dirLock

Almost all users rely on their computer to store confidential or private files, data that they do not want other people to get access to. One way to prevent this type of unauthorized access is to lock the folders and to protect them with a password. DirLock is a freeware application that comes in handy in this situation.

The installation does not pose any difficulties, as it is all a matter of pressing Next>Next until the setup is complete. After this, users can simply right click any folder on their computer and lock it after specifying a password (to prevent typing a key every time they want to encrypt a folder, users can activate and setup the Master Password which is automatically used for any locked directory).

When a directory is locked using DirLock, a message box is shown, informing the users that they do not have the appropriate privileges for the action they want to perform – the folder can be unlocked either by accessing the Windows Explorer context menu and selecting the proper item or via the main window of the application.

The main window of DirLock displays a list with all the folders that are currently locked, and users can choose the one they want to unprotect and become accessible to all users.

The Options window of the application allows users to disabled the shell extension, so that folders can be unlocked only using the main interface of DirLock. It is also possible to enable or disable the Security Tab, which allows users to still get some details about the folder, even if it is locked.

To sum up, DirLock may not be a feature-packed encryption tool that protects your most private files, but it can perform basic locking for folders thus offering users more control over their items. This makes it suitable more at home for computers with multiple users set up.