File sharing (or rather files to not be shared)?

JustAnotherSaver

For years rather than have one drive/partition with multiple user accounts i have had 2 or 3 drives/partitions for each user. These then had their own storage drive with the other storage drives 'hidden' from view in My Computer. So to take it to the most simplest on a 2 user situation...


Drive (1) for person A which shows in My Computer. They have Drive (2) as a storage drive for all their files (pictures, documents, music etc). Drive 3 & 4 are hidden from view in My Computer.


Drive (3) for person B - shows in My Computer. They have
Drive (4) for their storage drive for their files but this person also cannot 'see' drive 1 and 2 in My Computer.


As i look to move to Windows 10 i'm thinking of going the more conventional way.


Drive (1) for both A & B - multiple user accounts. This will be on a SSD.
As the SSD drive is not that large, it makes no sense to store files on it, so this will be on a separate storage drive (internal).


How do you stop person A from seeing person B's files and vice versa? I don't just mean can't access a folder but can see it, i mean actually cannot see the files?


Would you have to partition off Drive 2 in to 2 drives and then 'hide' one from the other (remove drive letter)? Or is there another way?

arciere

Not sure I follow. If this is a Windows environment, just change the security settings (right click on the folder, properties, security tab). You can select pretty much everything in there.

However, keep in mind that usually any local administrator will be able to change the security profiles.

Neil_Jones

I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill so to speak.

Separate storage (like a NAS (Network Drive) for example) would be far far easier. Then you can just set up individual users with individual passwords and set them as shares in Windows. Which would do what you want if you set it up properly.

The problem with doing it locally in Windows on a per user basis is that any administrator can just reset all the permissions to see all the files.

JustAnotherSaver

Neil_Jones wrote: »

Separate storage (like a NAS (Network Drive) for example) would be far far easier.

Depending on what you're wanting to achieve ... no it wouldn't.


If you want to achieve storing files on separate storage then i couldn't agree more with you.

The problem with doing it locally in Windows on a per user basis is that any administrator can just reset all the permissions to see all the files.

Anything is simple to anyone who knows ... but if they don't then it is not simple. You make numerous assumptions ... that all users will A) be aware of what's been put in place not like what's been put in place C) will want to change what's been put in place D) will know how to change what's been put in place.


That's quite a lot of assuming. What if none of that applies to other users on the machine?




But i'm allowing myself to get off topic.

New question then ... is what i am asking for impossible to achieve?


If yes then ok. If not then could you please tell me how (preferably with no jargon, or as little as possible)?

arciere

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

You make numerous assumptions ... that all users will A) be aware of what's been put in place not like what's been put in place C) will want to change what's been put in place D) will know how to change what's been put in place.

I think Neil made a good point tbh. If you want to restrict access to certain folders, then you must know that using Windows permissions is not risk-free as anyone with an administrator account can change such permissions.
If, on the other hand, accessing this data is not mission critical, then you could simply set up different users in Windows with a password, each one will have their own personal folders.

So my question would be: what is it exactly that you want to achieve?

DoaM

A Google search term I tried yielded some possible results:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/prevent-users-from-accessing-each-others-folders/61ce21d8-ffe4-4126-af00-79c660279de5
https://superuser.com/questions/1115595/windows-10-how-do-i-lock-limit-another-users-access-to-my-folders
https://www.microsoftpressstore.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2453566

But as mentioned above, anyone with Admin rights will be able to circumvent anything you try to impose (assuming they know what they're doing).

JustAnotherSaver

arciere wrote: »

So my question would be: what is it exactly that you want to achieve?

To be perfectly honest, i don't really know how else to say it. I've already said what i want to achieve.

You both must know more about computing than me so on your end it must be frustrating that i'm not getting what angle you're coming from but equally it's frustrating that you don't get the angle i'm coming from when i feel i explained it quite simply (obviously i explained it poorly which is nothing new i must admit).


So to do it a little differently then from my end it feels a bit like this at the moment....


me: I want a car. My only specification is it has to be a Ford.
you: What about this Vauxhall?
me: I want a ford, beyond that i'm not bothered.
you: what about this Peugeot?
me: errr, no i want a Ford. Not bothered about the model but the make yeah, that has to be Ford.
you: got this Citroen for you, how about it?
me: hmm, not sure if i'm saying this properly. F.o.r.d??

you: I know what'll do you, just you wait. It'll blow your mind. Just what you're looking for ......... look at this Volkswagen.




