News & Views
 
[2005-02-23] Password Corral v4.0 Final Release Now Available

Looking back at some of the first mentions of a 4.0 release for Password Corral, it seems that this new release has been under some amount of development for nearly four years. Four years. Granted, during that time there were lulls in development, various starts and stops, and gear changing, but it's taken quite a long time to get this latest major release out. I want to thank all Password Corral users for their extreme patience in allowing me to take the time to complete it at my own pace. Along the way there have been many valuable suggestions made, several of which made their way into this new version, and some which will be added in future minor releases.

By far, the best new feature in 4.0 is moving data storage to the file system. When I created the original 1.0 version, and more importantly, the 1.5 re-write, I did it mainly for my own use as I couldn't see paying for a program that while serving an important function, was very narrow in its scope. I released it as freeware, mainly as an afterthought, and never really imagined it would become as widely used as it has. The Windows registry is a convenient place to store information, but not conducive to making backups of the information. By far, the most support questions I get pertain to a lost or reinstalled Windows setup, and how to access the now missing password data. With the information now being stored in the file system, just losing your Windows install won't affect your data.

The ability to group passwords is another great new feature. In the 3.0 version, I myself found it difficult to locate a particular password among the 100+ that I have in my database. Grouping has made that much easier, and with the new Find feature in 4.0, you should be able to locate your data much more easily.

Other new features like the password generator, or enhancements such as being able to print single passwords, add still more to this new release. Unfortunately there were some casualties along the way. The Quick View feature from 3.0 didn't make it in for this final release, or viewing the password list as icons. "What's This?" on-line help also got cut; it's handy for new users unfamiliar with the program, but the amount of time it takes to create all of the help file entries for this type of detailed on-line help precluded me from squeezing it in - perhaps it will return for a future release.

If you're upgrading from the 3.x version of Password Corral, please be sure to look at the README.TXT file for installation instructions. Since this new version uses the file system, and not the Windows registry, your existing password data won't immediately be available. You can run this new version side-by-side with v3.0, and use the new Migrate feature to bring in your old password data, or you can create an export file of your v3.0 data and import it into v4.0.

Rest assured that I will continued to support and enhance Password Corral. I have a lengthy "to-do" list with plenty of suggestions that have been submitted, and plan to implement many of these. Hopefully, it won't take another four years!

Thanks to everyone for your continued support.

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