100th comment! Woooohoooo!

Sorry. It's been a long day...

all the links are gone now but if someone still really wants it ,get in touch with me and i will send it to you
i downloaded it and saved it

Umm... You can still download it from Fileforum.

http://fileforum.betanew...ate_Folder/1152200243/1

get in touch with me and i will send the file since they have removed all the links to it now

copperhead1@gmail.com

So much emotional divisiveness erupted from this posting. The threads below are really interesting and open a world of discussion about the optimal balance of freedom and control. One key part of this has to be consideration for the type of work being done. Surely we cannot expect the same guidelines for admin control to apply equally to typing clerks as it does for PhD engineers or astro-physicists. The nature of the work being done impacts the way we adapt control efforts to meet our objectives. This one app may be uber-trivial, but it sure touches on a powder keg of issues IT admins have debated for years. So many vendors assume software can "fix" that, but it's almost always a human issue to deal with.

As other have mentioned,
Simple:
www.truecrypt.org
Problem solved.

This product is not very good anyway. I used Bitdefender's Rootkit Utility to crack it without any problems.

You serious? How does a rootkit remover break encryption?

I'm not saying I doubt you. This is an honest question.

His wording appears to be broken English meaning he's either incorrectly phrased his comment, or he's just blurting script-kiddie nonsense.

The BitDefender tool does identify & remove the Private Folder tool from the workstation but it doesn't "crack" anything.

Let's be fair: How is woodgray's comment broken English? Everything you said makes sense except that point.

I don't know why they say they pulled it. I just downloaded it from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com...-49cf-b084-f3a237b58f71

http://www.thecic.info

Mirrored :)

I think MS knows that after its free to download on the internet for even a very brief time that it will be somewhere on the net forever.
I put “Microsoft Private Folder download” on Google and got 8,710,000 results.
Even if only 5 % of those results were where you could download it, that would still leave over 400 thousand plus sites to get it at.
MS pulling it just makes them save face with the corporate pressure but doesn’t really change anything but it still sucks that they pulled it anyways.

The reason the file was pulled was not because of objections from home computer users, it was pulled because INDUSTRY objected to a folder that could be encrypted by their employees on company computers. I can't imagine why.

Quote from C/Net

"Following an outcry from corporate customers, Microsoft is removing an add-on feature to Windows that allowed users to create password-protected folders."

you can read the rest of the article here.

http://news.com.com/Micr...94481.html?tag=nefd.top

the problem with the INDUSTRY is IT admins have simply become lazy so when they have to actually DO their job they shreik and place the blame on someone else (Microsoft is always good for a scapegoat)..if they are worried employees are downloading this app imagine how worried they would be to find out there are much worse things that can be downloaded...but had they actually figured out how to do their jobs they could prevent if from being downloaded and installed altogether...no this is just another "I can't be bothered to do it so I'll blame someone else"

the problem is that it looks from your post that you have never had to do IT admin work. You can set filters, and users to restricted accounts, and stop DL's via group policies. But it is not realistic to do that. There is a certain amount of freedom that is needed so that tech support doesn't have to install everything or do basic things for end users. Diminishing returns start when you get too restrictive.

We have enough to keep us busy without having to do everything, it's called trust to a certain degree. Freedom to complete work with enough tools to do it without having to call tech support everyday.

But the whole point is that tools like Private Folder to encrypt files HAVE EXISTED FOR YEARS AND YEARS.

If a user is determined enough, you're not getting at their files. Period.

it requires admin access to install the app not everyone needs to have admin access... with group policy you can stop programs from being installed...there is almost NO reason an employee needs to install other apps onto a pc...and again as someone has mentioned one thing called private folder by microsoft is not anything new...so why the fuss now? basically because Microsoft is a scapegoat and everyone has to find a reason to blame them for something...

I am not sure about your IT admins. I am an IT Admin myself and I really don't care what a person loads on his/her computer at work.

If someone screws their PC up by installing unsupported software I can re-image the PC in a matter of minutes. They just don't need to talk to me when they loose local files they were hiding because of their stupid move. We provide network storage that is backed up daily for them to save files.

