Password Length Appears Changed in Windows 2000 Dial-up Networking Connection Manager

In Microsoft Windows 2000, all dial-up network connections to the Internet show a Password box with 16 asterisks (*). This behavior is a change from Microsoft Windows 9x, where the number of characters in the previously entered password is the same as the number of asterisks shown in the Password box. This is also a change from Microsoft Windows NT, where the password is not visible after a phone book entry is made.

This change is designed to protect user accounts from attack by preventing a potential hacker from knowing the length of the previous user's password.