saved dial-up password display

[michaeljbrooks 0]

I have installed Windows XP Professional on three computer systems, and there is one consistently annoying bug which I would like to remedy.

When setting up an Internet Service Provider dial-up connection, the password can be saved with the configuration similar to earlier versions of Windows.

The password is displayed with black dots for characters similar to previous versions of Windows.

I assume this black dot display is for security.

The annoying bug which occurs with Windows XP is that Windows XP Professional adds extra black dots to the password display.

By experience I have found that the original password is retained and the dial-up connection works correctly if every other parameter is correct, but myself and every other user whom has used the saved password feature have initially assumed that Windows XP is somehow screwing up the saved password and over-type the password during every dial-up connection until it is found that the saved password is actually correct.

This bug is especially annoying when there is some other dial-up parameter which is preventing connection for the first time when initially configuring Windows XP.

Is there some method to force Windows XP to display the same number of dots as there are characters in the saved password, similar to previous versions of Windows?

[CUViper 0]

This is not a bug.... MS does this so that if someone tries to figure out what your password is, they won't even know what length to start with. It might not be worth the trouble though, because like you said, this just ends up confusing a lot of people.