It was by pure coincidence that our review copy of the annual update of Steganos' Safe software was installed onto the same test machine that still housed last year's edition. And it was interesting to see how easy it was to link back to the secure, hidden safe drives that we'd made as part of the test this time last year.

It wasn't too tricky: we had to input the name of the previous store, along with its drive letter, and then point the program at an 'SLE' file. That latter bit is the only part a real beginner may struggle with, thanks in part to clinical language in the dialogue boxes, but that aside, Safe 2008 is happily compatible with the work of 2007.

But is it a great deal different to its predecessor? Well, the guiding principal is the same. It's a piece of software that lets you set up a ‘hidden' drive on a PC (or a piece of removable storage, such as a flash drive or optical disc), where you can store sensitive files and documents and encrypt them should you so choose.

If you didn't know the drive was there, there's no obvious sign of it, and it can be set to be opened, for instance, by the use of hotkeys or the insertion of a USB drive (the latter is great if you're not one for remembering passwords, although passwords are obviously supported - you can even set it to use pictures rather than words if you so choose). Even an iPod can be used as a 'key' if you so wish.

You can set up as many of these safe drives as you like, and each has a storage ceiling of 256GB (although obviously the size of the parent storage drive will have its part to play in limiting this number). That should be ample room for all but the most demanding of file requirements.

In practice it works in an almost identical way to Safe 2007, but there have been enhancements. For one, you can now move your Outlook Express and Windows Mail e-mail into a virtual drive and keep it away from prying eyes (this option was previously available with the full Outlook). There's also full Vista support too, although that doesn't manifest itself in any particularly obvious way.

The package is then filled out by Steganos' highly effective file-shredding application, Steganos Shredder, which offers a choice of resoundingly deep deletion methods to give you some added peace of mind.

The whole package isn't, as you've probably guessed, a dramatic overhaul in any sense of an application that worked well last year. But the added e-mail support and a teasingly low price tag make Safe 2008 just as worthwhile as its predecessor. It's very easy to use, was extremely secure in our testing, and remains a very useful utility to have, particularly on machines that house sensitive data. It's likely to stay on our machine until the 2009 version rolls around, too.

A strong and mature tool at a very tempting price for the job it does and the peace of mind it offers.