Also, I am sure it is not IT Admins that do not want you to have this, it is the Corporate Executives that don't want employee's to have "Secret" files. They don't trust you.

I really don't care what a person loads on his/her computer at work.

Does that statement frighten anyone else?

Things users will install that could seriously hose your network:

Streaming Video / Music applications.
Adware, spyware
Weatherbug type BS.

Yeah, anyone can re-image a PC. But that alone does not mean an Admin can slack off on the rest of his responsibilities.

or maybe because its not your computer its the corps and you should only be doing work on it. any it admin worth his/her weight in s*** knows not to let users install their own stuff. not to mention removing the need to re-image computers all the time, but how do you track licenses? either way that makes you a pretty s***ty it admin in my opinion.

no but you could just delete their files and see how happy they are about it. or take away their computer rights until they give you the files. ive seen companies where it is commonplace to lock out a users permissions and/or internet access if they are not doing work/installing things on their computers/ wasting time.

Just imagine a worker installing a bittorrent client and then pulling down 5MB/s downloading all sorts of *goodies*.

Listen, it is my job to secure and maintain the servers and help people do their jobs the best I can. When these people accept employment they sign a piece of paper saying they are to use the PC for work only and they are not to install any software.

We use LanDesk and UniCenter to monitor everything on the computers. There is a whole other corporate department that monitors the changes and licencing from those servers. I work for a very large corp. It is not my job to babysit people that can not follow those rules. They violate the policy a few times and then they are looking for another job.

The only thing they can harm is the PC they are using and their employment. A lot of things with their PC is controled by policies. So, it is not my job to actively try to protect the stupid.

oh, it sounded from your earlier post that you just let them go to town. my bad.

Sorry, I should have explained myself better. We have many things installed, from network appliances to servers, that can control everything they do on the computers.

This application that MS has "withdrawn" I would not personally have an issue with except that I know a user will call me because they forgot their password for it or it isn't working like it should. At that point I would have to tell them I could not help them recover their data. Also, I would suggest, in the future, to use their personall network drive with encryption.

I'd rather not.

That's what Nightmares are for. ;)

You obivously don't work in the education field. Teachers need admin rights to run a lot of apps that are used to teach. Also, there is a lot emphasis on creativity for the teachers that they need to test something they find.

As tech support, we can only advise a teacher on a program before installation, unless that's all we want to do and it's not. We can only hope that they do consult with us before hand. Of couorse there is always the reimage if they totally screw something up, and the cavet that if you don't back up your laptop it's not IT's problem.

ah that makes more sense, yes good policies there, sorry about my earlier misunderstanding, usually we handle things here, by if the user somehow installes something on my network, which i have noticed that it happens when there are crappy programs that dont require registry modification, authentication, ignore permiossions etc. but anyway our policy is thus to not support anything that wasnt directly apporoved of for use. ive personnally tried truecrypt, and i like it, i think personnal folder is a great application in itself, but its just not something that is needed. Especially when, working for a school district, it is more important to ensure ease of data flow, or ensuring data availability when employees retire, decide to teach something else, or go on vacation.

god imagine the lawsuits and repercussions that would come if that happaned.

First there is something called parental control, they could disable the software from there, 2 it's a really good service, we really need it... 3 why loose passwords ? make a backup secret question or something...

The most important thing is that this service is very important and it should come with Windows Vista..

First there is something called parental control

Where? ;)

The most important thing is that this service is very important...

I think the critical thing here is how critical it is. Maybe I'm wrong though...

lmao..

Well said!

So I had no real use for this app since I have other tools that do the job better. but the fact that MS had to withdraw the application really irritates me. More proof of the power of stupid people in masses.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

never underestimate the power of a single person in a crowded place shouting "he has a bomb!"

Jack Bauer has been notified. Expect a "visit" shortly. ;)

*Note: shipment may take up to 24 hours.

you know now that i think about it, the whole single person power only multiplies and builds upon the stupid people in large groups theory....

awwww 24 hours??? i dont wanna wait that long.... bloody lazy shipping service...

i downloaded it and i like it for what it is and to anyone all they have to do is write down the password
and kids have not any reason to be on the computer if you can't trust them

Correct!

