Rest assured: Folder Guard protects your files

Whether you're a programmer and want to make your work private, a paparazzi that just manufactured crucial evidence or a government worker that cannot afford to lose all the top secret information, you are in need of a program that will keep your files and documents private.

Folder Guard is an application that will help you protect files and folders on your hard disk, efficiently and really easy.




Getting to know the program

All you have to do is indicate the "targets" and the program will take care of the rest.

As you would expect, the program has a master password that will prevent anyone else from running the application without your approval. As a security measure Folder Guard allows you to generate an Emergency Recovery Utility: this is a small executable file that will remove the program master password. This way, should you forget your password you will not have to go through a great deal of trouble to reset it, and you will regain access to the program.



Yes, SIR!

There are several protection possibilities that the program explores.

First of all, you can simply change the access settings for an item, choosing one of the following three settings: Full access, Hidden or No access. By default, a file or a folder has the Full access option selected.

As for what viewing is concerned, you can select from Visible, Empty or Hidden. By combining these options you can have a file or folder set up to be either hidden, with no access to it, or viewable but with no contents, or the best option so far, you can choose to restrict the access to an item by requiring password.

The main window is simple, and has a tree structure, just like Windows Explorer has. Right under the program's menu is placed a toolbar with buttons for all the actions and operations you can perform. Also, the right click menu includes all of these, providing even faster access to the application's features.

You can set a different password for each component that you want to protect. The password is not mandatory, and if you want to make sure that no one will guess your password, you can simply restrict the access to a file or folder and when you want to use it, simply run Folder Guard and remove the protection and you're clear to do whatever you want.

The program hides your files and documents from all applications, including DOS applications, so there are few or no ways to dodge it.

If you try killing the process using a task manager utility, Windows Explorer will be terminated, and then restarted; the protection will remain active all the way, and the only way you can gain access to the protected items is by either entering the password or using the Emergency recovery utility.

You can also set different permissions to all the users that use the computer. These permissions don't apply merely on the file access, but on the whole system. You can block access to the Control panel, Start menu, Windows Messenger, ability to change the Home page in Internet Explorer, install programs, and the list goes on and on. You can copy the permissions from a user to another, so that you can have equal restrictions for all other users, with you as their leader.

Another feature I like is the fact that you can add and edit filters, so that a more advanced access control can be implemented. By default there are six Filters that you can activate, and for each one you can set exceptions.

If you can't seem to get the hang of how the program works, you can either check the help menu and see what advice is in there, take a look at the tips and tricks dialog boxes that show when you run the program, or if that's not good enough, you can use the build-in wizard that will guide you through all the steps that you need to take.

The toolbar has only buttons for the essential operations that you can perform, but it's customizable, and you can add new items and separators, or remove some of the existing ones if they don't suit your needs.



The good

The program has numerous features that will allow you to protect your files and documents from other people that use the computer. Not only that you can hide them, or set access passwords for each, but you can also setup permission rules, and select filters that will make sure no one will perform unauthorized actions on your computer.

The bad

This is only a shareware version that you can use for 30 days. After that, if you still want to use the program you'll have to get a license that costs $59.95. It's not the best price on the market, but its value makes it worth every cent.

The truth

I've enjoyed working with Folder guard, and I was happy to see that there were no behavior issues with constant setting changes. The security features are effective and easy to deal with. If you want your information to be private, use this program, and it will be!




Here are some screenshots of the program in action: