Ed,
In terms of CD's you can't really password protect
contents, if you want content on a CD to be secure, your
probably best creating an encrpyted Archieve of some kind
which is password protected.
The best thing is just to have a look at some tools
available and choose the best one that fits your needs.
The below link is to download.com's security and
encryption tools:
http://www.download.com/Security-Encryption/3150-2092-
0.html?tag=dir
Because you are using XP Home Edition the great
feature

of EFS which you can use in XP Professional to
secure data on you hard drive isnt available. So my best
opinion on this would again be to have a look on the link
above to see if a tool is available to meet your needs
Hope this helps
Mike Bright MCP, MSP
e:
[email protected]