"arents voiced worry that kids could use Private Folder to hide content they download"

sh1t, how hard is to hide stuff in a computer. what different does it make to make addition folders inside some other original folder. clear the history if necessary. or guess what, burn it to cd or dvd, and it take care of it. this proof most people are too freaking dumb to understand common sense. or just like some people says, common sense no longer common.

I bet out of all the parents that voiced their concerns, a number of their kids were ALREADY hiding files very successfully, probably unencrypted inside normal folders.

Thank goodness I got it when I did.. LOL

My thought is, "The encryption is not the problem. The folder is the problem." If we got rid of folders, which have always been controversial anyway because of their malignant manila coloring, most IT managers would never even have to lean forward in their chairs. They certainly wouldn't have to set up a Limited User account for someone, and all that that entails.

http://fileforum.betanew...ate_Folder/1152200243/1

The MSI file is still available on download.microsoft.com. It's just that the page that leads to the download has been removed. You can still download it with the link above.

So when begins the witch-hunt against Winzip, Winrar, PowerArchiver...

Really stupid i think, how many programs out there do exactly what this program does? This is good to keep documents or whatever protected and easily acessed.

Why not just make it a special download like PowerToys? The average idiot computer user wouldn't even know to look for it, but those of us who do should be able to download it without any hassles.

Geez! Have these people lost all touch with reality?

Lots of apps that will hide files and that require a password are available.

If you're an admin and have so little control over what gets installed on your systems, get a new job.

If you're a parent, be one for a change. I could care less about your spawn and I'm tired of having my options taken away because you like to breed. "Think of the kids!" Bah, screw that. >YOU< think of them, leave me out of it.

The app can be easily uninstalled by parents or admins, making the files inaccessible, or even deletable if desired.

Or, they can start using the ubiquity of weak passwords to their advantage for once and get password crackers running. That would discourage unauthorized hiding of files really quick. :)

well in my opinion, if you werent ready to really be there and be a parent you shouldnt have had kids, and thus its your own damn fault if you cant keep up with what your kid is doing.

The reasons given seem lame and over reaching.

My god. This is the most dumb thing I've ever heard. You can easily create a new account on Windows XP (if given the rights) and then set any folder to "enrypt" which is unreadable unless you are logged into that account. This application may (likely) even use that same encryption. It's available to the user just as much as installing this application is... if the admin wants he can block both of those rights (installing and creating new accounts). Microsoft is ridiculous for pulling this from the shelves... they should not cow tow to people who ho-hum about things when MS very well knows its a stupid claim. I'm saddened that they would do this - dont be a wimp MS!

WTF!? This world is ****ed up. Seriously. If kid wants to hide his g** d*** porn he'll do that anyway. With MS Private Folder or without it.
Users forgetting password being unable to unlok their files!? For christ sake don't lock your stuff if you can't remember one g** d*** password. And whats the purpose of locking files if they aren't encrypted. But no, this tool was bad just because it was made by MS. All other folder locking tools are ok and no one is making a big deal. Jerks^2

Yeah i like this tool and i'm using it. I even tried import/export encrypted data and it works flawlessly. But of course you have to remember 1 lousy password, uuuuu so hard...

I just wanted to comment on this software. It works nicely and even after removing the links to the software and withdrawing it, it can still be downloaded at:
http://www.microsoft.com...-49cf-b084-f3a237b58f71

Believe in it or not! They censored that useful tool! What a pity!

There are a tons of applications work just as MSPF in the market(eg: "Folder Lock"). Why those security experts and IT administrators only criticize MSPF? Does that mean other encryption apps are useless?

thank god Microsoft got rid of this...the it admins then would HAVE to actually do their job... too funny...

What a crock. MSFT never listens to their customers, and the one time they do its over something completely stupid and asinine.

Any admin worth a a nickel could lock down their network and not let this app be installed. The ones who whined about it are just lazy or incompetent.

