Protecting folders with passwords

To protect a folder with a password, use the Lock with Password command from the Protect menu. You can also use the toolbar or the right-click menu.

For example, if you want to protect the folder named A Private Folder located on the C: drive, select that folder in the Folder Guard window, and click on the Lock with Password button on the toolbar:

Password protect folder, lock folder with password

Enter the desired password into the box, and then confirm it. Notice that folders that have passwords are marked with the key images, shown next to their icons in the Folder Guard window.

Note that in addition to creating a password as described above, you should also assign the desired restricting attributes to the folder, to specify exactly how you want the folder to be protected. If the folder has no restricting attributes assigned, then Folder Guard automatically applies the most common restrictions to it when you use the Lock with password command: it assigns the No access and Empty attributes to the folder. The first one is to prevent users from opening files and documents from the locked folder. The second attribute makes the locked folder appear empty, without revealing its contents to the user, until the unlocking password is entered.

It is not the only way to restrict the folder, though. For example, if you want the folder to be read-only when it is locked with the password, assign the read-only attribute to it. This way, users who don't know the unlocking password will be able to open documents from that folder, but they will be prevented from saving modifications to such documents. Only someone who knows the password can unlock it, and thus make it possible to save changes to the documents located in that folder.

If you want to see how it works "for real", then enable the protection, then run Windows Explorer and try to open the folder you've protected with a password, as well as with the No access and Empty attributes. If you attempt to open the folder by double-clicking on it, a prompt for the password should appear on the screen:

Enter the password to unlock the folder

(Note: You can configure Folder Guard not to display such a prompt, by selecting the Don't show password prompts for the locked folders option on the Settings - Options dialog box of Folder Guard. You can also make Folder Guard to show the Lock or Unlock commands on the Windows right-click menu, if you want.) Only if you enter a valid password, the folder will be unlocked. All its files and subfolders will become unprotected, too, unless you have protected a subfolder with its own unlocking password: all such files and subfolders must be unlocked independently.

Note that the password prompt is displayed only when you attempt to open the protected folder by double-clicking on it in a Windows Explorer window, or in the Open/Save As dialog boxes. If you use some other means of opening a folder, such as via a shortcut, or by selecting the folder in the folder tree of Windows Explorer, or via some other program, an Access denied or similar message would be displayed instead of the password prompt.

How to lock the folder back?

Folder Guard offers you an option to automatically lock the folder back when you close the folder window or exit the program that you used to unlock the folder. (This is the default choice that Folder Guard uses when you install it.) When this option is enabled, Folder Guard "remembers" the folder window or program that you used to unlock the folder, and locks the folder back automatically for you when you close that window or program.

If you don't want Folder Guard to lock the folder back automatically as described above, you can deselect this option using the Settings - Options window of Folder Guard. In such a case, the unlocked folder will remain unlocked until you explicitly lock it back yourself.

To lock the folder back, you can use any of the following methods:

If the main Folder Guard application is running, use its Lock all folders or Enable Protection commands on the Tools menu to lock all previously unlocked folders.
Right-click on the folder and select the Lock command from Windows shortcut menu. Note that you must enable the Add the Lock/Unlock commands to the Windows shortcut menu option on the Settings - Options dialog box for the Lock command to appear on the menu.
If the main Folder Guard application is not running, press the hot key combination, or use the Start - All Programs - Folder Guard - Toggle Protection command, and select either Enable the protection or Lock all folders command. Either command will lock all previously unlocked folders and make them protected again.

You can also configure Folder Guard to enable protection and lock unlocked folders after a period of user inactivity, when the screensaver wakes up. (See the description of the Settings - Protection window for more information).

How to remove the password from the folder?

If at some point you've decided that you no longer want the folder to be protected by Folder Guard, you can do the following: in the Folder Guard window, right-click on the folder in question and choose the Unprotect command from the shortcut menu. This will remove the unlocking password from the selected folder, and also reset all restricting attributes of the folder to Default. In essence, this will return the folder into the state it was before you started protecting it.

If you don't want to remove the restricting attributes from the folder, and only want to remove the unlocking password, you can do it by assigning an empty unlocking password to it. That is, use the Lock with Password command on the Protect menu, or right-click on the folder and choose the Protect with a password command from the shortcut menu, to display the window asking you to enter a new password for the folder. Leave the new password box empty and press OK, and that will erase the existing unlocking password from the selected folder, while leaving other restricting attributes intact.

Can I password protect files and programs?

Yes, you can protect with passwords not only folders, but also documents and programs. First, use the Add file command on the Protect menu to add the file in question to the Folder Guard window, and then use the Lock with Password command, just like with folders. Note, however, that the password prompt would appear only if you attempt to open the protected file directly, by double-clicking it in a Windows Explorer window or in an "Open/Save As" dialog box. If you use some other way (such as through a toolbar button or a menu) to open the password-protected file, an Access denied or similar message would be displayed instead of the password prompt.

If you usually access the protected file or folder via a desktop shortcut, then you need to protect both the shortcut and the target file with the same password. After that, when you attempt to open the shortcut, the password prompt would be shown on the screen. If you enter the unlocking password for the shortcut correctly, both the shortcut and the target file or folder will be unlocked at the same time.

Does the password protection work over a network, too?

If your computers are connected into a network, you can lock a shared folder with a password, (by installing Folder Guard on the server where the shared folder is physically located), but unlocking such a folder over the network is not currently possible: if someone attempts to open the protected folder via the network, such a user would simply be denied access to the folder, the password prompt will NOT be displayed. To be able to unlock the folder, the user must login to the server locally or via some remote administration tool. Please refer to the Protecting networked computers page for more information.