Secret Folders

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Hello over there!

I need to protect some folders so nobody can access them without a password. Do you know of any freeware that’ll do the trick? The only one I tried is Folder Guard, but if you don’t buy the license it makes clear that the folders are protected by Folder Guard (so if you are not meant to see the contents in a specific folder, the program prompts a Register Now! window , you can easily uninstall Folder Guard and access the folder’s contents anyway).

Any help will be greatly appreciated

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Network or local folders?
What operating system?
(The easiest answer is probably going to be for you to install W2K. . .)

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Sorry, local folders and W98.
I also have W2K but didn’t take to it because of the oh so many programs that were available for W98 but weren’t for W2k (at the time I installed the latter). So I have my PC fully customised for W98 and runnin’… Does W2k have an option to protect/unprotect or hide/unhide folders?

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Yep – the attached shows I’ve managed to lock myself out of a folder on my own PC – I can not even see the contents.
But if you need W98, I’m not sure if that is going to help.

Unless…. you install W2K as a dual boot but only use it to lock specific folders – would that work?

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Leif…isn’t there in the Registry somewhere where all the passwords are kept?

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To what end?
I simply assigned another user as the only person who can access the folder, so I can log in as them to get back in and change the permissions.

I haven’t shot myself in the foot, if that is what you are thinking.

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ok..no problem..I had a friend who did that – locked himself out of his folders,etc…had a heck of a time getting info as to where the passwords were all listed in the Registry. I figured that you were too smart to even think of doing that to yourself on purpose

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I’m not sure about what you mean by “dual boot”… When I boot, a black screen appears for me to choose which OS I want to run (W98 or W2K). If I choose W2K, what shoud I do next? Lock the folders? When I reboot and start in W98, will the protection take effect here too?

Thanks

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Looks like you already have a dual boot option – W2K or W98.
To be honest, I’ve no idea if it will work as I’ve never had a need to use it!

Try logging in on W2K as Administrator and set the properties of a test folder for access by the Administrator only. Then go back in with W98 (not logging in as Administrator) and see if you can access it. I would like to think you could not!

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I’ll try it and let you know if it works.

Anyway, if anyone knows of an easier way to get the job done, I’m right here . I think there has to be a third party program to lock folders (other than Folder Guard), though I’m not sure about a free ver.

Thanks a lot

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Diegol,

I used to use a little application called “Magic Folders” which was free. The nice thing about that is not only did it password protect a folder, it made it invisible until you entered a password in a dialog box that you invoked by pressing a set of “hotkeys”. Sorry, but I can’t remember the website where I found it at, but I’m sure if you were to do a search on “All the Web, All the Time” or “Google”, it would turn up in the results.

Jeff

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First offering from Google brought it up – Magic Folders – looks like it would do the job.

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The freeware version of PGP (Version 6.02i) can be used to create an encrypted “virtual disk drive”. This exists as a single large file and needs your key and password to mount it as a disk.

You can find this at http://www.pgpi.org/products/pgpdisk/%5B/url%5D

StuartR

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Hey Stuart, thanks for replying.

I’m currently running PGP 7.03 and don’t know about this feature you’re talking about… Do you know if it has been removed?

I had thought of using PGP, but (excluding the “Virtual Disk Drive” feature you just mentioned, which I don’t know) as it not only encrypts but in the encryption process also zips files, it would take a long while to encrypt a, say, 2 GB folder. Same for the decryption. You cannot view single files with PGP, as you would with WinZip. Instead of entering your password, choosing the file you want to view and extracting it, you enter your password and the whole set of files is extracted. A third issue with PGP is related to the encryption method: when you encrypt a 2GB folder you must have another 1,7 GB or so (depending on the folder’s contents) available in your HD for PGP to create the new file.

Whoa. After I wrote this I checked your link and it appears that PGP Disk was a standalone program before version 6.0.2i. Then it was integrated with PGP. And from ver. 6.5 on, you must buy the commercial version to have PGPDisk bundled with PGP.

PGP ver. 6.0.2i is still available for free at the link you posted. Now, my questions come to:

– Should I uninstall ver. 7.03 before installing Ver. 6.0.2i?
– Is it feasible to install ver 6.0.2i in a different directory so as to keep the two versions?
– Provided I must uninstall ver. 7.03, do you know of any major features that I won’t be able to use with the older version?

TIA

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As it happens I use PGPFreeware602i at home and the commercial version of PGPDisk, File and Mail V7.1 at work.

The only major issue I have noted with the 6.02 version is that the keyboard driver that intercepts keystrokes to Dismount all PGP Disks is not Plug and Play, so you can’t suspend a laptop that is running Windows 2000 and running this version.

The two versions of PGPDisk are not compatible, you need to stick with one or the other. Mail sent with either version of PGP is happily readable with the other. The more recent version integrates with Outlook better.

I don’t think you can run both versions on the same PC at the same time – I seem to remember trying to do this and running into major problems.

StuartR

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I am currently using PGP for classic, “symmetric” encryption purposes only (Self-Decrypting Archives creation), so losing my certificate isn’t really much of a pain. I’ll give ver. 6.0.2i a try.

Thanks for your help

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You can continue to use the same certificate, you just can’t use the same Encrypted PGPDisk

StuartR

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For freeware of this sort, and other useful utilities, you could do worse than visit my (entirely non-commercial) website. Click the button labelled ‘Encryption’. Cryptext a good choice, which sits on the RClick menu, but Power Desk 4 is also handy as it also has a built-in shredder.

Click My Sig

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Hi MerC,

I’m using PowerDesk but won’t stick to it for folders encryption. I like the way Cryptext handles it much better (by the way, thanks for the advice!!). I’m currently testing both PGPDisk and Cryptext.

At a first glance, one issue with PGPDisk is that you must define the space of the encrypted unit beforehand, that is, you must resign, say, 600 MB of C: disk space to create the file which in turn will be used as the new virtual unit that will keep whatever you store in it encrypted. If you lack space in your C: but know that you will have that space available in the future, and need to start storing sensitive data right now, you would have to create a small Unit and go storing until you can free some space in C:, create a new, bigger Unit, pass the contents from the former Unit on to the new one, and then delete the former Unit. Otherwise, it’s real cool.

As for cryptext, it’s cool that you can see which files are encrypted (the prog changes their icons), which becomes a chore with PowerDesk. However, it

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