Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Protect a Folder in Windows (No messy softs!!!)

by Bikash..
Few days ago I faced a problem in encrypting my private files (u know, guys, private files & holiday in home…Smile ). Already used a lot of 3rd party softs like Folder Lock, Folder Guard, Andosa File Protector, TrueCrypt  but it messed all the situation. Recently one of my friend Priya told me about a simple trick of encryption.  Thought I should share this with you guys.
Follow the following simple steps  to create a locked folder in Windows – without installing any additional 3rd party software.
While the steps below will guide you in creating a hidden and password protected folder, this method is not 100% secure. It will deter the average computer user enough, but an advanced user (not ur Parents,Girlfriend..) will be able to access the contents of this folder.
1.  Create a new folder and name it whatever you would like.
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2. Open the folder, right-click on a blank area in it, then select New -> Text Document from the pop-up menu.
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3. Open the text file you just created by double-clicking it and copy/paste in the following text:
cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Private
if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Private goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure you want to lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Private "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%== PASSWORD_GOES_HERE goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Private
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Private
echo Private created successfully
goto End
:End
4. In the above code, replace the key PASSWORD_GOES_HERE with the password you want to use to unlock the folder. For example if you want the password to be 123456, the line should look like: 
        if NOT %pass%== 123456 goto FAIL
5. Save your new file in the .bat format with the complete file name being locker.bat. To do this, make sure to change the Save as type: to All Files (*.*). 5
6. In the folder you created back in Step #1, double click the locker.bat file and there will now be a new folder named Private where you can put anything you want. 6
7. Upon exiting, double click the locker.bat file again. It will prompt you to answer whether you want to lock your folder or not. Press Y and the private folder will disappear. 7
8. In order to retrieve the Private folder, all you have to do is double click the locker.bat file and enter the password which you set in Step #4 and the folder will appear again for you to access. 8
9. Happy Privacy…!!