Thinkpads Forum

About a month or two ago I installed CSS on my T43. Though it has not slowed down my T43 by a considerable amount, it is slightly slower. I was wondering what exactly it protects me from.

Does it simply protect against an outside computer from trying to access particular files on my harddrive? Do they have to be encyrpted?

I guess I don't quite understand what this software is actually doing.

Also, I am college student with no super important/confidential files on my computer. Should I just get rid of this CSS? If I wanted to remove it, would a simple add/remove programs uninstallation do the trick?

Thanks

It is a hardware solution to keeping people off your computer/data.
It will hinder boot access to the laptop, for anyone without the password.
The CSS can encrypt the data on your harddrive, so that if your laptop is stolen, the harddrive contents cannot be read by placing the drive in another computer.
The CSS is also a partner with the fingerprint reader.

Basically, it's a security system, capable of protecting confidential information on a laptop, even a stolen one.

While I haven't tried the latest version, I did install the previous version for a few days. I did not find CSS very intuitive. I could envision a scenerio where I might hose my system. My advice is that if you don't really need it, you are probably safer without it. You can still set Power-On, Hard Disk, and Supervisor passwords without installing CSS.

Note that the latest version of ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery requires installing a portion of CSS. You are given the option during installation of Rescue and Recovery to install CSS or not. Even if you choose not to, a portion of CSS is still installed. I do not see a problem with that. I do have the latest version of Rescue and Recovery installed.