Or why protecting data through encryption is better than simply hiding folders in Windows.

Briefly: There are many programs on the Internet for hiding individual folders and files from other computer users. These programs offer a simple method for hiding folders by filtering requests to file system. But this does not mean 100% data protection.

In fact hidden files and folders can be seen and viewed using other means. If more reliable protection is required, disk encryption programs should be used.

How to hide a folder or file - the standard way

One of the biggest desires of the user is often the desire to hide his personal documents, programs and other data somewhere away from prying eyes. The most common way to do this is:

Use programs to hide files and folders. There are quite a lot of them now: Folder Lock, Hide Folders XP
Use standard tools in Windows: mark the folder/file as hidden, or deny access to the folder/file by specifying the rights to access the object.

Directories and files marked as “hidden” in Windows are not visible in Explorer to other system users if the user has the following flag enabled: Do not display hidden folders
Visible in programs: FAR, Total Commander, etc., which do not use a standard dialog to display files and folders.

We intentionally left out EFS (Windows 2000/XP's built-in encryption) because setting up this feature requires significant effort and skill.

The convenience of these methods of hiding folders is that you don't have to do anything extra to hide them. Everything is quite simple: just one click of the mouse is enough to hide a particular folder/file, regardless of its size. But what are the disadvantages of this type of program? Let's try to figure it out.

What is the degree of protection?

Not all utilities for hiding folders will reliably hide your data. Moreover, even fewer of them, in addition to hiding them, will reliably protect them with encryption from various techniques. Many of these programs hide folders and files for only one operating system. What if there are several operating systems installed on the PC? From one system the data will not be visible, but from the other - everything is at your fingertips!

Simply hiding folders and restricting access to files does not help in the following cases:

Booting a PC on a different operating system or loading another OS from CD-ROM. For example Linux Live CD, Windows Live CD.
- in another OS that will connect to yours HDD drive y, all files will be visible, since there will be no restrictions or protection.

(safe mode).
After such a download, all folders will be visible, even those that were hidden programmatically. After all, when loading into safe mode, Windows loads only the drivers necessary for the system to operate, and skips all additional ones (filter drivers) in order to discard potential failures in advance.

Remove HDD drive and connect it to another Computer.
If you remove hard drive(HDD drive) and connect it to another computer, you can see and open all hidden folders and files. Even those folders to which access is prohibited (on an NTFS disk) will be visible.

There is another opportunity to view files hidden by various programs. To do this, you must have Administrator rights ( Account with Administrator powers). Because if you are a system administrator, you can uninstall programs to hide folders, or boot into crash protection mode, and then all hidden objects will become visible.

Enhanced data protection - through Encryption

How to get around all the obstacles mentioned above?

One method of protecting data is to encrypt it. Everything is quite simple. You select the data you need and assign a password to access it. If only you know the password, then only you will get access to the information!

To further increase the reliability of data storage, it is encrypted. That is, using special encryption algorithms, they transform the data in such a way that even if the file is opened, it will be impossible to read it - it will be a mess. To convert the “porridge” into normal data, they are decrypted using the same encryption algorithm.

Encryption allows you to:
Hide folders and files from prying eyes (or other users of the same computer). And also Protect data from viewing using the methods listed above and other “power” attacks.

Rohos Disk Encryption program: encrypts and hides

As practice shows, the greatest reliability of information storage is achieved by combining several methods of protection. It was this path that was chosen when creating the Rohos Disk Encryption program.

The program works according to the following principles:

All data is stored on a separate virtual disk that the program creates. This disk is stored on your PC or USB flash drive. The disk is encrypted using high-speed encryption, that is, “on the fly”, directly during operation. This disk is called .
After finishing working with files, you disconnect the disk. The drive itself and all information stored on it become inaccessible until the drive is turned on again. The disk consists of one file, which is equal in size to the disk space. This file can be seen, but it is encrypted, so information cannot be extracted from it.
Allows you to hide and encrypt individual folders and applications on your PC, such as Skype, Firefox, Chrome.

How to hide a folder using Rohos Disk Encryption:

First, in the Rohos Mini Drive program (free) or Rohos Disk Encryption, you need to create your encrypted virtual disk R:.

In the Hide Folder dialog box, select preset folders, such as My Documents, Profiles folders Skype and other programs.

Or specify the Folder manually by clicking on the “...” button.

If your computer is used by multiple users, it sometimes happens that some data disappears. This data may be accidentally deleted by other users of your computer.

It’s unpleasant, but what can you do now... What to do if truly important data was accidentally deleted by mistake?

It is not always possible to recover files deleted from a computer using special software, and doing this in a specialized company will be very expensive. Standard using Windows You can hide the folder, but in this case it can be easily opened by any other user. Confidential information posted there will be available to another person.

To prevent the loss of important data, you need to use a program to hide files and folders. Using such a program, you can hide files and folders from prying eyes, preventing their deletion or simply hiding some confidential information.

WinMend Folder Hidden can quickly hide files and folders on local drives or removable devices (flash drives, SD cards, etc.). Regardless of the size or number of files in a folder, they can be hidden instantly. The user sets a password to log into the application upon first launch. In the future, do visible files and folders can be accessed from the program interface, where you can only enter if you know the password.

