Securing win9x folder...

[DiDoH]

Personally i am useing win98Se, and i was wondering how i can password protect it´s folders.

So when a person tries to acess a folder, windows askes the person for a password otherwise it cant be acceses.

I have tried to use folder guard and some ither programs but they did not work as i would have liked them to, there were conflicts and so on.

And of course if a person were really interested to get access to the folder she could go to ms-dos prompt or boot in ms-dos mode.

Any ideas how to secure a folder anyone ?

[DiDoH]

Top ... just putting this to the top, somebody must know a way

[skuz]

You can try Magic Folders. It hides the folder and doesn't even show it if you set Windows to show all files. To see the folder, you press a combination of keys that you decide (CTRL-ALT-A by default), that brings up a password window. If you enter it correctly, the folder is available as a normal one until you reboot or do the keys combination again to hide it.

There is also Encrypted Magic Folders, which can hide and encrypt the folders.

Both these programs are very small and made by PC Magic.

[DiDoH]

Thanks for replying http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

Another security question, when multiple users use the same pc and log on as a different user, it is still possible to press the cancel button and log on as the fefault user, is there any way i can switch that off without getting a program such as folder guard ?

what about securing the folder so it cant be accesed through ms-dos prompt ?

[skuz]

Disabling the default user is easily done in Windows NT, but for 9x, you must use another way, which I do not know well, I think they're called the "user policies" or something like that, they are included on the Win9x CD.

Using Encrypted Magic Folders, you can SEE the directory in MS-DOS prompt by typing DIR, but you can't access it if it's encrypted, so it's secured.

[DiDoH]

What if i boot into ms-dos mode then the program wont load and the person could acess the folder, and copy it´s contents on a disk, then boot into windows and view it ..

Security in win 98 is a problem , i sure hope they will improve the security options in next version ..

[CMonster]

Security was not the primary concern with Windows 9x; my understanding is that the FAT file system does not allow proper security for individual files or directories.

MS did produce a more secure product - Windows 2000.

When you run Windows 2000 on the NTFS file system you can make your system very secure.
If security is an issue for you consider upgrading to Windows 2000. You could keep a partition with the existing Windows 98SE and choose at boot time which version of Windows you want.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 01-26-2001).]

[DiDoH]

is it possible to boot from a ms-dos floppy disk and acess the files in a nfts partition ?
or from win98 go to dos prompt and acess the files on the nfts partition ?


I am asking cause i once had a linux partition and a win 98 partition and i used linux to store the documents i didnt want to be acessed, but then i found programs all over the net wich allowed me to acess linux partition from a win98 partition ...

[fishbob]

Here is a site that will help. There is a newer version, but this will get you started http://www.softseek.com/Utilities/Encryption_Security_and_Passwords/Encryption_Decryption_and_File_Wiping/Review_13832_index.html, and the home page is www.cryptext.com (http://www.cryptext.com)

[skuz]

Didoh, I tested Encrypted Magic Folders according to your concerns. Once the folder is encrypted, you can't see the content EVEN if you boot in MSDOS without loading the program. You can't copy it either. You can uninstall the program if you wish, you still won't be able to access the folder until you reinstall the software and give the proper password to decrypt it.