How do I password protect my folder/files?
 

I am currently using Windows XP, and the best I can do is make my folders and files hidden, but they can still be accessed when on a guest account. How do I make it so that none of my files or folders can be opened or viewed while on a guest account?

I saw this option when I go into the properties of my folder, but it is greyed out and I can't check the box by it.

http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/4761/image13so.gif

Searching on Google it said to uncheck the box in the folder options that says disable simple sharing,

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/2484/image20eg.gif

but after I do that, the file sharing tab no longer appears, and this new tab shows up.

http://img238.imageshack.us/img238/1693/image11pf.gif

And even though it says do not allow people to have access to it and make it privatized, etc, when I log onto the guest account I can still access my personal folders and files and all that, so I guess it's not working as intended.

I'm at a loss how to do this. The only alternative I can think of is to not use a guest account and just have my admin account passworded so no one without the password can get on, but I do have people over sometimes that want to use the net, so I would like to have the guest account available for them to surf the web, even though they can't install or uninstall stuff. I don't want them snooping around my things.

I'm a bit fuzzy on this, so forgive me. Go into Control Panel -> Users and Passwords, there's an option like "make my folders private". This will keep anything in your desktop and My Documents folder from being accessed by anybody who I believe is not an admin.

No passwords required other than to access the account.


Hopefully if this isn't quite right, somebody who either knows it better or has XP in front of them can confirm this.

It's a folder that's on the C:\ drive and not in the My Documents or Desktop folders though, so any idea how to password those?

Either shove it in one of those two locations, or find some password protection software. Windows won't do it.

Actually, you can forbid access on a per-account basis.

To do this, do the following (my memory is fuzzy, but this should work--if not, let me know and I'll get the exact steps for you):

• Right-click the folder in question, then hit Properties.
• Navigate to the Security tab--hit the Advanced button in this pane.
• See the list of accounts/groups here? Remove all of them except your own username, and then hit OK to apply the changes.

Note that Administrative level users may be able to override this by altering permissions on the folder, but such is not relevant if other users on your system are just of the Users (Limited) level.

I want to add that this is not the safe way to go. Windows file encryption and protection is very weak and can be bypassed very easily.
If you want better safety consider something like a crypted container (TrueCrypt can do this). Using AES encryption your data should be quite safe at the present time.

I use a program called Hide Files and Folders. It works extremely well. You can set the option to either password protect the folder or hide it completely.

I usually hide it because if you password-protect a folder that's not a root folder, it'll stupidly prompt you for the password when you open the root directory instead of the actual folder you protected.