What is Digg?Sponsored by Best Buy
Give a Genuine Gibson Guitar for $99 (Price, Not a Typo) view!
bestbuy.com - World-class starter guitar--sweet sound, killer craftsmanship and yeah, you read that price right.
73 Comments
- BlakeHandler, on 10/12/2007, -0/+53Huh -- It's still Available?
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/f/e/9fee44c7-70ac-46d8-a11c-c3fdc2c3c265/MSPF10ENU.msi - Threnody, on 10/12/2007, -2/+38So basically there are enough people too stupid to remember their password to ruin this for everyone. I can sort of see where Microsoft is coming from, actually. But you can't blame the tool when the users are too stupid to use it. I mean, if your fancy encryption app has a backdoor for when you forget the password, what's the point in the first place?
Maybe they could retool it so that if you forget your password you can use a token, like a USB key with a hash on it, to recover your files. XP already has something like this for account passwords. - Bootes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+29They forgot to turn on the backdoor for the FBI/CIA/NSA.
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24"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.
Yeah, real encryption does that. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+22I've been using TrueCrypt ever since I heard about it, and it's wonderful. Haven't tried the Microsoft one, but I think TrueCrypt would be more trustowrthy.
The complaining IT managers have a point. Their users are idiots, but taking stuff away from responsible people isn't the solution. Just disable it on all their machines, or make a corporate policy saying you have to give the password to the IT manager.
I've also noticed that management is too slow to blame people for IT problems. If you leave the front door of the building unlocked, you're going to get fired. But if you bring in a trojan, "these things happen." If management started punishing people for this sort of stupidity, it would stop pretty soon. - dioscaido, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15What, you mean if I password protect a resource, i have to remember the password?! WTF
- ThankTheCheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14@ Bootes
That's a scary thought. Wouldn't surprise me, either. - ThankTheCheese, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I find it hard to believe that was the reason. As the article pointed out, you could already assign a password to a folder beforehand, plus it hasn't been a problem for Mac users who can encrypt/password-protect their entire user directory.
got to be something more going on there, surely. - Anubis2051, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Am I the only one who looked at this and read it as Microsoft Kills Off 'My Pirate Folder' App?
- pushmouse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12TrueCrypt anyone?
http://www.truecrypt.org/ - saska, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11"since when is it Microsoft's decision whether or not we should have an area to store provate files?"
People frequently blame their own stupidity on Microsoft, and some of them sue. Microsoft isn't deciding whether you can have an area to do it, they're deciding not to provide it in this way on XP. Go get TrueCrypt. - anorris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10That one is called "My Downloads" on my computer...
- timdietrich, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Yeah Truecrypt is definitely a more powerful product. I think Microsoft was just trying to make an easy way for people to hide away some files from prying eyes within their own household/office.
- Modulo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8But I had my fingers crossed when I encrypted it!
- Modulo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Unfortunately even responsible actions by Microsoft will be criticized by many." It's not that they are being responsible that is what is bothering people, I would think, it's probably that Microsoft is being patriarchal. If they have a program that I think I can handle the awesome responsibility of (ha ha ha) then I would like for it to at least be an option. I mean, it's not like this program is the only program available on the internet that would not be safe for a less than proficient user to install.
- sportman1280, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9download it while you can! i can understand where there coming from, but thank god i got the download while i could.... I actually like the idea, but common users probably wouldn't use it correctly.
- aluminumpork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Didn't happen to me. I actually quite like this program. I'm keeping it on my server just in case anybody wants it. http://frostyle.servehttp.com/downloads/MSPF10ENU.msi
- fairyliquidizer, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12There are a number of reasons why Microsoft was right to reconsider their position on this program. One is that it was unsupported (bad for home users) another is that businesses do not want users hiding files on their PCs. In some sectors this could have very serious compliance issues, for example Finance. Systems Admins would have problems scanning for illegal code/unauthorised copies of documents.
