Good morning briskoda technical team.

On my work computer I

Is it XP Pro ?

Feel free to share porn with the rest of the office - its what the MD does here

Is it XP Pro ?

Feel free to share porn with the rest of the office - its what the MD does here

:eek::eek::eek:

:)It's great being system administrator.

I keep a note of everybodys passwords, just in case I need to log in to add software, defrag, etc.

The former office manager came back on a temporary, part time basis, changed her password, and wouldn't let me know the new one.:mad:

So she suddenly found her user permissions changed from "power user" to "user" and has to change her password every week :rofl::rofl:

easiest way, is to create a hidden folder then change its properties to hidden and access it through a prompt or run command.

e.g.

c:\mattsfolder throught the run command.

Or zip the lot so it looks like one file called.

work.zip

I'd go for the hidden option, and hide it somewhere other than the "My Documents" folder. Somewhere in a program folder or somewhere equally discreet, "Hide" the folder too, and access it through the run command, as said.

The only small issue is that if you were ever investigated, its dead suspicious if you hide it so well.

Also people will still be able to access recently accessed folders through the documents list on the start menu.

easiest way, is to create a hidden folder then change its properties to hidden and access it through a prompt or run command.

e.g.

c:\mattsfolder throught the run command.

Doesnt work, a quick change of the view settings in explorer and all hidden folders are visible.

USB Pin or external hard drive.

Thanks for the suggestions.

It’s only a small office, me my boss and a newbie, so each computer is basically ours, but when you are drafting letters for setting up your own business etc I’d rather not anyone to stumble across the folder. No one will be looking for them or anything like that, it’s not like we have an I.T dept etc

I’ll go for the hidden folder trick in a strange place, also notice you can change the icon picture so I’ve changed it into the icon it is when your computer doesn’t reconise the program, uber hidden

I think the USB pen/stick idea would be the easiest TBH. Many have password ability.

I'd say pen drive too, you could even leave it in the machine a ll the time if you password protect it.

I'd say pen drive too, you could even leave it in the machine a ll the time if you password protect it.

:rubchin: good plan, think I'll go to the ol' staples tonight

A colleague has a very neat one that is so small the USB connector is larger than the body of the unit :eek: 512mb and comes with a credit card sized holder you can keep it in.

I have a swiss army knife type one that allows you to password protect either all or some of the space.

I have a cheapo 1GB keyring jobby, no password protection but if the USB is in the front of the machine I find its more than adequate, for

Don't forget that almost all mobo's come with internal USB sockets on the board. It wouldn't take much to put the pen drive inside the PC if you wanted it there as a semi permant thing.

Also what about these:

Download Application Lock and File Encrypt 2006 6.4 - Password protect programs, windows, web pages and encrypt files and folders. - Softpedia

Password-protect Folder Software

Password Protect Windows Programs and Encrypt Files, Folders, Drives for Free. (they do a free and a premium paid for edition)

I use the hidden folder option. I did have a laptop once with biometric security (finger print) and it was amazing - never needed to remember any passwords for anything, web sites, log on and even could use it for hiding and protecting folders. Unfortunatly the laptop broke within a week of me getting it so the feature is missed greatly :( I keep looking on ebay though so if I see something I will post the link here.

Mike Pembo

Try a hidden folder with NTFS file permissions removed for all but your own ID. Stops all but the determined as it requires admin rights to forcibly take ownership of the files.

Another possibility is some software like SafeGuard PrivateDisk. Ships with the IBMs we use and uses the fingerprint reader and hardware security chip if available. It basically creates a file somewhere on the disk then encrypts it.

I just got a Lexar TouchDrive USB fingerprint reader this morning. These are on fleebay and seem to be going for about

Just been looking for something similar myself, to protect laptop data.

Have you seen TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows XP/2000 and Linux ??

Also I seem to remember seeing some software you could load onto a pen drive which turned it into a security dongle - the laptop won't boot until the pen drive is in and a password provided. Anyone know any more?

I use a program called Cryptosuite to encrypt stuff. Yes, you need the program to be able to use it, (I think there is a free version) but the password is as strong or weak as you make it and only you will know it. (It doesn't even have a back-door, which is why the US Government agencies don't like it)

It's support forum is over at Wilders securities.

many thanks to all posters some very interesting points to something i've been looking at for a while, at the moment i just hide but i think at an alternative....................

Just been looking for something similar myself, to protect laptop data.

Have you seen TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows XP/2000 and Linux ??

Also I seem to remember seeing some software you could load onto a pen drive which turned it into a security dongle - the laptop won't boot until the pen drive is in and a password provided. Anyone know any more?

Truecrypt is the only thing worth bothering with. It's free, it's open source, and it's strong encryption. You can encrypt a whole disk or pendrive, or encrypt a folder on a drive. The encrypted folder is indistinguishable from random noise. You can even have plausible deniability where you encrypt it with two passwords: if forced to reveal one it will decrypt one set of contents, as opposed to your real password.

You can also burn truecrypt volumes to CD, or do clever stuff like store the truecrypt program itself *and* the encrypted volumes on a removable drive (iPod, pendrive, etc) so there's no footprint at all on your PC...

Don't mess about with EFS or any other form of native windows encryption or permissions if you're on a domain and you're not the enterprise admin as they can get around it.

If it's really naughty stuff bear in mind that if someone finds it on your work machine, you're hosed....and finding it could just be via random scan when you've opened the contents.

PM if you need deets.

ric

If it's really naughty stuff bear in mind that if someone finds it on your work machine, you're hosed....and finding it could just be via random scan when you've opened the contents.

PM if you need deets.

ric

That reminds me of when I got me and my whole computing class banned off the computers at college Thank god the admins thought it was funny or I could of been banned permanantly!

Mike Pembo

i would have thought that if the disk was formatted as NTFS there is your answer..... (but remember that domain admins will nearly always be able to get around it if they try for long enough...)