Topic: Passwords For Folders ?

[Kaz]

Hello Everyone,
I want to password a folder on my laptop can it done?

The reason I'm asking is I have some music that has taken me a long time to compile and other people will be using this Laptop with the music I want to password the music files so only I can move them around to various places at different times on the Laptop it will be running windows vista home premium (which I have never used before) It's just so people don't get messing with things

Cheers

[Simon]

Hi Kaz,

I know you'll be using Vista, but this will probably work as it does in XP.

1. Right click the file(s) or folder(s) you want to password protect, and Send To > Compressed (Zipped) Folder

2. Right click the new Zipped folder, and select Explore

3. Select File > Add a Password, then insert and confirm your password.

You will then be left with the original files, plus the new, password protected Zipped folder, so, essentially, what that does is create a secure back up of your original files.  All that will do is prevent the files from being opened or altered - it will not prevent them from being deleted!

Does that help?

[sam]

surely individual users cant delete other peoples files if they are in their document areas?

[Rik]

I was thinking about that. They shouldn't be able to unless they have administrator privileges.

[Simon]

Kaz said that other people would be using her laptop, not that there would be multiple user accounts.  If she does use multiple user accounts, she can set permissions for folders on Vista, by right clicking the folder > Properties > Security, then tick / untick the relevant boxes for each user / user group.  I think this can also be done in XP.

[Kaz]

What it is I do music for my Club and now I have got a new laptop on which to put this music, I used to use a double cd DJ deck, but I have been doing this music from my Laptop (which is far easier and much lighter so I don't have to carry a load of Equipment around) so now and the club has decided to buy a laptop on which to do the music, but on occasions I let other people DJ Gives me a break and aslo they need it when I'm away on holidays, illness ect, so what I want is to put my collection of music and the clubs music on the new laptop and which has taken me 5 years to compile it's all special sequence dancing music etc so what I want is to protect the music from being messed around with, deleated, you know how it is if it's not yours you tend not to care so much I'm very fussy after all I have spent hours putting all this together, anyway I want to put up a selection of music, but I want to protect all the other music that will be put on the laptop and I don't want anyone messing around with it if you get my drift ':| so I thought maybe I could put it in a folder take out what is needed and lock the other stuff away that's what I want to do weather it's possible or not Im not sure  hope I have explained myself well enough for you to get the general idea!

[Rik]

Depending on the knowledge of others using the lappy, it might be enough just to make all the files read-only. However, in your situation, I think I'd just make a backup to an external drive, so that you could restore easily.

[Kaz]

I do have a

Depending on the knowledge of others using the lappy, it might be enough just to make all the files read-only. However, in your situation, I think I'd just make a backup to an external drive, so that you could restore easily.

I do have a back up Rik.
Oh yes, but I wanted to put it all on the laptop so we had another backup if anything happen to the Hard Drive

[Sandra]

Have you enough room on the laptops hard drive for a copy of the original folder ?

If so you could install a program like LOCKFOLDER and make a copy of the folder for general access and lock your origibnal folder.
That program and similar ones, make the locked folder actually invisible to anyone who doesnt use the sequences of keys that you select when installing the program to bring the login box up then login with the correct password.

[Simon]

It doesn't seem to actually say that LOCKFOLDER is Vista compatible, San, but I guess it probably is.

I came across http://www.truecrypt.org/ earlier, which seems to be a disc encrypter, but I think it will encrypt partitions too, so you could make a partition, and move the files you want to protect to there, then encrypt it (but not necessarily in that order!).  The program seems a bit technical for me, but it's open source, and they are usually quite reliable, so there's another alternative for you. 

[Kaz]

Lockfolder sounds good Ill do a search and have a look at it the hard drive is 250g so it is big enough,
also would this work?  If I made a login for me and then also a login for another user, then I would have the original folder in my login part and then anyone could login on the other?
Thanks Sandra

[Sandra]

Yes if you created user accounts with their own passwords you could set the permissions that way but make sure that you are the only admin.
In fact with Vista you could just make the original folder fully accessable to admin and restrict other users to "read only" via the folder permissions part.

[Kaz]

Yes if you created user accounts with their own passwords you could set the permissions that way but make sure that you are the only admin.
In fact with Vista you could just make the original folder fully accessable to admin and restrict other users to "read only" via the folder permissions part.

Is this folder permission the same as win XP I haven't used it before neither have I  used Vista yet so I'm not familiar with it I need a crash course Im sure it will all become clear (as Mud) lol

[Sandra]

If you right click the folder that you want to restrict permissions on in Vista then select Properties, you get a window with more tabs.
Click on Security and then on Edit and that will allow you to set the allowances and restrictions as you like 

You want Full Control for yourself and restrict the others to Read and Execute, List and Read.

[Kaz]

Bri

If you right click the folder that you want to restrict permissions on in Vista then select Properties, you get a window with more tabs.
Click on Security and then on Edit and that will allow you to set the allowances and restrictions as you like 

You want Full Control for yourself and restrict the others to Read and Execute, List and Read.

ll

Brill Thanks Sandra,
Are you using Vista? or XP and how do you find them, do you have a preference?
Can this also be done on Xp too is it the same please?