In last week's Newsbytes, you said Microsoft had released Private Folder 1.0 on the Windows Genuine Advantage site. I spent a lot of time searching and then rang Microsoft and they said it was not available. John Broughton
Private Folder was on the WGA site but was withdrawn after corporate users complained their users would be able to hide and perhaps lose important data. On Sunday, I posted a direct link on our Technology blog, which I'd now expect not to work. It's anybody's guess when Private Folder might reappear, if ever.
However, there are numerous alternatives such as Magic Folders (http://pc-magic.com/des.htm), which is shareware. Also, you can keep data private by compressing it with a Zip archiving program or WinRAR or something similar, and using password protection. You can drag and drop files into an archive so it works a lot like a folder.
Windows XP Pro has built-in encryption, which I don't recommend because it only works with NTFS and the keys are tied to your user account. Enterprises don't like Private Folder because it allows a free choice of password, which IT staff can't know and users might forget.