Unfortunately even responsible actions by Microsoft will be criticized by many. If this were a supported application with Admin Tools I would welcome it. BitLocker will give similar functionality in Vista and can be locked down by sys admins if needed. - SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Microsoft is not open source, and yes, some of their products are god awful (IE, Windows Genuine Advantate Notifications). But anyone with even a little bit of common sense has to admit that they do make a lot of good products. I like free and open source software as much as anyone, probably more than some people, but there is no need to make a cult out of it where anything that costs money and isn't open source is the devil.
- ABEND954, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7HELPDESK: Helpdesk. How can I help you?
USER: My computer is broken. Please fix it now.
HELPDESK: What is it doing?
USER: It won't go into the logon thingie.
HELPDESK: What happens when you boot your system?
USER: It's all black and says file or folder can not be found.
HELPDESK: When did this start happening?
USER: Just now. You need to come fix it right away. I have an important spreadsheet on their that I was working on. It's very confidential, so I used that My Private Documents thingie to put a password on it. In fact it's so confidential that I decided I would put a password on the whole C: drive. You really need to come here and fix this computer now! - ThankTheCheese, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8and since when is it Microsoft's decision whether or not we should have an area to store provate files? If a business doesn't want their employees using it , don't install it on the system -- simple.
- dioscaido, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Yeah, because the way they are going (growing their profits by 8-12% every quarter), they definitely need help to survive...
- SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"They forgot to turn on the backdoor for the FBI/CIA/NSA."
I was literally about to type the exact same thing. I had never heard of this app before today, but now I am going to check it out. - nkassi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@Modulo: Why would it be un-acceptable ? Worse case add a feature to allow sys-admins to reset the password. In the end, I managed some unix boxes. Users could very easily encrypt the stuff on there with pgp. I would have absolutly nothing against that and I would never do anything to prevent it. More security is better in my mind. You sound like if managers should have access to everything. If a manager would ask for the Root password to a server I run he would not get it unless he is about to fire me(even then I would go as far as the VP of the departement I work in.). In the end I would get fired faster for compromising the data then for protecting it.
Nic - cubeeggs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4How can anyone remember what their password was on 400 websites you haven't visited in two years? It's hard enough remembering which email address you used. Obviously if you just need someone's mother's maiden name to get their password, it wasn't important enough to warrant a password.
- interglenn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away
- SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I agree with you 100%. All those "forget your password? click here!" links on web pages should all just take you to a page that says "TOO BAD, YOU ARE AN IDIOT!" in huge letters. If you use a password to protect your data and are too stupid to remember that password then you deserve to lose your data. Any password recovery mechanism is just a weakness in the system that someone could exploit. It is a lot easier to figure out your mother's maiden name than it is to guess your password.
- sagenumen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3So, what features are actually going to be available once Vista ships? It's getting to the point where DRM will be the only reason to upgrade. WinFS? Nope. "My Private Folder"? Nope. WinFS was supposed to be this revolutionary filesystem (similar to FSes already out there) and now it won't even ship with Vista. Why upgrade?
- Albaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Mmmm... They could have made it so that the "private folder" password was binded to your hotmail password, so if you forgot it, you'd simply have to change it at hotmail.com
- Grayfox777, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Hasn't happened to me
- saska, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I can only imagine the widespread panic over your private folders being linked to your Hotmail account. :P
- jasqwerty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You really sound like you need to read that quarterly statement badly author20. You make it sound like they're printing money or something, while they're actually a fairly stable *LONG TERM* growth company. Yah, have your fantasies, but they've been going for over a decade now, nowhere fast.
- eastshores, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Ah.. a relic that is spouting the OSS trend now.. dude, the hype like that died down when the dot com bubble burst. I've used linux, I like OSS. As a web developer I used MANY platforms since there were so many. But the way you paint the picture is fairly inept. When MS released the .NET specs and gained standards support from both ISO and ECMA, they effectively eclipsed Sun, who to this date, over 3 years after .NET has yet to release the Java spec as an open standard.
