SharePoint Sign in as Different User – How to Clear Cached Password?

There is a weird issue when SharePoint users try to sign in as different user. Here is the scenario:

1. User “A” logged in with his account on his PC.
2. User “B” wants to login on SharePoint 2010 site with his credentials on user “A” machine by selecting “Sign in as Different User”
3. User “B” will successfully logged in. Once user “B” sign out and user “A” opens the IE browser, he will still see SharePoint uses user “B” credentials and automatically logged with User “B” Login details, even if he tries to close all browsers and re-open the same issue, unless we have to re-login again by Signing in with Different User i.e. user “A”

They tried clearing the saved passwords from Browser by: Going to Internet Explorer >> Tools menu >> Internet Options >> General >> Delete >> Select “Passwords” and clicking OK. But no luck!

Root Cause: This is due to saved/cached credentials! Go to Control Panel >> User Accounts >> Manage Your Credential and remove any credentials stored user name and password.

Solution:

Here is the solution to fix this permanently:

• Go to Start >> Administrative Tools
• Local Security Policy >> Local Policies >> Security Option 
• “Interactive logon: Number of previous logons to cache (in case domain controller is not available)” >> Change it to 0. (It is set to “10” by default).

Ideally we have to make this change in AD group policies! But I’ve made this change in Client machine for the immediate effect. This fix also resolves the issue: sign in as different user not switching user! it just refreshes the user credentials.

Disadvantage: Once you disable caching, You must be connected to the network, in order to login to your PC. Or you must have a local administrator account created already. (Since we disabled password caching, your computer will try to authenticate your account from the domain controller directly!)

Don’t want the User to be logged in automatically? If you don’t want a particular account to be logged in by default, Remove the stored credentials from “Credential Manager”. Go to:

• Control Panel >> Credential Manager Locate the Domain and Account and Remove from Vault.

Another factor impacting this behavior is: Browser Setting. Go to IE >> Tools >> Internet Options >> Security >> Custom Level >> Change it to ” Prompt for User name and Password.”

It could be because of cookies if your environment uses publishing servers such as TMG. Try clearing browser cache including cookies!