Overview of Libraries in Windows 7

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Pretty good article – What are Libraries in Windows 7? | The Windows Club.

Joe

--Joe

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Good read, Joe. Thanks!

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Pretty good article – What are Libraries in Windows 7? | The Windows Club.

Joe

That is interesting, but one big worry is security. As an offline organizer and indexing contraption it is dandy, but I would want to purge the record of data that is on external drives before going online, and that looks a bit tricky.

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That is interesting, but one big worry is security. As an offline organizer and indexing contraption it is dandy, but I would want to purge the record of data that is on external drives before going online, and that looks a bit tricky.

Before going online where? Are you saying you’d want to disable access to your Library structure when you are connected to the Internet? You have the same security issues whether the data is indexed or not. If you lose control of your PC the “bad guy” can do whatever you can do. Just because some information is not in a Library does not mean it is more secure. Maybe a little less obvious but not really more secure.

I think the Library concept is terrific. You are not bound to a specific folder for type of information. You can choose how to best do the storage and organization. Then collect/aggregate the information at the Library level and make use of it there.

Joe

--Joe

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Before going online where? Are you saying you’d want to disable access to your Library structure when you are connected to the Internet? You have the same security issues whether the data is indexed or not. If you lose control of your PC the “bad guy” can do whatever you can do. Just because some information is not in a Library does not mean it is more secure. Maybe a little less obvious but not really more secure.

I think the Library concept is terrific. You are not bound to a specific folder for type of information. You can choose how to best do the storage and organization. Then collect/aggregate the information at the Library level and make use of it there.

Joe

I’m not sure that that is my worry, but I will have to think it through. The library must be on C. Sensitive data will be on removable media, which is not in place when I go online. Let us imagine it is a library of precious books, or a catalogue of artworks that would fetch a high price on the black market if stolen.

The obvious solution is to maintain an offline computer independently of an online computer, but that can be a pain in the neck. Theft is no fun at all for its victims.

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I’m not sure that that is my worry, but I will have to think it through. The library must be on C. Sensitive data will be on removable media, which is not in place when I go online. Let us imagine it is a library of precious books, or a catalogue of artworks that would fetch a high price on the black market if stolen.

The obvious solution is to maintain an offline computer independently of an online computer, but that can be a pain in the neck. Theft is no fun at all for its victims.

I think you are misunderstanding what a library does. It does NOT store your items. It DOES monitor folders which are in the library. It DOES index the folders in a library. If an external drive or network file share is not available then the contents are not available when the library is referenced. Besides which, if you have proper security setup when you are online your PC will not be exposed routinely.

Once again, if you lose control of your PC whatever security you think you have is gone. If you are infested by a rootkit everything you do can be monitored remotely and replayed later.

Yes, theft is no fun for the victims. But, if you spend more time on keeping the robber out than worrying about what is going to happen if the robber gets in you’ll be much better off.

Joe

--Joe

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I think you are misunderstanding what a library does. It does NOT store your items. It DOES monitor folders which are in the library. It DOES index the folders in a library. If an external drive or network file share is not available then the contents are not available when the library is referenced. Besides which, if you have proper security setup when you are online your PC will not be exposed routinely.

Once again, if you lose control of your PC whatever security you think you have is gone. If you are infested by a rootkit everything you do can be monitored remotely and replayed later.

Yes, theft is no fun for the victims. But, if you spend more time on keeping the robber out than worrying about what is going to happen if the robber gets in you’ll be much better off.

Joe

Thanks Joe. I guess having all of your computers physically stolen (before being returned to you) would qualify as ‘losing control’. I think I’ll start a more personally cheerful thread.

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