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As you probably know, cybersecurity is a growing threat, and we need to do more and more to keep our data safe. Even if you are a basic home user, you may want to secure your confidential or personal files and folders from prying eyes. Sure, you can change file and folder permissions but that can get complicated and if you have other users with administrator rights on your computer, they can still access these files if they are aware of the process to do so.
One way to keep your data private is to hide any files or folders that you don’t want others to be able to access. Windows has the ability to hide files and folders, but it can be easy for others to find them and you might find that you forgot which files and folders you have hidden. In this article, we will be showing you how to hide files, folders and drives from all users on your computer.
To make it easier to hide files, folders and drives from all users on your computer, will be using a tool called Hide Files. There is a free version and a premium version that will only cost you $19 to purchase. They both work the same, but the main difference is that the licensed version will not have the nag screen that you will see every time you open the program and also if you forget your master password, there is a recovery option with the paid version. For this reason alone, you may want to consider buying the software if you plan on using it.
The first time you run the Hide Files app, you will be asked to create your master password so make sure you write it down and put it somewhere safe, so you don’t forget it. Then every time you open the app, you will need to enter this password. You can download Hide Files from their website here.
For our example, we will be hiding a folder called Confidential Files, a PDF file called Accounting List and also the entire E drive on the computer. The two images below show how the folder, file and drive look before hiding them.
To add files, folders or drives to the Hide Files app to be hidden, simply click on the Add File, Add Folder or Add Drive button or simply drag and drop them into the main window of the program. You can then check or uncheck the box next to any item you want to hide or unhide. You can also right click on any of them to have them removed from the list itself.
Once you have your items in the main window, you can click the Lock icon to have any files, folders or drives that are checked locked. And if you were thinking of locking your C (Windows) drive, that will not be a good idea and will most likely not even be possible to do since you would not be able to lock your computer if the Windows drive was hidden.
The two images below show the results after hiding the file, folder and drive.
As you can see, the E drive still shows up on the computer but when you open it, it will appear that there are no files or folders within the drive itself.
To unhide one or more of the items from the list, simply click on the Unlock button while making sure that the boxes are checked next to the items you want to unhide.
As you can see, when you use the right tool, it’s easy to hide your files, folders and drives from all users on your computer. Now you can consider yourself a cybersecurity expert when it comes to managing your files and folders within Windows!
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