To find the Personal Vault in Windows, just right-click the OneDrive icon. Still, the level of protection that Personal Vault provides in practice depends largely on how you set it up. (OneDrive also encrypts all files stored online, whether they’re in the Vault or not.) In theory, that means someone who breaches your OneDrive account or accesses your computer without permission would have a tougher time getting to those important documents. Viewing or modifying files in the OneDrive Personal Vault requires an additional code-sent via email or text message by default-and on Windows 10 or higher, Microsoft stores those files in a BitLocker-encrypted portion of your hard drive. That’s when I remembered Personal Vault, a feature of Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service that adds an extra layer of protection for important documents. This created a small dilemma: I didn’t want to delete the files or leave them out in the open on my hard drive, but I wasn’t keen on printing them out on reams of paper either. Between preparing for tax season and home refinancing, I’m sitting on a pile of PDFs, all full of detailed personal information.

A new backup options means that OneDrive can automatically back up files in your Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders to the cloud, and for anyone looking to expand their available storage, it's now possible to do so in increments of 200GB.įor iOS users, Microsoft has also added a Dark Mode option to the OneDrive app.In recent weeks, I’ve amassed a substantial number of sensitive digital documents for entirely mundane reasons. For people with Office 365 Home or Personal subscriptions, this limitation is removed, so it is possible to store as many files as your storage limit permits.Īs well as the expansion of Personal Vault, Microsoft has also made some other OneDrive announcements (opens in new tab). OneDrive Personal Vault is available to everyone for free, but anyone using the free or standalone 100GB plan is limited to storing three files. This 'scan and shoot' option means you can avoid having the images lying around insecurely on your phone. To avoid the problem of having potential sensitive files stored in less secure locations, the OneDrive mobile app can be used to take photographs and scan documents directly to Personal Vault.

Microsoft personal vault