TrueCrypt

Did you know that the chief feature of Windows 7 Ultimate is that it costs more than lesser versions? Ok, maybe not officially, but Windows 7 Ultimate's price has us scratching our heads. In fact, take it straight from the horse's mouth.

Great, you can switch Windows to Chinese on the fly! Of course, we all love that feature.

And what about BitLocker? Sounds like it can be a nice feature. That is, until you realize that the free software TrueCrypt does a much better job of encryption than BitLocker does. So what did you pay all that money for? Heck if we know.

Justin Bieber concert pictures. Detroit Lions tickets receipt. That ultra weird fetish video you downloaded. These are just some of the files you may have sitting on your hard drive but would rather no one know about. That's where TrueCrypt comes in.

TrueCrypt is free, open-source disk encryption software that allows you to easily create a virtual encrypted disk that mounts on your system like a real disk. But unlike those other partitions, the TrueCrypt container can only be accessed if you know the password, keeping those work documents or sordid love affair notes from prying eyes. There's even an option to encrypt an entire partition, whether it's your hard drive or a portable USB key you previously kept hidden in your rectum.

TrueCrypt works with a variety of OSes, including Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. You can download it here.