actually u can reveal ur password under the asterisk...there r umpteen number of softwares for that...click the link below for the free software..this will reveal the password under the asterisk...just install it and drag it over the asterisk and it will reveal ur password in normal text... hope this helps...
i used a program called "password revealer" back in win98 days to unhide many of my forgotten password. it worked in IE. not sure whether it will run on xp/vista. give it a try