worries.

    Agreed - the dropping chars for click and drag really looked like a bug. Glad it's being looked at.

    "Type in Window" is nifty. I hadnt noticed that before (and must have missed it in the documentation? :-) ) - and it shows me that 1Password has already some of the functions needed for a Keepass-like Global Auto-fill on Windows. Being able to identify the windows available is big.

    But I see an issue there too. It actually doesnt work for me in this workflow. The list of windows available doesnt appear to have a close match to the window I want - it seems like it's having trouble identifying the window at all - and so nothing happens when I try it.
    My usecase is somewhat complex here. This login form is spawned by Brave Browser -> Citrix Workspace -> VMWare Horizon Client. So a few layers in. 1Password seems only able to recognize it as "Citrix Workspace" and no further.
    It is complex, but again free and open source Keepass handled it without issue and more completely (it autofills all fields and submits, while minimized, with a keyboard shortcut! ) - so it's certainly doable. I currently use Keepass to do this a couple times a day because the time and energy it saves really adds up when Im bouncing around different VMs.

    It's good to hear a 1Password Universal Autofill for Windows is in the works.
    "Type in Window" is a neat feature, and I like it more than the "Click and drag" - but it's also just a shadow of a real Universal Autofill. I dont quite understand why development resources are being spent on those essentially workarounds, instead of just funneling everything to a true Windows Universal Autofill (like Keepass for Windows has, and 1Password for Mac has). 1Password Windows Autofill to me would render "Type In Window" and "Click and Drag" obsolete and would help increase feature parity on your platforms (always a good goal in its own right).

  • ag_mike_d
    edited February 2023

    Hello again @K2342,

    Thanks for getting back to us with the details about your use case and giving type in window a try. VMWare is the issue here with type in window. I've had some recent conversations with our development team. We're currently tracking and looking into more cases of customers who are interested in this capability. I've included your details there for the team.

    ref: dev/core/core#20007

    At the end of the day, a Universal Autofill option for Windows should help in most cases. I'm sorry that I'm not able to share more details at this time.

    We appreciate the feedback!

  • K2342
    K2342
    Community Member

    @ag_mike_d - Sure thing.
    Yep, VMWare is often the issue ha, but again - Keepass does it and has shared their solution with the world - so the technical specs are out there. They just need ported into 1Password's framework.

    Yep - Windows Universal Autofill (like Mac) is what I as a user (and someone who manages family accounts and promotes 1Password to others) would like to see. Thanks for considering it.

  • You're most welcome, @K2342!

  • torsten1de
    torsten1de
    Community Member

    Hello @ag_mike_d,
    I have the same problem with VMware Horizon Client in multiple layers like @K2342. Is there an update to the current development?
    I recently switched from KeePass to 1Password and now I have to type my very safe passwords (length and complexity) by hand :(
    I would appreciate a solution to this issue very much.

    Thank you for your feedback :-)

  • Hello @torsten1de,

    Thanks for your message. I don't have any further details to share about a timeline, but added you to our internal issue filed with our team.

    We appreciate your patience while the team investigates.

    ref: dev/core/core#20007

  • Electronic
    Electronic
    Community Member
    edited April 2023

    Hello @ag_mike_d - Looking forward and excited to seeing this Universal Autofill option added for Windows as well. Do you happen to have any updates on when this may be added? I tried the type in window command but that seems to only be browser specific and I'm not seeing the option within the quick access menu, only the full 1password desktop app. Thanks for any insight even if it's something you can comment on yet. Will be really nice to be able to use this as a gamer that has multiple games require a log-in that currently requires a bunch of keyboard shortcuts from quick access to get the username and password input within the launcher.

  • Hi @Electronic, thanks for reaching out! We don't have any news to share about this at the moment, however you can keep an eye on our release notes to stay up to date with any changes: 1Password Releases - Windows

    You can access the Type in window option from Quick Access by using Ctrl + O to open the selected item in a new window, and then clicking the dropdown menu to the right side of credential fields.

    If you have any further questions or concerns, let us know 😄

This discussion has been closed.