Password Protecting a Folder???????

IronMaidenFan

Hi

Is it possible to password protect a folder within My Documents or would I need to password protect each individual file within the folder? The folder has Word and Excel files in it.

I'm on Windows XP.

Thanks

amcluesent

If the disk is formatted NTFS, you can encrypt the folder and/or change the permissions to only allow access from your login. This won't be completely foolproof if other people login with Administrator rights.

If loads of peeps are logging on the same account, you'd need another program like TrueCrypt to provide a separate password.

davidm_uk

Or zip all the files in the folder and specify a password while zipping them (one password is used for all the files being put into the zip file).

If using WINZIP (and probably others) the individual files can be opened by just opening the zip file, then double clicking on the file you want to open and inputting the password, you don't actually have to extract the file from the zipped file before opening it.

Added benefit is that zipping the files, particularly Word and Excel files, compresses them and can save a lot of disk space.

Zipping files, with a password, is often used by people wanting to email files with some level of security.

Zipping is not totally unbreakable, but then nothing is! It will deter most folks.

google zip to find out more. (rar is an alternative to zip that seems to be getting more popular).

dogmaryxx

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306531

IronMaidenFan

amcluesent wrote: »

If the disk is formatted NTFS, you can encrypt the folder and/or change the permissions to only allow access from your login. This won't be completely foolproof if other people login with Administrator rights.

I've encrypted the folder which is now only accessible from my login - got somebody coming to stay for a few days and don't want them looking at my personal docs/spreadsheets so this will do nicely.

Thanks again.

KillerWatt

IronMaidenFan wrote: »

I've encrypted the folder which is now only accessible from my login - got somebody coming to stay for a few days and don't want them looking at my personal docs/spreadsheets so this will do nicely.

Make sure they are not in the Administrators group, because if they are then accessing your "encrypted" data (which isn't actually encrypted) is childs play.

If you want to make sure the data is truly inaccessible to other users, you need to use EFS (Encrypting File System).
Make sure you do not lose the backup key if you choose the EFS route, because if you do then the data is gone.

Aiadi

One easy and extremely secure way is just to create a TrueCrypt container of whatever size you like and stick all your important files into it. You can then also take it with you on a USB knowing it is inaccessible even in the event of losing your USB.

IronMaidenFan

KillerWatt wrote: »

Make sure they are not in the Administrators group, because if they are then accessing your "encrypted" data (which isn't actually encrypted) is childs play.

If you want to make sure the data is truly inaccessible to other users, you need to use EFS (Encrypting File System).
Make sure you do not lose the backup key if you choose the EFS route, because if you do then the data is gone.

Thanks, I have one log on in the Administrators Group and one in the Guest Group so assume that's ok.

KillerWatt

That's fine for your purposes.

IronMaidenFan

KillerWatt wrote: »

That's fine for your purposes.

That's great, thanks very much!