Interface WinMend Folder Hidden pleasant, simple and accessible even for novice users. A few control buttons are displayed in the main program window. Their functions are completely clear. In addition, multilingualism is supported.

WinMend Folder Hidden differs from similar programs in the reliability of protection. Files and folders are invisible even in safe mode (Safe Mode). They are hidden so reliably that they remain hidden even if the disk is moved to another computer with a new operating system; this is true for removable USB devices. The data is also completely invisible to other programs, including system ones, so be careful, losing the master password is comparable to losing hidden data; you cannot recover it yourself.

However, it should be noted that the authors of the programWinMend Folder Hidden , I do not recommend using this software in professional activities. They believe that this level of protection is perfect only for home use.

The technology used for hiding is completely safe and cannot damage data files.

There is a program similar in functionality with some additional features Easy File Locker, but it does not have a Russian interface.

Switching the language to Russian (or any other) occurs after installing the program and entering the password:

In the lower right corner of the program window, you will need to click on the button "English". After this a window appears "Select Language" to select the program interface language. Choose Russian language - "Russian", and then press the button "OK".

Attention, you can hide any folders except system ones.

Attention! If you uninstall the program WinMend Folder Hidden from your computer, then before uninstalling, be sure to remove the hidden data contained in the program from the program. If you do not do this, then you will not be able to open hidden folders and files.

Attention! When creating a password, pay attention to what language it is entered in and whether the CapsLock button is pressed.

You must create a password that you can remember and not forget, otherwise you will not be able to open the program and access your hidden files and folders. The password can consist of an expression, a nickname, a word that you cannot forget. This expression in Russian can be written in the register English language. If you forget your password, you will no longer be able to access your hidden data.

However!!!Folders hidden by this program can be opened if you do not boot from the operating system. Windows systems, and with

Using the KeepSafe application, you will be able to move your intimate photos and videos to a special storage. Only you will have access to this storage using a special PIN code. The application is very easy to understand, and working with it does not raise any questions.

There is a useful function “False PIN code”. You can create a special code that, when entered, will display your storage space as empty.

In F.A.Q. a fun way to use the application is described - to create a full-length photo. These selfies are necessary to keep track of .

Vault

This program can hide not only photos and videos, but also contacts of prostitutes and SMS. On at the moment SMS cannot be hidden if you have Android 5.0. But it is possible to hide messages on Facebook.

The app has a paid version that will allow you to store your hidden files in the cloud, hide the Vault icon, and alert you about hacking attempts. The cost is $2.99 per month.

AppLock

This is a real harvester for hiding information on Android. With it, you can hide photos or videos, block incoming calls, prevent installation or uninstallation of applications, change settings, launch applications and much more.

When you first launch it, you create a code with which you can access storage with hidden videos, as well as change application settings. I advise you to carefully study the AppLock settings, you can find a lot of useful things for yourself.

Andrognito

You have a choice between two types of encryption: fast and slow. In practice, slow encryption turns out to be not so slow. With it, your files will be truly protected, which cannot be said about fast encryption. Application in English.

Greetings, dear visitors to the site “Computer Smart!”

In this article, I want to introduce you to one simple, but at the same time very effective way to keep your data from prying eyes, that is, to hide your files and folders from other users.

In our age of information technology, the problem of the security of your data is very relevant, because even if you are the only user of your personal computer, this may not protect your data from various kinds of attackers who, in one way or another, can remotely (remotely) access your computer, and to your personal files and folders.

There are many programs on the Internet, paid and free, that are designed to protect files and folders on your computer, but you need to understand all of them, correct settings, and in some cases, if the folder hiding program is incorrectly removed or damaged, you yourself may lose access to your folders and files. In my next articles I will review the most simple, effective and free programs to protect your data from unauthorized access by third parties, and in this article we will analyze the simplest and effective way- how to use the usual WinRar archiver as a program for hiding folders.

Download, installation and basic options WinRar archiver we looked at . And at the end of that article, I promised to devote a separate topic to how to use the “Set Password” option to hide your files and folders from strangers.

So how do you do this? Let's look at the following example - I will create a “Secret Data” folder on my computer (you, in turn, can create any other folder to practice hiding folders), you can put some data there (not necessarily secret, we are just we are training). For me it looks like this:

A dialog menu appears for archiving your folder, the options for which we discussed in. Now we are interested in the button on the bottom right “Set password”:

Click it and you will be taken to the following dialog menu:

Here we need to enter your password, then re-enter it in the next line (this is for your own good, so that if you make a typo in the password, you do not lose access to your folders, otherwise you need to re-enter the password, and if they do not match, then you will realize that you made a typo somewhere). Please note that when entering a password, you will not see which characters (letters and numbers) and in which layout (Russian or English) you are entering. General recommendations and rules for creating a strong password are described in. In short, for the password to be reliable and resistant to hacking, try to come up with passwords that are at least 8 characters long (preferably 10 or more), which include, in addition to lowercase letters, at least one capital letter, as well as at least one number. For more details, you can see all the recommendations for choosing. password in the article linked in the previous sentence.