This seems to have created quite a stir. As an IT admin myself I have to just say that it is not the fact the users have "forbidden" content on their computers that bothers me. It is the fact that somehow they managed to get it there without me knowing. It's the gathering of forbidden content (I.E. Using company bandwidth) that concerns me most. And I for one will focus my attention on this and not the encrypted folders....besides. Windows may have hidden them.... but "Ve admins haf our vays!"

The program is a terror to IT Admins, because the files contained within cannot be managed. I'm glad MS is removing this. What kind of legal issues would surface when end-users could start "protecting" their adult files?

I think the IT Admins are more afraid of losing their jobs when they can't recover the VP's 100-page business plan after he accidentally forgets the password he encrypted it with.

Just think what could happen if people could start shutting their doors AND locking them. Maybe we should ban doors and keys too.

So IT managers should just prevent it from being installed. There are a lot worse apps out there than this.

If an IT manager is afraid of stuff like this, good god the IT world is in danger.

"The program is a terror to IT Admins, because the files contained within cannot be managed. I'm glad MS is removing this. What kind of legal issues would surface when end-users could start "protecting" their adult files?"

Like "Adult Files" are anything to worry about. If your thinking the possible viral files attached to porn downloads , Private Folder can be scanned with your av or anti-adware programs without opening the folder.

Any IT Administrator who sets up accounts for users and gives them permissions to do what they like deserves everything they get. Morons like them shouldn't be in the IT business as it is so easy to set up user accounts so they cant install any programs on their computer.

As opposed to say, Winrar or Winzip that both are also easily installable, and can encrypt entire folders irrecoverably (in the event of a lost password?) I fail to see how this app is any more horrible than either of those.

One problem with that thought. I am required to give end users local admin rights, because of the morons who wrote the main business software we use. The software breaks if the end user doesn't have local admin rights. Moronic. I would love to change it, but the Pointy Haired bosses won't let me change it, as it effects everything we run. I understand Vista will change some of this, and it won't be to soon!!!

"What kind of legal issues would surface when end-users could start "protecting" their adult files?"

Non whatsoever because only they could unlock then. **** sake, you need to go buy a life dude.

Wow. You must be joking.

You're absolutely right. One hardly needs an MS Private Folder to protect "adult" or any other files. A simple PGP encryption is going to keep any IT Administrator or anyone else at bay. Rather than drawing attention to an encrypted file, it's a simple matter to hide the encrypted file with steganography, anyway. In that case, should the "adult files" be so dear to the user, they could merely hide them, in encrypted format, inside a .jpg of the company logo or a picture of "Mom."

I'm in the same situation. The software we use requires Access in order to run. I have made some progress and the company that makes the software is planning to go to SQL Server (most likely the free version) eventually. If I recall correctly, we're paying $6,000 a year for software that really needs to be redone.

You're paying $6000 a year for an Access application? Seems overpriced...

I agree, especially for a non-profit, even one with ties to state organizations.

Uh...

If you're letting your users put adult files on there to begin with you shouldn't *be* an IT Admin.

End of Story.

first off i run a similar program, and i started with the user being in admin, then slowly denied rights until it stopped working, then gave them just those rights and kept them as a locked down admin. takes more time, but in the face of dumba** designers and programmers it does work.

the it world went downhill the moment they started pushing out 100,000 it degreed students from indian colleges a year, cause the us only puts out like 50,000 at most, and we have more people by a factor of 2 or 3. gotta wonder if they teach them anything.

i think the vp should be the jackass to lose his job in that case.

Let me be the tenth replier to say:

I hope you weren't actually serious.

people b**** too much

lol

Hum, funny after years of marketing computers as morron proof, easy to use and claiming all friendly user experiences this and that, now that everyone is tied to a poorly designed OS and they are thrown a security feature they don't want? Can you blame them? They've been told it was easy to use Windows. Who said anything about passwords?

This industry is so into its own mess.

"We want security! We want security! We want security! We want security!...Oh wait, No We Don't! No We Don't! No We Don't! No We Don't!"

