I was wondering if anyone knew how to password protect individual files. We are using Windows XP 06 and the files are mostly through microsoft works. Is it possible to password protect these? Or should we go ahead and update to windows vista (which we will have to do sometime anyways) and does vista have password protection on individual files?

Thanks in advance

7/28/2008 11:45:59 AM

i dono about works but in Word its

Tools > Options > Security tab.

7/28/2008 11:53:24 AM

Yeah, we have Word on the computer but everytime we open it, it asks for the serial number and what not and for some reason we don't have that. My boss doesn't want to spend $200ish buying word again if she can find a way around it.

But thanks!

7/28/2008 11:58:14 AM

It depends on how secure you want it.

File security in windows can be overriden if you put the drive in another machine or by anyone with admin rights on the machine.
Password protection within office is easily broken with the right tools. So if you're really worried about the file contents, I wouldn't use it.

If you rar or zip up the files, the rar/zip can be password protected, but im not sure how breakable those passwords are.

If you really want it to be secure though, you need to encrypt it. Windows has built in file level encryption. This works by encrypting the files using a private key stored with your user account. Anyone with this key and encrypt or decrypt the files. The downside here is that if you ever loose that key you're boned. You'll never be able to get your data back. Also, only the data is encrypted. The filename of the file will be in plainview. But if someone steals the disk, they wont be able to open the files without your key.

You can also get third party file encryption through someone like PGP. They have software to encrypt individual files and also create encrypted self extractors.

You can also do full disk encryption. This works by adding a pre-boot loader to your system. This loads itself on boot, decrypts your filesystem, and then loads the OS. If someone steals the disk, they wont be able to use it at all. However, if they steal your computer and you dont have it password protected, they'll be able to boot it and potentially steal data through an OS vulnerability. If your drive ever goes titsup there is 0 chance of data recovery. So keep backups.

If you do choose to encrypt stuff make sure you choose a strong password, otherwise its pointless.

7/28/2008 12:09:35 PM

Wow Thanks We really only want to password protect to keep it from other employee's in the office if you know what i mean. So would a zip format work fine for that?

7/28/2008 12:14:09 PM

zip with password would probably do fine. Unless you have something your employees really really want to get into. You can do it for free with most compression software (winRAR/winZip).

7/28/2008 12:15:46 PM