Password protection for folder

slopemaster

Sorry if this is a stupid question…
I have a folder on my computer I want to protect with a password; it has financial and other stuff in it. When I looked at help, it all seemed to be about protecting my whole user account with a password. I don’t want to do that, just protect this folder.
Is there a way to do that, please?

Oh yes, Windows XP prof

dogmaryxx

http://www.ehow.com/how_5798562_put-password-folder-xp-pro.html

slopemaster

dogmaryxx wrote: »

http://www.ehow.com/how_5798562_put-password-folder-xp-pro.html

thanks for that.
But when I followed the instructions it just makes the file 'private' so it is only available to someone logged in as 'Administrator' - ie it is NOT password-protected unless you set a password for your whole user account.

Perhaps I will have to do that, but really I would prefer not to have to log in with a password each time; this is just my home computer that no-one else uses

tronator

slopemaster wrote: »

Perhaps I will have to do that, but really I would prefer not to have to log in with a password each time; this is just my home computer that no-one else uses

So why do you want to password protect the folder if no-one else uses it?

To answer your question, have a look at Truecrypt. It will create a password protected container which will be mounted with a new drive letter on your computer once you typed in the right password. Everything you save in this new drive will be safe once you unmount the container.

ukmike

http://virtual-protect.com/

slopemaster

tronator wrote: »

So why do you want to password protect the folder if no-one else uses it?

In case of burglars!
Or even occasional visitors I suppose.
My bank passwords are in it, amongst other things.
I'll have a look at the stuff you suggested, thanks

tronator

slopemaster wrote: »

In case of burglars!
Or even occasional visitors I suppose.
My bank passwords are in it, amongst other things.
I'll have a look at the stuff you suggested, thanks

Password protecting your login will not prevent burglars accessing it, Truecrypt will if the password is strong enough.

And passwords don't belong unencrypted in a file on your hard disk. Try Keepass. I use it on my laptop and on my Android phone to have all my passwords, TAN's etc. with me at any time.

gaming_guy

....................

slopemaster

Thanks.
But truecrypt looks scarily complicated to me, I am not very techy. And maybe it is over the top for what I need.
The other one looks simpler, VirtualProtect.
But I did notice it said, to get into your files start Windows in safe mode - and any bad/hacker/burglar type person would know that, so it would be useless! But it would prevent visiting family/friends having access, which TBH may be more likely?

Actually I didn't explain fully. the passwords are unencrypted, but most (not all) are in the form 'X's birthday' or 'where Y lives' and the number of characters, so only people who know me could use them.
What I am actually trying to get my head around is a file to be accessed in the event of my death, so I want it to be protected, yet accessible - obviously impossible!!!
What I thought was I will print some of the stuff out and leave in my desk drwa in a sealed envelope - so anyone could open it, true, but I would at least know if it had been opened. And in that stuff would be the password to the file on the computer. So it would be easy for the right person to follow the instructions, but hopefully impossible for anyone else.
So I would write down (for example) "the computer password is my mother's maiden name followed by my son's year of birth followed by my cat's name" and it would mean nothing to a random burglar.
Does that make sense at all?

slopemaster

Actually if I got burgled I should probably be more concerned about the credit cards which are in the underwear drawer, rather than the passwords!

tronator

slopemaster wrote: »

Thanks.
But truecrypt looks scarily complicated to me, I am not very techy. And maybe it is over the top for what I need.
The other one looks simpler, VirtualProtect.
But I did notice it said, to get into your files start Windows in safe mode - and any bad/hacker/burglar type person would know that, so it would be useless! But it would prevent visiting family/friends having access, which TBH may be more likely?

To be fair this applied to an old version. From what I read it's not possible with the current version. But I don't know whether I would trust a program which got downloaded just over 10000 times and is closed source. Truecrypt is used by millions of people, is open source and runs on on different plattforms. There is a beginer's tutorial available.

slopemaster wrote: »

Actually I didn't explain fully. the passwords are unencrypted, but most (not all) are in the form 'X's birthday' or 'where Y lives' and the number of characters, so only people who know me could use them.

This is a n absolute NO NO. I use a different randomly created password for everything. I only need to remember one (strong) password for my Keepass password safe. Since I have it with me on my phone all the time I don't need to remember any other ones.

slopemaster wrote: »

What I am actually trying to get my head around is a file to be accessed in the event of my death, so I want it to be protected, yet accessible - obviously impossible!!!
What I thought was I will print some of the stuff out and leave in my desk drwa in a sealed envelope - so anyone could open it, true, but I would at least know if it had been opened. And in that stuff would be the password to the file on the computer. So it would be easy for the right person to follow the instructions, but hopefully impossible for anyone else.
So I would write down (for example) "the computer password is my mother's maiden name followed by my son's year of birth followed by my cat's name" and it would mean nothing to a random burglar.
Does that make sense at all?

If it's really important to you that somebody can access the files after your death, put the password with the instructions in an envelope and leave it with your lawyer and advice him only to open it if something happens to you.