Mark Hachman - ExtremeTech and Natali Del Conte - PC Magazine
> If you've heard of Microsoft Private Folder 1.0, forget it. As of 2:30
> p.m. Pacific Time on Friday, it no longer exists.
> Microsoft quietly added the free encryption utility earlier this
> month, and then just as quietly deleted it. The utility allowed users
> to encrypt and store files inside a private folder.
I would trust TrueCrypt, an open source encryption tool, much more readily than I would trust something from Microsoft. TrueCrypt
formatting link
has gotten rave reviews, and in my limited experience with it seems to be one of those rare programs that just does the right thing.
"Private Folder 1.0 was designed as a benefit for customers running
> genuine Windows," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a
> statement. "However, we received feedback about concerns around
> manageability, data recovery and encryption, and based on that
> feedback we are removing the application."
> While it lasted, the software created a "My Private Folder" on a
> user's desktop by installing a Private Folder Service. Inside the
> folder, files were apparently encrypted and locked with a password.
> The problem was that the password assigned to the folder was binding
> so losing or forgetting it locked users out of their data permanently.
> "There are lots of passwords out there and with this, if you forget it
> then there was no way to get back into it," said the Microsoft
> spokesperson.
If you really want cryptography, that's the way it has to work. What, you want trap doors?
[...]
PCMag Says...
> [Editor's Note: This was written when Private Folder was live,
> obviously.] I was afraid it would be just a pretty user interface for
> one of the many folder-encryption possibilities already present in
> Windows. It's more than that - it runs a service in the background to
> allow encryption/decryption, and it pushes you to use a strong
> password. Looks like you can't change the password ex post facto, so
> make it good. I'm not terribly impressed.
> Right after I installed the Private Folder service my system slowed to
> a crawl, with over 90% of CPU usage devoted to svchost.exe (meaning
> *some* service was hogging the CPU). And when I uninstalled it, the
> CPU-hogging stopped. Coincidence? -- Neil Rubenking
Right now there are 5 instances of svchost running on my computer. I have no idea what any of them are doing ot what started them.
Jack Hamilton snipped-for-privacy@acm.org
Children of the future age, Reading this indignant page, Know that in a former time Love, sweet love, was thought a crime. -Blake