No, that "Credential Manager" thing fails to function as stated. I used IE8, navigated to a secure site I use, entered my username and password; IE8 offered to remember the password and I agreed to that. Later I went back to that site and sure enough, IE8 had remembered my credentials. But the Credential Manager Control Panel still showed zero entries under each of its 3 categories. I also tested it the other way around and again got negative results. I went to the Credential Manager and created a new entry under Generic IDs. I entered the precise URL (a different site than my other test) along with my username and password. It was accepted. I then exited the control panel, navigated to that very site in IE8, and yet my credentials were not known by the browser when I used the login! The control panel is not interfacing with IE at all. They seem mutually exclusive.

Sounds like RoboForm may be the way to go then. I am not having any success at all searching for info on how to backup IE8/9 passwords data.

Looks good, thanks for the info JR. Should help pastures in the future.