I am new to XP & have Windows XP Professional service pack 2 with all
updates loaded.
My kids use my computers (desktop & laptop) too and I want to password
protect some of my folders.
Could someone point me to instructions on how to do this. For some
reason help is not working on my computers.
One way to password-protect your files in Windows XP is to store sensitive
files and folders in a compressed folder and use that folder's built-in
password protection option. To compress a folder, right-click the desktop or
inside any folder, and choose New, Compressed (zipped) Folder. This adds a
new folder in that location with the default name 'New Compressed Folder'.
Type a name for the folder and press Enter. Double-click the folder to open
it. Now open Windows Explorer and select the folders and/or files you want
to password-protect. Use the right mouse button to drag the items into the
new compressed folder. When you release the mouse button, choose Move Here.
(If you left-drag, only copies will be added to the compressed folders,
leaving the originals unprotected.) If necessary, click the title bar of
the compressed-folder window to activate it. Choose File, Add a password.
Type your desired password in the 'Password' and 'Confirm Password' boxes,
and then click OK. From now on, only users who know the password will be
able to open, extract, copy, or move the files and subfolders to another
folder; Windows will prompt you for your password before permitting any of
these operations.
Compressed-folder passwords keep files private, but they don't protect them
(or even the entire compressed folder) from being deleted. If your sensitive
files are important, keep backups of them in a safe place.
Add files before protecting: All of the files in your compressed folder are
password-protected at the time you create the password. Any files you add to
the folder subsequently will not be password-protected, so make sure the
compressed folder contains every file you need to protect before you create
the password. To protect files that you add later, open the compressed
folder and use the File, Remove Password command, and then the File, Add a
Password command again to password-protect all the files in the folder. You
could also compress individual files and give each its own password.
A password-protected folder's file names are visible even though the files
themselves are inaccessible without the password. To hide them, compress a
folder inside another compressed folder and password-protect the topmost
folder. Other users can open the top compressed folder, but not the
subfolder holding the files.
mi
