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Good for 6 months? That’s not free software evaluation; that’s just an extra long “Free Trial.”
Hard pass.
[ @Ashraf] what happens to folders you’ve protected after the 6 month extended trial expires? Are you locked out of your data until you pay? Or are all protected folders suddenly unprotected? I find programs like this fundamentally broken in that there is no plausible deniability that you have protected/hidden data on your system and so can be threatened/coerced into divulging passphrases/keys on threat of legal of physical repercussions like losing a finger or relative.
7 Zip does a better job if you just want to password protect a file or folder. The only draw back to 7 Zip is that every time you want to open the file/folder you have to unzip it. Vera Cyrpt also comes to mind, but that’s a different beast altogether in that it creates containers/vaults. I’ve tried quite a few of these folder hiders/protected folder programs but programs such as Wiz Tree see right through them. Like TK, what happens after the 6 month “trial”? Thank you but no thank you. Cautionary Note: Many of the free folder hider programs are laden with viruses and the like. Before installing anything I suggest you use an online scanner such as Virus Total.
What happens to a locked folder after the 6-month license expires?
Does it become an open folder?
Or does it remain a locked folder that cannot be opened?According to Google KI:
Data Security: If your license expires, your files will remain locked and encrypted. You will not be able to unlock or unhide them without a valid, active license key.
What a dealbreaker.
You can still boot into SafeMode in Windows and uninstall the software and may get access again this way.
That is also what anybody else could do with physical access to your PC, so it’s not really hard to get to your encrypted folders and files.
From the IObit forum:
When the license expires, IObit Protected Folder will continue to function as full Premium untill the total of 30 trials are used (It will warn you when 3 trials are left until no trial is left), then it will only unlock/unhide the protected files/folders. (No more protection for newly chosen files and folders.)
It will revert back to function as Premium when you enter the new valid license code again.
