This day in age, a certain recent OS started shipping with it’s own built-in password manager app – and as it turns out, there’s been a password manager app out for PowerPC for a little while! Version 3.5.15 was out in 2010, so this app certainly falls into the category of abandonware.

Password managers aren’t a new concept, although not everyone knows this exists for the PowerPC Mac platform. While this is downloadable on the PPCAppstore, when you google for “PowerPC Mac password manager”, anything but this shows up. Writing this piece offers an opportunity for our readers & some Googlers to find this!

• Link to app on the Macintosh Garden: 1Password for PowerPC (3.5.15) (23.77 MB)

Running it the first time

When you first launch the app, it’s gonna ask you if you want to import an old database or start a new one. Choose to start a new one, as you will be importing these passwords as you type them along or can manually enter them to the database as well. This app installs with a plugin, so it’s all automatic. Once you type in your password once, you can use the browser extension to fill the password back in – and it’ll even hit “login” for ya!

• 1Password fully supports major Web browsers, including Safari, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.
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• 1Password has received many awards:
  • 5 mice from Macworld magazine
  • MacLife Editors pick – was the Pick of Week on MacBreak Weekly by both Leo Laporte and Merlin Mann
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• Available for and syncs with iOS, Windows, and Android.

Once Setup

Once you have it going and install your browser extensions.. when you open the app it works similarly to how the modern macOS Sequoia password manager does! How about that?

(Above: 1password app in Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.8)

(Above: The OEM passwords app in macOS 15.0 Sequoia)

Remember: Immediately after you have it installed, it’s not just gonna go rummaging in your passwords database – you must go to a website where you need to enter a password and login. The password manager will save this, and next time you return to the site, simply use the browser extension to log back in.

• Once you use the browser extension to fill the password in, it does the rest for you.

Features and benefits

This isn’t just some old PowerPC app – there were fine details added to 1Password which give it a certain sheen not every app has such as:

• Hover your mouse cursor over any text box to highlight, click once to copy. Feels a pinch more modern than cut/copy/paste or using a keyboard shortcut. It’s the little things.
• You van check/uncheck whether you want a specific page to “remember me”.
• Every password has a mini-screenshot so you have a better idea which page it’s talking about.
• Tells you when the password was submitted and last modified.
• Password strength bar indicator
• Sort passwords by Title/Location/Date modified or created/type/tag/reverse order
• URL to specific site saved also

Settings you can change

1Password is flexible in how you can manage the app and what it does for you. Although it’s far past the point in time where the app can contact the server to sync, it’s still a great way to have all your passwords in one place if for some reason you’re keen on having a password manager on a PowerPC Mac running Mac OS X Leopard!

• Data file location
• Sidebar displayed icons
• Auto-lock timeout: Time setting, screensaver activation and sleep mode
• Disable auto-unlock for 1password or any application
• Check/uncheck prompting for paster password
• Clipboard timeout: auto-clear values after a certain time period
• Enable/disable auto-submitting after filling in
• Enable autosave of logins in browser
• Asks you for a name for new logins
• Custom auto-save block list for any website you want
• Automatic backups
• It works with growl (gives you system notifications like Mac OS X Lion)
• Uses caching to load data faster (can be disabled)
• Animations can be disabled if you want better performance
• You can use multi-threaded performance to turbo-charge your password manager. Literally.

In Conclusion

It’s another tool for the pockets of those still using Mac OS X for PowerPC, bringing it a little more up to speed for 2025.

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