When you encrypt a file or folder, you are converting it to a format that can't be read by other people. A file encryption key is added to files or folders that you choose to encrypt. This key is needed to read the file. Steganos Safe 2008 (=A317.99) makes the encryption and decryption process easy - when you are logged on to your computer, you'll be able to read them. Anyone who tries to use your computer without your logon will not be able to read them, even if the storage medium it is stored on is lost or stolen. Steganos Safe 2008 has been optimised for use on Microsoft Vista and introduces encryption for Outlook Express and Windows Mail, in addition to protecting the standard edition of Outlook and any user-selected data files. You can create any number of encrypted safes to store sensitive data, each one with a capacity of up to 256GB - ideal for large volumes of data such as film archives, digital photo collections, spreadsheets, letters and tax documents. Thankfully, existing data safes from the earlier versions of Steganos Safe can be imported to this latest version. This latest release further allows you to configure the password entry field for a safe to open automatically when your computer is started.