Hide And Password Protect Your Files And Folders For Free

[abhi.r 95]

I've been using this process to hide my stuffs in my computer, its simple its easy and its FREE. no worries of any piracy etc... etc... Anyways who cares about piracy when you you are in India

following is the script. copy and paste it in notepad and save it as *.bat (a batch file).

For layman... name the file as "run.bat" and save it where you want your folder to be.

E.g.: if you want your protected folder to be in C:\ then save the file in C:\.

If you want your protected folder to be in D:\New Folder\ then save the file in D:\new Folder\

cls

@ECHO OFF

title Folder My_Folder

if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK

if NOT EXIST My_Folder goto MDLOCKER

:CONFIRM

echo Are you sure u 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 My_Folder "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%==pwd123 HERE goto FAIL

attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" My_Folder

echo Folder Unlocked successfully

goto End

:FAIL

echo Invalid password

goto end

:MDLOCKER

md My_Folder

echo My_Folder created successfully

goto End

:End

Note: paste the above code in notepad and go to Edit>>Replace... and replace "My_folder" with a folder name of your choice and "pwd123" with a password of your choice. If you use any new folder name which do not exist, it will create one.

How to use it...

To hide:

Run the .bat file, it will as to hide the folder (Y/N), press 'Y' if you want to hide the folder and its done

To Unhide:

Run the same file again, it will ask for the password. Put in the correct password and your folder again shows up.

Pros:

1) easy to use

2) hides the content completely i.e., even Show Hidden Folders option enabled cannot show the hidden folder nor Windows search can search the contents of this folder.

3) I never faced any data loss or anything.

4) even if you forget your password you can always recover it by reading the batch file you created.

Cons:

1) no encryption. therefore not advised for offices where data security is critical. In that case I suggest you to go for professional software.

2) Password can be hacked by any geek by reading the batch file.

3) It hides only 1 folder, for another folder you need another batch file.

I've been using this on windows7 since a long time and didnt had any problem. Would like you guys to try it in Windows XP and vista and report. hopefully you wont face any problem there as well.

NOTE: Only good for hiding your personel stuffs from your fren, parents,, boss etc... hehehehe

[Genius 817]

Nice - thanks

[raccoon 53]

Good idea. Will try this on my xp machine...

[KumaarShah 143]

abhi.r, thats a good one.

Working flawlessly on my XP, will try it on my W7HP laptop later.

+1 to you

Edited October 23, 2010 by KumaarShah

[supernova 47]

i gotta problem .. its working 50 % ... it hid my folder but when i retrieve it with password some control panel shortcut type appearing .. on clicking it goes to control panel but not unhiding my folder ........ pl. help . its very important folder

[abhi.r 95]

Your OS?

if you can see folder in explorer, then change the name of the folder... remove the brackets in the name.hope that wud help to retrive your folder.

and plz do not use it on critical folders untill you are sure that it works perfectly on your system.

[abhi.r 95]

There are some "special folder codes" for windows:

Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Network Neighborhood.{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

Desktop.{00021400-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Briefcase.{85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}

Fonts.{BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948F534}

Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

(Dial-Up Networking)

DUN.{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}

Inbox.{00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

My Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Right click on any folder (in win XP) and rename it to one of the above. The contents will no longer be accessible.

I think the script/batch file use the same concept to hide the folder

removing the barcket in the end of the folder name may help you to access your data!

[vijaykv 5]

Thanks abhi.r. It is really usefull at home too..

Edited October 24, 2010 by vijaykv

[sougatadc 358]

In my case it didn't work. In the batch file, I replaced "My_Folder" with "My_Nikon_D90" and when I ran the file, it made the folder just a bit transparent.

And when I replaced "My_Folder" with "C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\My_nikon_D90" and ran the batch file, it not only made the folder less opaque, but renamed it as "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"

Mine is Vista Business original on Dell Vostro 1400.

[thilak.kmb 19]

Your OS?

if you can see folder in explorer, then change the name of the folder... remove the brackets in the name.hope that wud help to retrive your folder.

and plz do not use it on critical folders untill you are sure that it works perfectly on your system.

I am also having similar problem. I will try it again later from start.

Mine is windows XP.

Edited October 24, 2010 by thilak.kmb

[KumaarShah 143]

Me too having the same problem as sougatadc's vista on my W7HP laptop, working flawlessly on my WinXP though.

In my case, it says control panel shortcut, slightly opaque and clicking on that, opens my original folder all right with all contents visible fully. Unhid the folder and my original folder has come back.

BTW, abhi.r, you are also using W7 - but which version?

[KumaarShah 143]

@sougatadc & abhi.r,

I got it right now...

In Folder Options ----> View tab, you have to set "Show Hidden Files, Folders and drives-OFF" (default option) to " Dont Show Hidden Files, Folders and drives - ON"

After this, run the bat file and voila, things work flawlessly.....

Enjoyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Edited October 24, 2010 by KumaarShah

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Checkout this great free utilities (Some cases Shareware) for hiding, encrypting folders and data.

http://www.makeuseof...-freeware-apps/

Beware before use, understand each app properly otherwise may land you in trouble.

Additionally both XP and Windows 7 has inbuilt tools in NTFS file system for making folders private. This is good option if one creates normal users, logs in with admin for himself and switch users as and when necessary.

Edited October 24, 2010 by rajanmehta

[KumaarShah 143]

Good find, rajan....

[abhi.r 95]

I am using it on Windows 7 Enterprise 32bit on Dell Vostro 1200 fully updated.

One thing i dont understand, in my system I cant even see the folder even when "Show Hindden Files & Folder" is on! I have to run the batch file again to unhide it. This is the thing i like about it

[abhi.r 95]

And as there is no program in your program list like Hide Folder or Folder Lock Plus hehehe which makes people suspicious.. "Now why would one need this s/w" hehehehe.

[abhi.r 95]

noticed one thing... unchecking "Hide protected Operating System files" shows the folder!

will give a look at rajan bhai's link

[kkdeep 6]

why not use truecrypt. It is free and reliable. It does not hide folders individually but encrypts them and put in a container effectively hiding the folders. You can create container folder and truecrypt will encypt and put all your files/folders there. The encrypted container can be launched as a new volume.

[rajanmehta 4,056]

why not use truecrypt.

It is there in the link i provided here http://www.rimweb.in...post__p__205713

[parin 857]

good one

[supernova 47]

i deleted brackets from the control panel icon it was showing and then i will be able to get my folder back ..

now if i try this with some other folder it does the same ; even i checked the hide option off in folder option ,