14 DAY TRIAL // Up until portability began its rapid spread, keeping all your passwords and sensitive details safe on the computer was quite a trivial issue. But, with the increased use of USB thumb drives, saving all these details just had to take the step towards portability.
Solutions for the problem are cheap and many of them are even absolutely free. Some of them, like RoboForm, are perfectly integrated in U3 thumbs and have their place in the launchpad. Also, they can start right off the stick and jump in and assist you whenever a web page requiring form filling is opened.
Given the fact that the USB key does not generally have more than one user and is turned into a personal data container, security should not be an issue. But an extra password does not hurt even if you sleep with the thumb drive under your pillow.
PINs is a software of this category and deals with safe keeping sensitive details like passwords, email accounts, credit card data or web services. The application is absolutely free and, more important, portable. All the settings and files are saved in the location the user assigns and there is no stray data stored on the computer.
There is one thing I have to mention right from the beginning. The application has been discontinued for some time now but it still works, despite all the modern technology around us. PINs was designed for storing sensitive data and runs from a floppy disk (which I think are almost extinct).
Considering the times we live and run our applications in and the infusion of aesthetics in the latest programs as well as the newly established standards, the looks of PINs are disappointing. And yet there is a lot of power under the rusty hood.
But, on the other hand, there are lots of settings and features ensuring the protection of your data and in the end this is the purpose. PINs supports multiple databases, according to your needs and features a very good password generator to help you get your countersigns.
The first thing to do after launching the program is setting the password for the current database. If you have no inspiration, a password generator comes to the rescue. It features two password generating methods (template and password length) and both are very easy to use. Special characters are also available in case you decide to impose super protection to the database.
The interface displays the categories of sensitive data the application can store for you: email, PIN, web service and passwords. By all means, these should not limit you and some extra information can be appended for safe keeping. All category fields are the same, regardless of the section.
Adding new items in PINs is a snap. All you need to do is choose a category from the four available ones (or you add a new one) and complete the necessary fields. Unfortunately, these cannot be altered in any way in the sense that there is no possibility of creating new fields, but then again, the ones available should be sufficient.
Thus, users have a place for typing in usernames, passwords, URL, start date of the account, expiration date (in case of time bound accounts) as well as additional information for easier use. When it comes to the countersign, the password generator is again offering its services. Even if several years have passed from the last revision of the software that generator is in extremely good shape as it spits out at least 10 passwords at a time and can be configured in terms of number of characters and their type (lower/upper case characters, digits, special symbols and user defined characters).
The set of tools available in this dinosaur are worthy of all attention and competition nowadays still misses some of these features out. From General tab of Options menu users, can enable activation of hyperlinks in Info box, minimization to system tray and copy the password to Clipboard when URL is launched (an early attempt of form filling).
Security tab, although it has a few years behind, can compete with modern password managers. Here you can configure the software to empty the Clipboard on exit or on minimize or lock it with the assigned password. More than this, you can enable locking of the database after a user-defined time of inactivity.
Regarding expiration dates of accounts, PINs can check all items for expired passwords and can alert you on the soon to expire items. You get to define how much in advance the alert should pop up. In order not to lose your information all data can be saved to a BAK copy (just be careful to skip it when cleaning junk files in your computer).
Besides all the options for protecting and safe keeping sensitive personal information, PINs is also equipped with a secure file deleting tool that offers four worldwide known wiping algorithms (pseudorandom pass, DoD 3 pass, DoD 7pass, Gutmann with 35 passes) and a custom one (specify your own sequence of wiping). The instrument can be used to eliminate both files and folders securely from your computer. Once removed using the algorithms presented above the data will not be recuperated with recovery tools on the market.
One function of the software that proves to be a real miracle when the database is extremely large is "search". PINs offers a simple but very efficient solution to locate accounts. Simply type in the name and the next instant after pressing "Find Next" button the account will be displayed.
Though it looks like it was built 100 years ago (and the affirmation stands if we think in Internet years) PINs manages to defy the laws of computing and face all modern technology. It works on Vista with absolutely no problems and after all these years, it is still highly competitive.
The Good
Every thing's good about it, from the 448 Blowfish encryption of the master password to the wiping algorithms it features and the security settings available.
The Bad
Time has been ruthless with the interface. It does not fit at all Vista's lively colors. I wish search function were capable of looking inside accounts as well.
Too bad the project has been discontinued, just like MWSnap.
The Truth
The last update of the application was on March 19th 2003. Almost five years later and some radical changes in the computer world, PINs still works and proves to be tough competition. I guess there are some softwares that simply refuse to die and as long as it can face the tough demands nowadays, it still deserves a chance. It is portable long before portability as we know it has been invented.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
