Password Protection

[Meadhands]

Unfortunately, the things that are covered in all my computer and electronic courses are things needed for big companies and servers, and they hardly give me anything useful for personal computers. As such, I have a question here I hope one of you hands-on-experienced fellas can help me out here. /Shmooze

I am trying to put an entire folder on my computer under lock and key, that is, to find a way that I can make the entire folder only accessible through means of password entry. Something like this I might find possible through the use of a NOS, with their directory services and such, but my computer is a simple Windows XP Home addition.

I just have several family members that use my computer, and I wish to make these video recordings available only to me. Anyone got any suggestions as to how to lock them up in an easy, efficient, or "hell, at least it works" manner?

And before someone says something, no, it's not porn (You naughty minded people, you.) It's something far more personal, hence the secrecy.

Recap:

OS: XP Home addition
File type: AVI
Need: Some method of making them private.

[draco664]

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Creates a password protected virtual drive on your pc, or thumb drive. Encrypts on the fly for further protection.

[Yfandes]

I dont let anyone use my computer on my account! They get to log in through the "Guest" account. I hate people touching my computer stuff.

Here is a quick and easy way using native compression options: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,110663/article.html

[LostMyMind]

problem with that method seawolfe. is if you crash, you have to do a alot of tricks to get to your files that are encrypted that way.

With truecrypt, all you got to do is save the "file" that truecrypt uses. and Load up truecrypt (there is a portable version that don't modify the computer) and open that file, type in the password and bam you have your files again.

I like truecrypt, I had no issues so far. And I can keep a text file of all my username/passwords in there and not worry if someone steals my computer.

P.S. truecrypt is free too, works with mac and linux as well as windows.

[Broomjockey]

Another option is multiple user accounts on the PC, and then simply not having the folder accessible by the other user accounts.

[Meadhands]

I love this site, and I love these people.

Thank you all very much for your help. You can't even understand how much this helps me.

[Chanlin]

another easy option would be to zip them up using a program like winrar which lets you set a password on the archive in order decompress the files.

[Pedersen]

I wouldn't use winrar, or any other compression program. As a rule, the encryption in those programs is pretty poor, and so can easily be broken. Furthermore, if you want to access the file, it has to be decrypted into a separate (temporary) file before it's useful. Use TrueCrypt. It's your best option.

[lordlundar]

I believe the biggest question is what's the aptitude of your other users to want/get this info?

You see in my case, my family are, as politely as I can say, computer illiterate. Now this means I can simply lock down my machine with a basic password. I also have a fingerprint reader just to spook them. I don't even think I have it plugged in.

If your family isn't particularly nosy or computer literate, simply putting the files on a USB drive or flash card and only keeping a copy there will be enough. I don't recommend throwing them into a folder and password protecting them from it, as it's pretty easy to bypass.

Now if they like to snoop and they know their way around a machine, then encryption just became mandatory, and the more solid the better. This in addition to storing it on a USB drive or flash card

[JustADude]

Now if they like to snoop and they know their way around a machine, then encryption just became mandatory, and the more solid the better. This in addition to storing it on a USB drive or flash card

Of course, Truecryps is simple enough to just slog it on there anyway, for the happy glow of a geek with a new Shiny.