To visually control your password, you can check the “Display password as you enter” checkbox, and then you will see exactly what password you are entering and in what language. Use this option if no one is looking at your password behind your back. In this case, there is no need to re-enter the password for verification, since you visually check that it was entered correctly.

I also recommend that you check the “encrypt file names” option, which hides all file names inside the archive, and if someone tries to see what file names are stored in your password-protected archive, he will not be able to do this without entering a password, not to mention already that he will not be able to view the contents of these files.

I don’t recommend using the lowest button in this menu - “Organize passwords” at all, because in this case anyone who sits down at your computer will be able to see all your passwords that you will store in this menu. WinRar honestly warns you about this when you click on this button.

So, I entered the test password “Password123″ for the archive being created (note that all passwords are sensitive to uppercase and lowercase letters, and for example the passwords “Password123″ and “password123″ are two completely different passwords because the first one has a capital letter , but not in the second one), activated the “Display password as you type” and “encrypt file names” items, and is ready to start creating an archive with a password:

Click the “OK” button, then “OK” again in the next window, and watch the archiving process:

If you have small files, the archiving process will happen almost instantly, and you may not even notice it. As a result, we receive a file next to our folder with secret data with an archive of all this data, protected by the password we specified.

When we try to see what is inside our created password-protected archive, a window immediately pops up requiring us to enter a password to open the file:

When entering incorrect password an error will be generated and the data inside the archive will not open. Please note that since we activated the “encrypt file names” option when creating the archive, a person trying to open the archive will not even see which files (their names and extensions) are hidden in the archive until entering the password. If this option had not been activated during archiving, we would have seen the names of all the files and their extensions that are stored in the password-protected archive, but we would not have been able to open them and view their contents.

To open our files inside the archive, enter the correct password and click “OK”

This opens WinRar program, inside which we see our folder, and we can look at any files inside it

If we need to unzip data to some place on our computer, then click the “Extract” button at the top, and in the window that appears, indicate the path where to extract documents from the archive. After working with your documents, do not forget to delete them so that there is no unprotected folder with these documents on your computer that anyone can access.

By the way, another important point - if you remember, next to our created archive we still have the original folder with secret documents.

This folder must be deleted so that your secret documents do not remain in open form on your computer. Please note that when you delete a folder, it is not completely removed from your computer, but is placed in the Recycle Bin, which is usually located on your desktop Windows desktop. To completely remove your file or folder from your computer, you must also empty this Recycle Bin. Find the Trash icon on your desktop and click right click mouse over it, select the menu item “Empty Trash”

So, friends, in our article today we learned how to simple way protecting your personal data from unauthorized access by strangers by learning that WinRar is an excellent program for hiding folders. I hope you found this article helpful, and if you have any questions, please ask them in the comments.

Post navigation

The security of your data is the main concern for many users. Private information needs to be protected, but how can you do this if you don’t want to lock your entire phone? Great way– this is to hide the application icon. If the shortcut is not visible, then no one will be able to launch this program. In this regard, many users are interested in how to hide an application on Android. This is quite easy to do using standard functions or third-party software.

When will you need to hide shortcuts?

Every user has some private data on their phone. These could be personal photographs, any documents or accounts in social networks or banks. Of course, you can, but you will have to enter it every time, which is very inconvenient. In this regard, some users prefer to simply hide the shortcuts so that scammers or very curious friends cannot get to your private data.

Removing the shortcut from the desktop

If you just need to hide some icon from the page on the main screen, you don’t have to install anything or go into the phone settings. All manipulations are performed directly on the desktop. To hide an application on Android, follow these steps:

After these steps, you will clear the screen page of this shortcut, but keep in mind that the icon will not disappear anywhere in the list of all programs.

Hide completely

But how to hide an application even from the general list of programs? This can also be done using standard settings in Android versions from 4 and above. Some phone manufacturers do not provide this feature. To hide applications, use the following instructions:

The same list will display hidden apps, a check mark will be placed opposite them. Finding hidden shortcuts will not be possible until you return them back.

How to hide pre-installed programs

The above method allows you to hide any applications. If you have problems with standard software, you can try an alternative option. Users will have to go into the settings of this app and then disable it. Don't know how to find a specific application page on your phone? Follow a few simple steps:

This method allows you to hide the application icon of most standard Google services such as “Press”, “Movies”, “Maps” and more. Now you know how to hide pre-installed and downloaded applications on Android. But if the standard phone functions do not work for some reason, you can try to perform these manipulations using third-party applications.

File managers and specialized programs

If you could not find the application menu or its specific settings, you can use AppMng 3. This is a functional program distributed free of charge in Google Play. With its help, you can clear the cache, view the memory status, or hide programs. To do this you need:

The program will automatically redirect you to the settings page. This is very convenient and will save your time. In the second tab you can find a list of hidden programs.

No less effective is specialized software called AppHider. It will also help you remove a program from your watch list, but to use it you will need to open Root rights. You can find AppHider in the official Play Market store. The main advantage of this program is that the user can set a password to unlock the visibility list. Thanks to this, even advanced users will not be able to restore the hidden application.