Windows 8.1 will encrypt hard drives by default.

I'm suspecting that the leaks regarding their collaberation with the NSA caught them in a very awkward position at a time when their sales were already weak, and the only damage control option they have is to try to avoid coverage of the issue. Globally, that's no longer possible, but they are avoiding the spotlight domestically. Mainstream US news has managed to avoid covering this and the other leaks very well. Almost all of the coverage is devoted to the government shutdown instead. I'm beginning to think this "shutdown" is a desperately contrived distraction to the surveillance issue, and they'll stretch it out as long as they can, hoping the NSA issue gets forgotten. In spite of the lack of coverage, a growing number of people are finding out about the collaberation and are not going to buy Win 8 for that reason. In the last 3 months, I've been brought more XP units to work on than I've seen in the last 3 years. Several have mentioned the surveillance controversy as one of the reasons. I think this has hurt more than just their foreign business. IMO, they're long overdue for a good financial backlash.

 

nothing new as said, has been this way ever since w95

 

Windows 8.1 full-disk encryption is definitely not reliable.