protecting a folder

I own a restaurant and keep all my financial information in one folder and
have managers that have access to the computer. Is there a way I can
password protect a folder?

Malke
Tue Nov 01 09:30:49 CST 2005

kable58 wrote:

> I own a restaurant and keep all my financial information in one folder
> and
> have managers that have access to the computer. Is there a way I can
> password protect a folder?

XP does not use passwords to protect resources. It uses permissions
instead. Here is information to help you with that:

How to disable Simple Sharing and set permissions on a shared folder in
Windows XP (Pro only)
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307874

HOW TO: Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions in
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=308418

By default in XP Home, you can only make files and folders under My
Documents "private". Otherwise, to see the security tab in WinXP Home,
restart in Safe mode and log on with an account that has administrator
privileges. To get into Safe Mode, repeatedly tap the F8 key as the
computer is starting up. This will get you to the menu where you can
choose Safe Mode.

Note that the file system must be NTFS, not FAT32.

Passwording of folders is not supported unless you zip them. When you do
(right click a folder, then "send to > compressed folder") and then open
the zip file, you will find an option under file>"add a password".
Otherwise, use third-party software. Google "password protect folders".

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

Steven
Tue Nov 01 12:15:51 CST 2005

You don't mention the operating system but there is no native way to
password protect folders. If you are using an operating system that uses
ntfs file system such as Windows 2000 or XP you can use ntfs permissions to
allow only authorized user accounts to access the folder within the
operating system but there are some problems even with that. Any user that
is a local administrator can access files he does not have permissions to
and it is trivial to become an administrator on a computer that is not
physically secured. Also someone who wanted access to your files could
simply remove the hard drive and put it into another computer to read/copy
them or boot from a cdrom such as Bart's PE. If the files were encrypted
then they could be possibly be denied access to the data.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418 --- file
permissions in XP.

So depending on how confidential that data is you may want to store it on
another computer that is locked up somewhere securely or at minimum encrypt
the data. Encryption has it's own hazards and many encryption programs use a
password as the key to encrypt the data. A malicious user could install a
keyboard logger on your computer to capture your password to access you
encrypted file. Windows XP Pro has a very secure implementation of file
encryption called EFS. Your logon password is used to protect access to your
EFS private key that is needed to decrypt your files. IF you export and
delete your certificate/private key from the computer then your EFS
encrypted files would not be available to someone even if they knew your
password. Of course repeated importing and then deleting your EFS private
key to work with your data is tedious and easy to forget to delete the
private key after each work session or the end of the work day. If you
consider EFS or any encryption PLEASE be very careful as it is easy for you
to lose permanent access to your data and best practice would be to have
your EFS certificate/private key backed up to a password protected .pfx file
to external media in a couple safe places and to also backup your encrypted
work as clear text to external media and stored securely. --- Steve


"kable58" <kable58@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:38BF4CCF-A92C-49A1-AA8E-1D5F75E09A54@microsoft.com...
>I own a restaurant and keep all my financial information in one folder and
> have managers that have access to the computer. Is there a way I can
> password protect a folder?

Ted
Tue Nov 01 12:29:11 CST 2005

What a great thread this has been. Thank you, Steven and Malke.

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

"Steven L Umbach" <n9rou@nospam-comcast.net> wrote in message
news:%23$vnBBx3FHA.1188@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> You don't mention the operating system but there is no native way to
> password protect folders. If you are using an operating system that uses
> ntfs file system such as Windows 2000 or XP you can use ntfs permissions
to
> allow only authorized user accounts to access the folder within the
> operating system but there are some problems even with that. Any user that
> is a local administrator can access files he does not have permissions to
> and it is trivial to become an administrator on a computer that is not
> physically secured. Also someone who wanted access to your files could
> simply remove the hard drive and put it into another computer to read/copy
> them or boot from a cdrom such as Bart's PE. If the files were encrypted
> then they could be possibly be denied access to the data.
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308418 --- file
> permissions in XP.
>
> So depending on how confidential that data is you may want to store it on
> another computer that is locked up somewhere securely or at minimum
encrypt
> the data. Encryption has it's own hazards and many encryption programs use
a
> password as the key to encrypt the data. A malicious user could install a
> keyboard logger on your computer to capture your password to access you
> encrypted file. Windows XP Pro has a very secure implementation of file
> encryption called EFS. Your logon password is used to protect access to
your
> EFS private key that is needed to decrypt your files. IF you export and
> delete your certificate/private key from the computer then your EFS
> encrypted files would not be available to someone even if they knew your
> password. Of course repeated importing and then deleting your EFS private
> key to work with your data is tedious and easy to forget to delete the
> private key after each work session or the end of the work day. If you
> consider EFS or any encryption PLEASE be very careful as it is easy for
you
> to lose permanent access to your data and best practice would be to have
> your EFS certificate/private key backed up to a password protected .pfx
file
> to external media in a couple safe places and to also backup your
encrypted
> work as clear text to external media and stored securely. --- Steve
>
>
> "kable58" <kable58@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:38BF4CCF-A92C-49A1-AA8E-1D5F75E09A54@microsoft.com...
> >I own a restaurant and keep all my financial information in one folder
and
> > have managers that have access to the computer. Is there a way I can
> > password protect a folder?
>
>