My computer gets used by a few family members – mostly kids – which I encourage but at the same time don’t want them messing with certain important files like taxes or checking accounts. Whatever the reason you many want to hide and protect certain files too. Here’s an easy and foolproof way to do it and it won’t cost a penny. Plus you can remain an administrator and not have all the hassle from Microsoft during daily use.
- Create a new user account. We’ll call ours ‘superuser’. It can be an administrator for convenience. Give it a strong password (like an old childhood phone number).
- Log off your regular account (we’ll call ours ‘mainuser’ for this example). Now log onto your new ‘superuser’ account.
- Create a new folder and name it something innocent and boring. We’ll call ours ‘Misc’.
- Right click on the new folder and select Properties, then click the Security tab. Now click the EDIT button.
- Select User (the lowest level but it doesn’t matter). On the lower right click the DENY box next to Full Control. All the Deny boxes should have check marks.
- Click Apply and Okay and you’ll get a warning that only the Owner will have access to this folder. That’s fine because it’s exactly what we want. Click Okay and close out of the properties windows.
- Now, move whatever files you want protected into this ‘Misc’ folder. Anything will work: docs, spreadsheets, videos, photos.
- Right click on your desktop and click on screen saver on the lower right. Set up a screen saver and check the box ‘On resume require a password’. This will insure that if you walk away while logged on to your special superuser account, the system will log you off after the time set for the screensaver. This way you don’t have to worry about relocking your Misc protected folder.
- Log off this ‘superuser’ account and back into your regular account ‘mainuser’. When you or anyone else clicks on the new ‘Misc’ folder you will get a message that access is denied. If you or anyone else tries to change permissions it will be denied because you are not the owner (Only superuser is the owner).
- Anytime you want to access the contents of the locked folder just log off your regular account and log in as ‘superuser’. Then everything in the folder will be accessible.
It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is, it will only take a few minutes to set up and no one will be able to even see the contents of your special folder.
