Folder passwords/security for privacy [Was: A very stupid question...]

[toru310]

Hi, I have a question? Is there anyway to hide a specific folder and put a password on it?? Cause lately there are some people that i don't like and there invading my privacy (If you know what i mean ). Is there any program cause i just don't need the hide folder uising xp i want to over protect my files and if possible i like to put a password on it.

[felix]

Isn't it as simple as making yourself the admin and making everybody else limited, with even limited rights.

Anyway there are programs for what you want, I'm not familiar with them tho' google should help.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Migufuchi Fusutsu

Hi, I have a question? Is there anyway to hide a specific folder and put a password on it?? Cause lately there are some people that i don't like and there invading my privacy (If you know what i mean ). Is there any program cause i just don't need the hide folder uising xp i want to over protect my files and if possible i like to put a password on it.

The problem with securing data this way is, if the content becomes slightly altered (due to some data errors maybe) the whole data is rendered useless
Anyway, you can encrypt the contents of folders in XP, thats a build in feature. You just need to add an account password to your account afterwards then (since only within your account this folder can be read then...)

[toru310]

Originally Posted by Jinto Lin

The problem with securing data this way is, if the content becomes slightly altered (due to some data errors maybe) the whole data is rendered useless
Anyway, you can encrypt the contents of folders in XP, thats a build in feature. You just need to add an account password to your account afterwards then (since only within your account this folder can be read then...)

Hmmm actually that can work but is there any program that can do that? cause making another account is so trouble some. ahahah

[Aoie_Emesai]

As said to those posters above. From what i know, You can't individually password lock a single folder. And you'll just have to make you're Admin and use the master account for yourself and lock out the folders you want private and create another account for the others that use your computer. Like Cats said.

[Ledgem]

Does the account business really work? I know that in the past (Win95, 98, ME) you could access other account folders simply through Explorer. Does Windows lock the folders by default now, or is there a setting for it?

[Jinto]

Well, thats what encryption is for. You encrypt a folder, which can only be decrypted with the unique decryption key that only the account owns where the folder was encrypted in. You can still see it with other accounts (even see whats inside it), but you cannot access it anymore.

@Migufuchi Fusutsu,

How should this work? I mean do you have to type the password everytime you have access on this folder? Or only once after start-up.
The problem is, if you try to access files in the folder with 3rd party programs, they do not know about encryption (unless you are using the build in Windows EFS). You'ld need to substitude or hook certain Windows libraries to make 3rd party encryption work with other software. Though I don't know of any trust worthy hack that provides such functionality (most applications, like e.g. the PGP-solutions, work based on an account scheme. That means encryption is transparent for certain accounts that are in a certain group, and otheres that are not in the group do not have access to it, thats pretty much it)

The only somewhat similar thing you maybe want to try is to rar-archivate your folder and give it a password encryption. So content can only be extracted with the use of the right password (but thats even more unstable for the data, because chances are high, this file won't work after a certain amount of usage time - because packed & encrypted data is even more vulnarable for minor data errors, which render the whole package useless)

So I think its because of usability reasons why the encryption feature is bound to user accounts. You will have a hard time, finding a trustworthy alternative solution.

[toru310]

Thanks. Found the program that i need but the problem now its only for free trial..hhuhuuhuh

[TronDD]

Just make a truecrypt volume and use that. Thats the kind of overkill you're probably looking for.

[MugenIchiban]

I'd just zip it up and put a password on even though its a lot of hassle.

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

Does the account business really work?

If the file system used is NTFS, yes. A combination of suitable folder level permissions, account restrictions and file-system level encryption should deter all but the most persistent, technically aware and sneaky snoops in a shared PC environment. All of which comes with Windows 2K/XP out of the box, provided you're not still using FAT32...

For anything more serious, you have to trade off cost with flexibility and security. Most expensive, flexible and robust systems are hardware level disk encryption. You physically removed the disk when you are not using it and the whole thing is cyphered below the operating system. Cheapest, least flexible and least secure is the zip file approach.

Encrypted disk volumes (as mentioned above) are a good compromise for the slightly paranoid. I take this approach for any of the classified/secure stuff I work on, for which I've been using Best Crypt volumes, but there are other flavors (PGP have an offering and TrueCrypt was mentioned, which has the advantage of being open source).