Does the Windows logon password protect your data?

JMH

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Apr 2, 2012
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After discovering how easy it is to recover data from a hard drive removed from one PC and attached to another, Melker asked the
Hard Drives, NAS Drives, Storage forum if password protecting Windows actually protects your data.

Your Windows logon password--the one you type every time you boot--does not protect your files in any meaningful way. (There's an exception, which I'll discuss below.)

The logon password isn't intended to protect your files. It's intended to keep others from logging onto your computer as you.

Why is that important? Because you do things on your computer that only you should be allowed to do, such as read and write your email. Unless you've set up your mail client to require a password every time you boot, anyone who can log onto your computer as you has full access to your mail.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/261754/does_the_windows_logon_password_protect_your_data.html#tk.rss
 
EFS is good if you don't have access to full disk or volume encryption, but there are few recovery options for home users if something goes wrong (machines in domains with DRAs aren't as much at risk for data loss on failure). Better options would be to use FDE/FVE, like bitlocker (or other 3rd party alternatives, although bitlocker is almost unnoticeable, whereas some 3rd party software can be slow and burden the machine while running).
 
I don't use a Windows logon password... ever since my 13 yr old (now 18) wiped the Admin password on a Vista system here in 2007.
 

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