Solved did you know about this? locking a folder

[pacinitaly]

Create a safe/lockable folder




1.Right click on any blank space on your desktop.
2.Click New.
3.Click Folder.
4.Name the folder safe.
5.Open your Notepad, copy and paste this code into it:
ren safe safe.{2559a1f2-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} and save it with .bat extension. Ex. key.bat Save such a file on the desktop.
6.Double click the key.bat and the folder and its content will be permanently locked!



7.To unlock the folder, create another .bat file or delete the content of the key.bat file and paste this other code:
ren safe.{2559a1f2-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0} safe and click it.
8.Done!


Carmine

 

[Lorien]

Hey Carmine,

That's pretty cool, but I'm confused about the effectiveness and safety of this process. It seems all anyone needs to do to unlock the file is open the key.bat file and rename the folder (which will be listed there with the code) to the folder without the code and execute the new .bat file and then they can gain full access. That's not very safe.

I suppose if you hide the key.bat file somewhere else and use full path names instead of just the folder name then perhaps it might work as nobody would know where to look for the .bat file, but if it's sitting right there on the desktop, it seems it would just be a matter of opening any bat files on the desktop until you find the one with the folder name and the rename command in it and you're in quite easily.

To be honest, it seems a lot easier to get a free password protection software tool and just password protect the folder. Not only would that be safer (as the answer wouldn't be right there on the desktop), but it would be a lot faster to access the folder than needing to modify or create a .bat file to open it. And when you close the folder it's automatically protected without needing to execute a .bat file to lock it up again. I suppose if you created both the open and close .bat files at the same time, then it would be a simple matter of clicking the proper button to lock or unlock the folder - but then we're back to it being right there on the desktop. I think to be safe you need to put these .bat files somewhere nobody will find them and use full pathnames in the commands so they'll work (assuming that can be done - I'm not that familiar with .bat files). But then everytime you want to access the folder you have to go to that location for the .bat file and then when done you need to do the same to lock it up again and that sounds more complex than using a simple 3rd party password protection program.

Again, not being familiar with .bat files, am I missing something here? Is it actually more safe than I have suggested and I just don't realize it because I don't understand how these .bat files work?

 

[pacinitaly]

Hello,

I keep the keys away from the locked folders.

there was a way to password protect a zipped file but I can't remember.

 

[Lorien]

Hi pac,

I found the following on protecting zipped folders in Vista: http://www.life123.com/technology/c...rotect/password-protect-a-file-on-vista.shtml. I have Vista Business so while it does provide an encryption option, it does not provide an add password option, so I can't verify that although other articles I've read Password Protect Compressed (zipped) Folders and Hence Your Files and Folders » My Digital Life say Vista and W7 (any versions) don't support it anymore like XP did. I'm not entirely sure what the truth is (I found only that one article on how to do it and every other article I looked at said it was removed from Vista and W7 so I'm inclined to believe it doesn't exist) - but I know that I can't do it on my system without 3rd party software.

As far as the .bat file goes, I didn't realize you could use just the file name in the script unless both were in the same folder (in this case, on the desktop). I thought you'd need to specify a full pathname since there could be many files with the same name located in various different folders and how would the .bat file know to which file you were referring? Have mercy on a novice at this - I've only written one .bat file in my life and I know you've done many (to update a network address but eventually to be used to make other updates to all computers from any network location) and it took forever (but it worked the very first time we tried it!!) - it probably would have been faster to go to the 28 different office locations on the network and make the changes in person than it was to create that one file - LOL!

Thanks and later, man!

 

[pacinitaly]

I read that exact article once B4. I need to read more about true crypt and see some video on it.


thanks again my friend