- nuvem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I think the whole point was it would have a unique password, thus, someone with access to your windows account can't get in (they could get into hotmail via cookies, so that option wouldn't be completely secure unless they forced password entry there).
I'd like to know what this similar feature that people keep talking about is... certainly you can set permissions on a folder, but I don't know of any way to assign unique passwords to folders, which is the only way to keep data secure in the event your account is breached (not a far-flung possibility). - nkassi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I they really want to hide it they can. The tool does had some good features. Think of those Veterans who had there info available to the world to see.
As for the Finance sector. I could see compagnies trying to hide information from the feds or people trying to hide money deals they are stealing but if they wouldn't leave on those computer in the first place.
Nic - author20, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5It is my understanding that their server division has never made a profit, and their other software areas have barely been in the black. Despite growth, it is unlikely that it will continue when they have to compete with such products as Sugar CRM, Joomla (with extensions), Flex, Flash, and Open Office. If you've tried Open Office, it is definitely not as sophisticated as MS Office -- but the price destroys Microsoft. My bet is that growth will slow down soon, and within 2 years, drop sharply. I saw consumers reject IBM and Amdahl -- in favor of mid-range and mini solutions by DEC and other competitors. Folks like you claimed that nobody would ever topple IBM. Well -- they are now essentially dead. And Apple is going after Microsoft in several areas. With open source, apple and the growth of Linux & BSD, how can anybody justify Microsoft prices?
However, you could be right. After all, AOL has been abusing and defrauding Americans for a decade -- yet they still have over 50 million saps --Opps. I mean 50 million customers. - saska, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4author20, I suggest you do research before you spout ignorance.
You can start here: http://entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=7008
If you can handle the heavy reading, you can also read Microsoft's own earnings reports.
http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/FY06/earn_rel_q3_06.mspx - doolittle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Very true, we have to use "ssl accelerator cards" on our web hosts to get decent throughput since we force all transactions over ssl and high throughput & turnaround is a customer requirement.
without them, the systems were taxed - constant 100% cpu usage, and the load was really high.
There are many on the market just google "ssl accelerator card" there are almost 1/2 million hits... - nkassi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Of course there is a overhead cost but it shouldn't cause the system to be unusable. Better design would help alviate the performace hit.
- amoeba, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I actually got two blue screens of death on my new PC (for the first time) after using My Private Folder.
However, using smaller files it seems to manage better. - whiterajah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I guess I sympathize with Microsoft's decision in that passwords can generally be recovered in most end-user contexts (e.g. Hotmail account, etc.). It's going to be a novel concept for many that their data is permanently encrypted and that there's really nothing anyone can do to get it back unless they can remember the password. After all, Microsoft has to provide for the possibility that people like Ted Stevens will end up using their products.
- Amsay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Same thing that happened to me. 95-99% cpu usage.
- Grayfox777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's just a shortcut. The actual folder is kept at the following location...
Documents and Settings[username]My Private Folder - ptrcd003, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I just downloaded it, works great. Just wondering, if my installation crashes, any files in the folder are not recoverable right? As in, if I stick it into another computer to get my files off before a format, the Private Folder is off limits?
- zeusdo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does anyone know if you can change the location of the folder or even use it on say a USB flash drive? If so, how?
- Reno582, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well just to let you know, when you have the folder unlocked right click the lock on the taskbar go to options and uncheck show icon on desktop, whatever, its just a simple encrypted file with a password whats all the fuss over it?
- jasqwerty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308989
What was wrong with that? Just the 'not on Home' part? - SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I checked it out. It is an interesting idea, but I couldn't find any way to move it off of the desktop. Why call it a private folder and then leave it in the most obvious place on the whole computer? Also it ran rather slowly. I think I'll try to find a better app to do this.
- jacks0n, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh I get it. They're killing off 'my private folder', and changing it to 'my pr0n folder'.
Exxxcelent. -
Show 51 - 74 of 74 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is