Tech Shout!

Microsoft has withdrawn its latest Private Folder application, after security experts and IT administrators bombarded the service with a lot of criticisms. My Private Folder was released just last week as a free download for those who confirm their operating system as genuine through Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage Program.

Private Folder 1.0 was created to hide data from the hard drive in addition to protecting it with a password. However, the application quickly drew anxiety from administrators who feared users would lose their password and not be able to unlock their files. In addition, parents voiced worry that kids could use Private Folder to hide content they download.

“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.”

“There are lots of passwords out there and with this, if you forget it then there was no way to get back into it,” continued the Microsoft spokesperson.

One of the issues that also perplexed users was that the feature was remarkably similar to an existing option, where users could right-click a folder and select a “Sharing and Security” option. That allowed a user to manually add a password to a folder and protect users from using it.