How to secure folder in windows xp

Often you'll want to prevent information from being seen by just anyone. Microsoft Windows XP Professional provides several features for securing data. Although the methods are basic in nature, they'll be more than enough deterrent for all but the most determined hacker.

Protecting data from certain users is the situation OptionExplicit faced when he asked for help in TechRepublic's Discussion Center. The programs that will routinely access the folders are written in VB. Windows XP Professional allows you to set permissions for a file or folder from the properties dialog, which you can reach by right-clicking the file or folder and clicking the Properties entry on the ensuing menu.

In the Properties dialog, click the Security tab to get to an interface similar to that shown in Figure A. From this interface, you can add users to the Permissions list, set specific permissions for each user or group, and grant special permissions via the Advanced button.

Setting permissions and policies can seem a little daunting, but the basic principles are easy to understand: User A can access this folder and User B cannot. The numerous possible permission combinations should give you the flexibility to meet your security needs. Because OptionExplicit is using Visual Basic for his project, he will most likely have to add some code from the FileIOPermission class to check permissions for each user as he or she accesses the folder in question.

Another method for securing a folder or file involves encryption, which is also part of Windows XP Professional. Similar to permissions, the encryption configuration is reached by right-clicking the folder or file and then clicking the Advanced button on the ensuing Properties interface.

However, it's always best to confirm you have a working backup on hand before executing the command. Note that, by default, subfolders will inherit permissions from parent folders.

To customize permissions inheritance, click the Advanced button found on the share or filename's Properties dialog box. To determine a user's ultimate resulting permissions, add all the NTFS permissions granted to a user directly and as a result of group membership, then subtract those permissions denied directly and as a result of group membership.

For example, if a user is explicitly granted Full Control but is also a member of a Group in which Full Control is denied, the user will not receive Full Control rights. For this reason, administrators should carefully apply Deny permissions, as the Deny attribute overrules any equivalent instances of Allow when the two rights are applied to the same user or group.

Windows XP includes an effective permissions tool you can use to help verify the permissions a user or group receives. To access the tool:. It sounds straightforward. Configure the permissions you want and a user is good to go.

But there's one additional catch to keep in mind. Folder share and NTFS permissions must combine to determine the actual rights a user or group receives. Unfortunately, they often conflict. To determine the ultimate permissions a user receives, take the user or group's resulting shared permissions and compare it with the user or group's resulting NTFS permissions. Note that the most restrictive of those rights will prevail. Instead, Windows calculates the most restrictive of the two resulting rights, which in this case is the NTFS permission of Read and Execute.

Remember that, to determine a user or group's ultimate resulting permissions, the most restrictive of the resulting NTFS and share rights applies. This is an important lesson that's easily forgotten but that quickly leads to frustration for users, so be sure to spend time up front properly calculating share and NTFS permissions. File Share Permissions Most users begin sharing files with workgroups, or peer-to-peer networks, by following these steps: Right-clicking the folder containing the documents, spreadsheets and files they wish to share.

Selecting Sharing And Security from the pop-up menu. Figure A Figure A A folder's Properties dialog box is used to configure share-level permissions for users and groups. You need to use a third-party software program to accomplish this. If you want to encrypt a file or folder, this can be done by following these steps:. If the "Encrypt contents to secure data" option is not selectable or available, you likely have a Home edition of Windows, which does not support this feature. It is also possible that the hard drive where the files are located is not formatted as NTFS , which is required.

The steps below for encrypting the files on Windows XP Professional apply to users who are using a computer with two or more accounts. If you are using a single account, see the other security solutions section. You won't be prompted to enter a password when encrypting a folder in Windows XP Professional.

However, other user accounts on your computer won't have access to files contained in the encrypted folder. The newest version of TweakUI also enables you to show the Encrypt option in the context menu. To do this, follow the steps below. File and folders not frequently used - An easy way to password protect files is to create an archive of the files using a compression tool.

When the archive is created, you can encrypt the contents by specifying a password.