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Microsoft Retracts Private Folder Option
An anonymous reader writes "Just recently, an update to Windows added the option to password-encrypt a personal folder. The intent was to allow users who share PCs to have a measure of privacy, but C|Net reports the company is now removing that functionality with a patch. IT managers hit the roof when the option was added, complaining of the possibility of lost passwords and inaccessible data." From the article: "'Oh great, have they even thought about the impact this could have on enterprises. I'm already trying to frantically find information on this product so that A) I can block to all our desktops and B) figure out how we then support it when users inevitably lose files. I can see the benefit in this product for home users, but it's a bit of a sloppy release by Microsoft,' Stuart Graham said in a posting on Windows Server-related site MSBlog."
I recognize that there may be some degree of opprobrium as a result of pointing this out, as most of us here believe in bringing the newest and fastest technology to bear on a given problem. I don't disagree with this approach; indeed, given Moore's Law and costs not dramatically increasing, one would be a fool not to recommend the regular upgrade of hardware and software every two to five years, depending on circumstances.
Irregardless, news such as this points out that sometimes blindly following technology without carefully measuring its implications on IT and data processing can create issues. In the interest of bettering our approach to systems analysis and design, I feel it is important to quote: approximately 90% of the typical activities on 1/3rd of the computer systems out there can take 10-15% longer than performing their equivalents using a 50/50 methodology of planning the computing tasks first, computing the planned tasks second. In other words, you have to know where you are and where you want to be before you purchase and implement new systems; otherwise you not only run the risk of a wasted investment in extra or unnecessary technology (such as private folders when you only need and want public ones) but of having to backtrack and start again to purchase new technology to meet current, previous and future uses.
Unfortunately this seems intuitive but it's not; in fact, in many ways it can actually be seen to be counterintuitive. In other words, it's a balance -- one of considering the importance of keeping pace with current technology while retaining past and projected compatability with previous and anticipated data storage and processing needs.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Why is there an option to adjust view incidence of Apple, but not MS? I would love to be able to have the option to push MS out to the horizon, please?
"...but it's a bit of a sloppy release by Microsoft"
Hate it when that happens...
Do not ever say "lol" on slashdot again, do you understand me? Never. This is my sanctuary from the rest of the internet. If you ruin it I will hunt you down. Same goes for not capitalizing, needlessly doubling question marks, and smileys, to a lesser extent. This is not AIM.
By the way, the folders are fucking ENCRYPTED. You can't decrypt data by saying "THIS IS YOUR ADMINISTRATOR, OPEN UP!"
ResidntGeek
Well, one can do this at the risk of having her think you're pleasuring yourself to video game walkthroughs and Linux HOWTOs, anyway.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
You must have pretty low standards if you think of Slashdot as a refuge from idiocy.
Hey, I was always *excited* when a gfr asked me to show her the porn ... ;)
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Not when "the porn" is pictures of her you took when she was sleeping ;p
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
...6 years before she met you.
It's way worse when "the porn" is pictures of other people that you took when they were sleeping.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
That's exactly what I have. I just graduated from a Catholic school, in Florida. You can guess how much faith I have in other people.
ResidntGeek
What good does the piece of paper do me when all I can see is: ******** ?
slashdot .... is my sanctuary from the rest of the internet.
Woah, that might make sense if consider the internet to be Dante's hell and Slashdot is the outer circle.
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
The absolute worst is pictures you took of other people sleeping with your GF ... It sounds like you have problems much more significant than can be solved with cryptography...
u got a funny mod. u launched sum1s roflcopter lolol
I can replace my porn, but a girlfriend who can repartition a drive and install linux? She's a keeper ;)
> You wouldn't complain to the shredder company because the shredder doesn't
> have an undo button.
I wouldn't, but my users probably would.
Yeah, because incase you lose all of your porn, it's so hard nowadays to find more of it on the internet.
You just use steganography to hide the video game walkthroughs and Linux HOWTOs in a bunch of barnyard porn. She'll never find them.
By the way, the folders are fucking ENCRYPTED. You can't decrypt data by saying "THIS IS YOUR ADMINISTRATOR, OPEN UP!"
Not unless it was the password the user chose to encrypt the data with.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Well, I'm assuming that most of us arn't quite so discriminating in our monkey-spanking material.