Folders with restricted access?

[_xxx_]

How can I restrict access to certain folders under windows if my account is set up without a password?

Do I need any special tools or is there any easy way to do it in WinXP? If possible, the folders should be password protected and not user-bound.

 

[Guden Oden]

XP can encrypt folders, but I don't know if it's selectable which ones it encrypts, or if it's the entire drive/partition. Of course, if you do encrypt anything, for the love of grud, don't lose the password! And, backup your stuff BEFORE you reinstall the OS, as I know of people who've screwed themselves that way and not been able to reach their own stuff anymore.

 

[_xxx_]

I don't want encription, just a simple password protection...

 

[NANOTEC]

I don't want encription, just a simple password protection...

AFAIK you can't in XP unless you compress the folder/file.

 

[carpediem]

Hide Folder 3.0, but that's comerical... Does work fine though

 

[Guden Oden]

I don't want encription, just a simple password protection...

XP password protects by encrypting.

Only password-protecting isn't really going to stop anyone except a computer noob. Turning off autostarting programs and rebooting the system for example would defeat a simple password protection application, but it wouldn't stop encryption password protection.

 

[_xxx_]

Heh, it's for a friend of mine who wants to hide his pr0n from his wife and they're both n00bs, so that wouldn't be a problem

 

[Guden Oden]

Hahaha! Well, why not simply stick all the pr0n inside a zip file with a non-descriptive name or something?

 

[Rolf N]

Heh, it's for a friend of mine who wants to hide his pr0n from his wife and they're both n00bs, so that wouldn't be a problem

That won't work
Makes excellent Hollywood material though.

Computer voice: "Access denied".
She: Wha? Sweetheart?! What's this supposed to mean?
He: Ummm ... nothing. Yeah. Nothing.
She: What are you hiding there?
He: Nothing?
She: It's not pr0n, is it?
He: No, not at all. Just some ... private ... stuff.
She: What kind of ...?
He: Look, I told you. It's nothing.

Etc. The next scene would most likely involve a phone conversation with a private investigator

 

[Guden Oden]

 

[_xxx_]

LOL

Oh well, to me that's a wussy acting anyway, I'd never let a girl (or anyone, for that matter) tell me what to do, so...

 

[Blazkowicz]

really, hide it deep into the directory tree
there's a C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images for instance.. yes, you have it, and Microsoft hides a 5 minutes long .WMA song here !
or you can put stuff in sub-sub-directories of an unpacked CD image of Creative drivers, or whatever.
with winrar, put the porn in a .rar file without compression, and rename it to a file without extension. (or multiple files). or if it's only for a few movies, rename them one by one, asian_beauty_face_fucked.mpeg or skater_boyz.avi (depending on his tastes) becoming say 0248 and 0249

the wife would have to go to such remote direcory location (already something that will never happen), then notice these high weight files and rename them to .avi, .wmv etc. try to read them.

 

[_xxx_]

Too risky since his 13-year old daughter also uses the machine. I think he wouldn't like her to see "Rocco - the animal trainer" while looking for her Barbie dress pics

 

[N00b]

The best solution would be something like BestCrypt. It creates encrypted hidden volumes. These volumes behave just like a regular partitions (i.e. c: , d: ) when mounted with the correct password. You can even choose to make these volumes invisible to the regular user.

 

[mito]

Beware of the My Recent Documents folder.

 

[_xxx_]

Beware of the My Recent Documents folder.

Good point, I think I'll have to educate him about using TweakUI and setting all that stuff (histories, recent files etc.) to be edeleted on startup.

 

[Blazkowicz]

also, disable the history in the media player.
an easy way to deal with the My Recent Documents is to disable it in the Start menu options.