How do you place a password on a folder using XP.?

Answer 1

Windows allows for password protecting zipped or compressed archived folders. You can also use the WinZip program to zip and password protect an archive. Windows recognizes and enforces passwords placed using the WinZip format. Encryption of a folder does not support compression and therefor you can't place a password on an encrypted folder.

When you zip a folder you can't password protect that folder, but you can the files within it. Open the zipped archive and select any file and then select the password option. Once you place the password on the file all files are password protected within that folder. However, any file you subsequently place into the archive will not be password protected. You will need to remove the passoword, then reapply a password to password protect the new files as well.

If not using WinZip, right click a file within a compressed folder (not the folder itself) and then click File, Add A Pasword, adn complete the dialog box. This applies the same password to every file in the arcive, including any files within any folder inside the parent folder. Folders themselves are not protected only the files within them.

If you have never compressed a folder before, just right click it, then click advanced on the Gerneral Tab, and then click Compress on the window which pops up. Once it is compressed you can then use the above process to password protect the files within.

Personally I use WinZip as it compresses folders better, and is easy to use. You can get a free trial version of WinZip at many sites, just goggle it and many will pop up in your search results page. When the trial period is up, you are suppose to pay for it, but if you click "continue to use evaluation version" after you click on the icon for the program and it first opens, you can use it indefenently. I bought my version and also free updates for life. It was well worth the cost.

Good luck and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

p.s. Ok, I went and looked the encryption option up and found I was wrong about how you can password protect folders. While compression and encryption ARE mutually excusive, you CAN choose to encrypt a folder and then apply a pssword to it. You won't be able to compress it later unless you unencrypt it though. You can both compress AND encrypt a folder using the WinZip program, however, the encryption of WinZip while good, is not as strong as Windows encryption, but it has the better feature of both compression and encryption combined.

To encrypt a folder and place a password, right click the folder and select Properties. On the General tab select Advanced, then place a check mark in Encrypt. Click Apply then follow the prompts for placing a password.

A word of warning: if you forget you password, and Windows strongly suggests NOT using the same pasword for all folders, you will lose all access to that folder, there will be no recovery of the contents.

The level of protection you need is very individual. If you have a reason to worry about somebody trying to access your files then use a very strong password. Remember, the stronger the passowrd the harder it is to remember. You may want to consider placing your passwords into a file and then storing them on a flash drive and hiding the drive in a safe place. Then if you forget a password you can open the file from the drive and recover the password. Basically it is a backup copy of all your passwords.

Good luck and have a great day!

Answer 2

You can put a login password on for your login and that will keep anyone else from seeing your folder that is under Documents and settings OR you can encrypt the file. Right click the folder and select properties. Under the General tab there is a button labeled advanced, click that. At the bottom of the subsequent window is encrypt contents to secure data. It will query you for settings. DO NOT LOSE THE PASSWORD because it is nearly impossible to recover if you do.

Answer 3

Download Folder Access Free version. It may prove useful to you.

Answer 4

particular you dont choose yet another utility. Is your hard drive formatted with NTFS this might aid you word protection settings to folders and supply permissions to guy or woman customers to have get admission to. you may relatively convert your modern hard drive to NTFS on XP professional ....XP residing house does not help NTFS.

Answer 5

Buy a "Fake Folder" software.

Answer 6

Hey,
If you need to download Winrar you can get it here for free http://j.mp/1p3PwZX
The best program to decompress files is Winrar, you can unzip all kind of files!(.zip, .rar, .7z, .iso, .tar, .jar, .cab, .gz, .ace, .uue, .bz2, etc...)

Answer 7

Hello,
Maybe try the latest version of Winrar? --> http://bit.ly/1p3OY6k
The best program you can use to decompress all the different kind of files is Winrar.
Regards

Answer 8

free hide folder - it's free and it, er, hides your folders
http://www.cleanersoft.com/hidefolder/free_hide_folder.htm