Password Protecting a Folder?

[wokkaben]

As the title suggests, does anyone know how to password protect afolder using Windows 7? I've had a look round using the "Properties" function but no luck. All ideas gratefully recieved! Ben.

[Popuptoaster]

use Winrar to compress it, you can specify that a password is needed to open it then.

[vauxsqueeks]

Hi,
You could add another user to the system, providing that you use a password to login on your account your files should be safe from prying eyes if their stored in the my documents folder.

Setting permissions on the folder will stop any other users seeing them.

How secure do you need them to be? will depend how far you will want to go to protect the contents...

[Wilberforce]

Beyond what's mentioned above, Windows7 doesn't really do password protected folders.
If you have multiple user accounts setup, you can choose to add a password to your account, and then you are able to set folders related to your account (My Documents, etc) as private but that's about it.

As somebody else said, you could use a compression program like WinRAR to package the contents of the folder up, and apply a password, but this means you have to unpack the contents each time you want to use them, and delete the folder, remember about any files that were changed, etc. Not particularly satisfactory either.

I would advise getting hold of a free program called TrueCrypt, and using that. It's an excellent and very secure app, and once installed, you'll be able to set it up to automatically decrypt your chosen files and make them visible to use in Windows and vice-versa when you login and logout.
See www.truecrypt.org for more.

Jim

[Mr Mud]

If you have very sensitive files you need to protect why not try an external device, I've been using Ironkey memory stick's for about three years now as they are uncrackable, also they have built in encryption so you can protect everything on the stick, and if anyone tries to access them with the wrong pin they self destruct! that's why the US Forces use them.