Password Protect Folders

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Guest

Hi ladies and gents!

I am interested in password protecting my folders, as I have a laptop and
will shortly be going to university so security will become a more prominent
issue.

I have thus far trialed several commerical third party password protect
programs for my folders, as my file system is FAT32 so I cannot use the
protect option under properties>sharing.

However, these really are not what I had in mind, in the sense that you
password protect a folder, then when you want to open it, you double click
it, and enter the password, and the folder opens. Ok so far? Sure, apart from
the fact that once you have done this, the folder remains unlocked and you
must then right click it, select password protect and reset it.

What I was looking for was something more along the lines of how you are
able to password protect a word document. By this I mean, once you enter a
password for the document, it remains a permanent feature until you
deactivate it. The password prompt appears every time you try and open the
file, it does not disappear after one use so you have to reset it.

I know you think I am probably just lazy, but I am often in a rush and have
been known to forget things on occasion, so I really do not want to run the
risk of having to relock a folder every time I open, as it is the ones I use
often that I most want to protect.

If you guys could recommened a reliable third party software that allows me
to put a permanent password on my folders that brings up a simple prompt
whenever I want to open it without having to load up the entire third party
software program, much in the same way as when you password protect a word
document, that would be fantastic. I am at my wits end with trying and
searching myself, and am frankly fed up with the third party software I have
tried so far that I constantly have to keep re-entering the password for when
I have finished viewing my folder and closed it.

Many, many thanks for any help or suggestions you guys are able to give me!

Kind regards,

Jack.
 
Well you could always put it in a zipped folder and password protect the
zipped folder (compressed folder) but that only works when you are trying to
open content such as movies pictures and word documents etc. not when you
open the folder. You could user folder lockbox ( www.folderlockbox.com ) when
you open your protected folder you must enter a password and to exit it you
have to right click the icon and choose lock and quit. Also what are you
running? (Windows xp home/pro? service pack???
 
Hi,

thanks for taking the time to respond to my question.

I have tried the compressed folder path but it really wasn't what I was
looking for.

Ideally, I want something as simple as when you put a password on a word
document. When you double click the folder, a prompt box comes up asking you
to enter a password, you enter it, the folder opens. However, as with a word
document, the password is permanent unless you choose to remove it, you do
not have to reset it after you open the file/folder.

It seems the simplest things are the hardest to achieve!

P.S. I am on Windos XP Home Edition
 
It seems folder lockbox is what you're looking for. It creates a folder
called My Lockbox in the My Documents Folder. It will also appear as a
desktop icon. When you want to go into your lockbox simply double click on My
Lockbox enter the password an voila! To lock the folder right click on the
taskbar icon and choose lock and quit and it will be unaccesible until the
password is entered again. The only thing is you have to remember to lock it
when you exit. But you never have to reset the password it will always stay
the same until you change it. Please let me know if this works. Jake :)
 
This wasn't exactly what I was looking for but it works great!

Thanks so much for all your help Jake.

Kind regards,

Jack.
 
Your login is your security regarding who can get at what files.
NT-based versions of Windows rely on permissions, not passwords, so
configure the permissions on your folders wherever they be so that only
you can access them. However, admins can change those permissions and
can even take ownership of your files. But then only you know the login
credentials (i.e., password) for the Administrator account on your
laptop.

You could also used EFS provided you have the Pro version and not the
crippled Home version. EFS is the "protection" that you mention when
looking at the properties of folder. It is only available under NTFS,
so run "convert" to switch from FAT32 to NTFS.

Look into TrueCrypt if you are still needing something OUTSIDE the
operating system to provide encryption and password-protection of your
files. You create volumes or containers that get loaded when you
specify the encrypt file that TrueCrypt loads (it looks like another
drive). Anything you store in it gets encrypted. When you first open
it, you are prompted for a password but you are not prompted thereafter
while the container remains open. You need to close that container,
like unloading the .tc file in which the files were saved, logging out,
rebooting, or using their background utility that can be configured to
unload the container after a certain period of inactivity within that
container. TrueCrypt is free. I prefer it over EFS because I don't
have to remember to export the EFS certificate to use it when I do a
fresh install of the OS and then can't get into the EFS containers until
I import that previously exported EFS certificate. With TrueCrypt, I
only need to remember my password no matter where I transport the .tc
file.
 
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