The Credentials Manager, on the Control Panel, stores your user IDs and passwords safely in the Windows Vault, where they can’t be retrieved by keystroke capture programs or other spyware. Older versions of Windows allowed you to set cookies or other automated procedures that let you quickly log in to password-protected websites and use private documents and other files, but the cookies files could be accessed by spyware and other programs.
With Windows Vault storing these IDs and passwords, any Windows application that needs credentials to access a resource (for example, a server or a website) can use the Credentials Manager instead of prompting you to enter your ID and password each time or retrieve that information from an accessible cookie file.
Windows Vault stores credentials that Windows can log in the users automatically, which means that any Windows application that needs credentials to access a resource (server or a website) can make use of this Credential Manager & Windows Vault and use the credentials supplied instead of a user having to enter a username and password each time.
However, this applies only to Windows applications, not to external programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, and so on, that can automatically log in a user via cookies set by a browser.
You can also back up and restore the Vault, such as to a USB thumb drive, so that your security can be regenerated if your system crashes.