Real security and "computer illiterate friendly" just don't go together. The "average home user" just wants to click on an icon...and everything else is supposed to happen as if by magic. They don't care how it works, don't want to learn how it works....they just want to click...click...click. So, they click...on spyware, viruses and the like, then wonder why Windows isn't more secure.

Just as I often read how "Linux doesn't work." Linux works, but usually the complainers don't work. You have to be willing to take the time to learn the system and how to properly configure it. Failing that, they go back to Windows, where they can just click.

Neither Windows nor any other operating system is going to be both secure and idiot proof at the same time.

Nothing is idiot proof. I'd say no operating system can be easy to use and secure at the same time. They are tradeoffs dependent on the users needs. Servers need to be secure. Home machines, development machines, office machines and pretty much any machine that a user sits at need to be easy enough to not get in the way of the task the user is trying to accomplish...in fact, they should help accomplish it more quickly as that is what computers are for.

Good. That'll teach the brats to whine.

Don't like your toy? Then I'll take it away.

Withdrawn? I just downloaded it five minutes ago!?!

FYI: You can still get it off the fileforum.

Microsoft plans to take the download offline shortly. But it's still available for the time being:

http://fileforum.betanew...ate_Folder/1152200243/1

Oh great, just because it's "too secure" they have to withdrawn it?

What a world guys...

This isn't enough. I demand a REFUND of every penny paid for this program. Class action!

[yes, I'm kidding, thanks for wondering]

Hey, these days it could happen ;)

Sad, but true...

Damn fruity pants , I loved this little program , if you store information and then loose the pass word your a dumba**.

If you hurry, you might be able to still download it. I just did. :)

ALRIGHT!!! I am sick of this.

1ST. Any good admin can block 'Private Folders' from there networks!!!!!

If you are sitting here writing about how this is a good thing that MS quit provide this, then I am left to believe that you are a BAD net admin who does not have control of YOUR NETWORK!!!!

2ND. MS gets tons of grief for not providing encryption tools in their operating systems, and not being secure enough.

WTF? They finally make an honest attempt, and this is how we react, COME ON PEOPLE!!!!

Totally agree. Some of the comments I have read above are written by people who learnt how to use computers yesterday. "children hide content from parents" what a bs reason to whine....

children knowledgeble enough would use programs like truecrypt...

I really support Microsoft..they are being critisized for doing a job well...
at the same time, Microsoft should not take back Private folders because some incompetent IT admin says he's worried what his internal customers will do with it...well if he can't see what his people are doing...he should not be the IT admin...lazy bums....

The concern is that the product is from Microsoft, and so there is a presumption by users that it is safe to use, something they don't always make about something like, for instance, TrueCrypt.

In the real world, due to some really bad decisions on the part of Microsoft and others, it is often simply not possible to have users run with non-admin privileges. Even Microsoft has written programs that should not require admin rights to install and run properly, but they do -- Flight Simulator is an example of this, though it's certainly not business software. At RSA 2006, Microsoft came out and admitted that they had screwed up with not only that, but also several business applications, and that this was changing with all applications written from 2006 on. When the rest of the world will follow suit can only be guessed.

Clearly a lot of people here aren't in IT...

Martin hit the nail on the head. You'd be amazed at some of the business software out there that still requires local admin privileges. You may have also have noticed that Windows doesn't exactly have a massively robust set of security rules. This isn't *nix/bsd we're talking about.

Along with that, theres also a good chunk of people out there in the IT industry who really don't know what they are doing. I'd be really pissed off walking into a network that had this software on it and have joe schmoe computer user lose his password without anyway to retrieve them.

Besides the fact that if the files are "truely" in an excrypted form they won't be bit-for-bit the same as the unencrypted form thus making virus software nearly obsolete on those files.

The product is great for home use, (I use on my personal machine) not for the workplace.

But what none of these "security experts" the article cites tell you is HOW this application is in any way different then apps like TrueCrypt, or even an encrypted zip file. Employees can still hide applications from IT administrators, it just doesnt happen to have the Microsoft name on the application anymore. You can't tell me that all this outcry is simply because the application is made by Microsoft with Microsofts name on it. That's patently rediculous.

Like I've said before, this is all FUD from stupid people in masses.