FlashCrypt

Shielding important files from unauthorized access attempts and storing them safely so that only the owner or trusted users can view them is a serious job that can be carried out with the help of some specialized utilities.

FlashCrypt is one such tool and it aims to provide a simple yet highly effective method of securing folders with a password and strong encryption.

This program is very easy to set up and in a couple of moments its functionality becomes available from the context menu. Thus, when right-clicking on any directory, you will have the possibility to encrypt it with this tool.

The window that appears when you select the 'Protect with FlashCrypt' option hosts all the necessary functions to ensure your data is kept private an inaccessible for other users.

The cipher used by this software is the 256-bit AES algorithm, which should be impossible to bypass. The options at your disposal are quite simple, so all you will have to do after selecting the folder to protect is input a password, confirm it and make sure you remember it because otherwise the contents of that directory will not be accessible.

Nonetheless, before proceeding, there are some extra settings you might want to take a look at. More precisely, FlashCrypt offers you the possibility to activate file compression, to save some space and also enable a password recovery facility. The latter feature, though, relies on a private key that can only be provided by the application developer with whom you will have to get in touch in case you forgot the passkey.

On the whole, FlashCrypt proves to be user friendly and allow even those with very little experience to benefit from a very powerful protective layer that can be set on their private files, stored in any directory of their choosing.