WinMend Folder Hidden ups the ante by hiding selected folders so that they are not visible even if hidden files are set to be displayed in the Windows operating system. Even better, the protection stays in place even if the data is accessed from outside the operating system, for instance from a Linux Live CD or by connecting the hard drive directly to another computer.

The application is protected with a password which is needed to hide and unhide folders. WinMend Folder Hidden prompts for a password on first run which later can be changed in the program interface.

Options to hide and reveal folders and files are available on the sidebar in the main window. The hide options open a file and folder browser, the “unhide” option makes the selected folders and files visible again.

An unlimited amount of files and folders can be hidden in the Windows operating system this way. It is necessary to start the application, enter the password and select the unhide option every time the folders and files need to be accessed.

WinMend Folder Hidden protects folders and files reliable from unauthorized access in home environments. The application is easy to use and requires no technical background. Comparable solutions like using encrypted containers with True Crypt are more complicated to setup.

The software program can be downloaded from the developer website over at WinMend. Compatibility information are not provided on the website. It worked fine on a 64-bit Windows 7 Professional system.

On the other hand, many families use only one user account on a system, either because it is more comfortable or because they do not know how to do it in first place.

A portable application like AppAdmin provides basic protection in those cases. The application can be used to block applications from being executed in Windows. The process of adding files to the list of protected applications is intuitive.

Users simply need to click on Block which opens a file browser. They then select the file to block and from that moment on, it cannot be opened anymore.

Applications can be unblocked again by ticking a checkbox and selecting the unblock selected option. This unfortunately removes the application from the listing, which has the consequence that it needs to be added again at a later time using the file browser. Not very comfortable.

It also means that users who are allowed to access the blocked files need to open the program as well to unblock the applications.

This limits the application quite a bit. Still, it may prove to be useful to block applications in different user accounts. Then again, there are other ways to do that.

AppAdmin can be password protected, to prevent that other users unblock blocked applications.

The program uses the Registry to block those files in Windows, just like it is possible with Group Policy settings that are available in some editions of the Windows operating system.

AppAdmin has some usability issues that the developer should try to fix. Especially a history, or an easier option to unblock files would improve the usability by a mile.

The portable software is compatible with most versions of the Windows operating system, including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. Downloads are offered at the developer’s website.

Desklock is a simple application for the Windows operating system that can be used to password protect programs. It places an icon in the system tray after startup which can be right-click to open a context menu with option to configure the programs that should be password protected. The default password to access the settings and password protected programs is 2.

The main menu with all password protected programs will be displayed after entering the right password in the form. The same password prompt will be displayed if a user tries to open a protected program.

Additional options can be configured for each program including hotkeys, transparency and to hide the program icon when the program gets minimized by the user. How safe is the password protection? Desklock appears in the Windows Task Manager from where it can be killed easily with the appropriate rights. Terminating the process would enable access to all password protected files. It is therefor recommended to install this software on limited user accounts that do not have admin rights to kill processes.

Desklock is available at the developer’s website.

Androsa FileProtector is a software to password protect files in the Windows operating system. It can be downloaded as a portable version or one that has to be installed on the computer system. Three different encryption algorithms can be selected to password protect the files including 256 bit AES encryption.

Using the software program is actually pretty straightforward. Files can be added by the file browser. The files that have been added can then be password protected in the next step. The FileProtector will then encrypt the selected files and change their file extension to .afp. That file extension is automatically assigned to the software if it was installed on the computer system. Portable users will have to assign it or select the program from a list if they want to decrypt protected files.

The software can also delete files securely by overwriting them a number of times. This is an important step as the original files will be deleted after the encrypted copy has been created. Androsa FileProtector will display a password prompt if the file is executed on the computer system.

True Crypt is an Open-Source software that can be used to create encrypted containers on devices. One of the major advantages of True Crypt is that it can be used as a portable application which means that you can copy the True Crypt files on the USB device so that the software does not have to be installed on the computer system where the data is needed.

There is however the requirement that the user who wants to mount the True Crypt volume to get access to the data needs to have administrative rights to run the software. That is however the only requirement.

Download the True Crypt software and run the setup. The setup displays options to install or extract the contents. Choose the extract option and pick the USB device as the target. All the files needed to encrypt and decrypt data will be extracted to the USB device.

Run truecrypt.exe afterwards. We need to create an encrypted container on the USB device that can store the data that we want to protect. It is limited to the free space on the USB device.

Click on Create Volume in the main interface and select the option to create an encrypted file container. Use the standard volume type in the next screen. Now browse to the USB device and pick a random filename that should be used as the container. You can use any name or extension, it does not really matter, for example test.avi, test.txt or bigrar.rar.

Pick an encryption algorithm (AES is fine and fast) and a Hash Algorithm (SJA-512) and define the space on the device that you want to assign. Select a password (20+ chars are recommended, the more the securer). The volume (in this case the space that you have selected) will be formatted. Move the mouse around to create random information and click the format button in the end.

This completes the creation of the encrypted container on the device. You need to mount it whenever you are going to use it. This is done by executing True Crypt from the USB device, picking a drive letter and selecting the file that contains the encrypted container.

The last step would be to click on mount to enter the password that is needed for the data decryption.

The data will be secure whenever the container is not mounted on the computer system. That’s one of the safest ways of transporting data from location A to B. Got any questions? Let me know.

Game Protector could be the solution here. (There are many others like creating separate user profiles for example). The application can password protect any executable that you select. While it is called Game Protector it can virtually protect any other executable as well. Usage is simple and straightforward.

The user browses to the folder the executable is in and selects it in the file browser. He then enters the password to protect the file from users who do not have the password. It is also possible to change the icon of the executable and to rename it.

A click on Protect will protect the executable with the password. The main interface contains options to create a backup first and to unprotect an executable again.

A password box is displayed whenever a protected executable is launched. Entering the password will start the executable normally while a false password will simply display the form again. One advantage of this service is that Game Protector does not have to be running in the background to protect the executable.

Fslock is a simple but secure file protector that protects files from being moved, renamed, deleted, loaded and edited by normal means as long as the process is running. All types of files can be added except for executable and dynamic link libraries (exe and dll). The program should be started with Windows to take full advantage of it.

While the security software definitely protects the files from being accidentally manipulated it does not provide a good enough protection if someone really wants to access the files. Files are of course still available if you boot another operating system or load them before Windows starts.

It is possible to simply kill the Fslock process to be able to access the files again or use a software like Unlocker to free the file from being in use. I guess that limits the use of this software. Could probably be great if you want to protect files from your kids or from malicious software.

A software that is able to protect your important files against corruption is called ICE ECC which creates so called recovery files that can be used to recover files that are corrupted or partially damaged. They can’t recover files that are not there anymore of course but most of the time you have partial files that can be recovered. This is a like the Par2 file system which I have written about earlier in this week.

ICE ECC offers some advantages over Par2 files. First it is possible to create recovery files for directories with no limitation on file size, amount of files and names. The recovery files themselves are compressed to make it easier to store them on your system. Last but not least some tests that have been published on the developers website claim that ICE ECC is a lot faster than Quickpar for instance. I do not think that this is such an important factor after all unless you create recovery files every day.