It's seems a little bit like that to me.

I think Neil made a good point tbh. If you want to restrict access to certain folders, then you must know that using Windows permissions is not risk-free as anyone with an administrator account can change such permissions.

In what way? Just a simple double click?

Or would they need to go in somewhere and start tweaking settings?

If, on the other hand, accessing this data is not mission critical, then you could simply set up different users in Windows with a password, each one will have their own personal folders.

Doesn't that only apply to the files stored on the same drive that the OS is installed on?


So for example - i install on Drive 1 Windows 10 & create 2, 3, 4 etc users (let's go for 2 for simplicity).

I keep my bank login details for example (i'm surprised nobody has suggested the har-har very funny bit yet but there's still time...) in C:My Documents.


I suspect that none of the other users can access this. Same way if they did the same then i can't access theirs (assuming we're all passworded).
If that's the case then i get that.



But i don't like keeping files on the C drive anyway. C drive fails to boot or just dies. Then you're in to the realms of hoping you backed up recently and didn't lose too much.



So the files will be kept on a separate internal drive. My concern here is that each and every user can see everything that is on that drive as it's a separate drive.

They WILL need access to the drive, for their own files, but they don't want to be seeing each others files on that drive.





If you still can't get what i'm looking to achieve then i'm honestly lost on how else to say it & i'll be left hoping someone can come in who understands it.
I'm not asking whether it's what someone else would do. I'm not interested in that. I'm not asking if someone thinks this is the best thing to do either. I'm looking to see how to do it.

JustAnotherSaver

DoaM wrote: »

But as mentioned above, anyone with Admin rights will be able to circumvent anything you try to impose (assuming they know what they're doing).

:wall::wall::wall::wall:

That's the bit i'm trying to work out.


Saying "anyone with admin rights can get round this" is fantastic.



If it's a case of a simple double click to open a folder then that's one thing - but then that doesn't answer my question since they'd be able to see the folder in order to double click it, which i don't want.




But if they need to go here/here/there/overthere/intothatsubfoldertoo/tweakthis/tweakthat and enter a load of code kind of thing then it's a little bit different.




EDIT: I get the impression that a lot of the confusion stems from wanting to understand why i want to do this, wanting to tell me that XYZ is better instead, telling me someone with great knowledge could get round it all even if your average Joe wouldn't have a clue ....... rather than just telling me how it's done. I may be wrong. I hope i'm wrong. Who knows.

arciere

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

In what way? Just a simple double click?

Or would they need to go in somewhere and start tweaking settings?

In a way...it doesn't require more than 2-3 clicks.

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Doesn't that only apply to the files stored on the same drive that the OS is installed on?

Windows doesn't work with drives in that sense, it works with folders. When you create a new user, it will have its own personal folders (Documents, Desktop, Downloads, etc). By default these are accessible by that user only. But then again, we go back to the other point: anyone with an admin account can change the permissions (yes, one-two clicks) and get access to the folders.

arciere

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

But i don't like keeping files on the C drive anyway. C drive fails to boot or just dies. Then you're in to the realms of hoping you backed up recently and didn't lose too much.

That doesn't make much sense. Your C drive can fail as easily as your D drive. You need to have backup, especially if data is important. I think this is a separate issue, that (even more) points towards using a NAS.
A NAS is not a backup solution per se, but it can give you disk redundancy (so you are protected against a single drive failure) and you can set the permissions at a NAS level rather than Windows.

DoaM

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

:wall::wall::wall::wall:

That's the bit i'm trying to work out.

No point in getting @rsey with me ... did you even look at any of the links I posted?

To be able to assign permissions on folders then the Users folder must be accessible for all user accounts. At that point (C:\Users in Explorer) all users will be able to see that other users exist on the same machine. Hopefully one of the links will give more details ... if you're able to stop another (non-admin) user from accessing the folder* of another user then that should achieve what you want.

* as in the folder of the named account of another user. If permissions are set to prevent access then someone trying to do so will see a message popup along the lines of "You don't currently have permission to access this folder". Therefore the Documents, Music etc. sub-folders will be similarly inaccessible. (An admin account will be able to get permission to access the folder; a non-admin account won't).

Nobody can tell you what level of expertise one of your users may have. (After all, anyone can use Google). So the simple solution is ... don't allow any of the user accounts to have admin privileges!