Is it possible to password-protect and hide the contents of a folder natively in Windows 7?

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I have a folder of sensitive pictures. Viewed in any of Explorer's icon views, the contents of this folder are previewed to the user before the folder has been opened. I'm wondering if there's a native Windows 7 way to password-protect th folder. Specifically, the solution must:

  • Prevent the folder from previewing its contents
  • Prompt for a password in order to open the folder
  • Keep the folder itself and its label visible (no solutions involving making it hidden- or system-only)
  • Be native to Windows 7 Ultimate

I think that's about as advanced the level of security I need - to stop prying eyes from over the shoulder or anyone that manages to get onto my logged-in machine whilst I'm away from it. Ideally, the solution would keep the folder password-protected even when it's transferred from one directory to another (in the event of emergency backing up to another drive, etc.), but this isn't a requirement.

I've read similar questions as of the time of posting, and they don't fit all of the criteria that I'm looking for, either relying on hiding the folder itself or using a third-party solution. If there absolutely isn't a native solution, I'll settle for third-party, but I'd really like to avoid bloating my computer with software for something so simple.

Thanks.

Hashim

Posted 2016-10-18T04:14:51.920

Reputation: 6 967

Create a new partition, move the files. Unassign the drive letter. Now its hidden. – Gerardo Grignoli – 2016-10-18T09:41:23.707

1Short answer. No. Native no. – ejbytes – 2016-10-18T10:23:01.820

Gerardo - read the question properly. – Hashim – 2016-10-18T17:05:52.990

ejbytes - That's what I was afraid I'd hear. I suppose I'll have to start looking at third-party software. – Hashim – 2016-10-18T17:06:52.450

Answers

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If you are the only administrator of the machine you can use an additional user and assign the folder to this user.

The user-management is native to windows and gives you various possibilities to share and not-share files and folders. (since windows 7)

Just set the user as owner of the folder and only allow this user to show folder contents, read and write. And disable it for all other users.

Unfortunately it shouldnt be possible to disable this for system-admins. Also its alittle bit tricky to move data into a folder of a different user (no DragnDrop, no copy&paste). But for viewing this should work.

The options for this can be found in the security tab of the properties dialog of the folder.

RoKi0815

Posted 2016-10-18T04:14:51.920

Reputation: 41

So that would still allow the administrator account to view the folder? – Hashim – 2016-10-18T17:04:53.453

@hashim the Administrator can change this security settings. So it's not possible to exclude the administrator via this settings. This is only possible with third party tools like truecrypt or something similar. Unfortunately I couldn't test the procedure, so just try it yourself. – RoKi0815 – 2016-10-18T18:47:33.453

Asked: 2016-10-18T04:14:51.920

Viewed: 163 times

Active: 2016-10-18T09:28:03.647