Protective Veil for Your Folders

Keeping personal information private is a growing concern in the digital era we're living in. Once we turn to virtual safe boxes for storing any valuable data, there's always someone out there willing and able to disclose what is supposed to stay out of everyone's sight. The goals of such attempts are less important; what this is really about is above all a matter of principle: if you want to keep something that belongs to you only for yourself, no one should even try to access it without your consent.

The fraudulent attempt of stealing a person's private data, also known as “phishing,” is among the worst kinds of attacks one may come face to face with in the virtual world of the Internet. Fortunately, there are several ways of parrying such activities as many strategies have been developed to shield us from this threat. They actually provide good protection provided that users pay real close attention to the websites they visit and to whom they disclose their credentials. Now, there is another type of lurking menace that is very hard to discover and most of the time too late to counter. It is the direct though unauthorized access of files stored on a certain online or offline location.

To ensure effective security measures against those who try to illegally take a peek and even more at your personal information stored in various files you keep on your PC, you'll need more than the classical “password protection.” Nowadays, for those seeking to breach your “fortress walls” a password is nothing more than a challenge, a sort of battle of wits they are bound to win sooner or later. Several passphrases can effectively harbor the data, but you'll also have to remember or store those passes, which is not so great. A quite simple and effective solution derives from an elementary principle: if you can't see it, or don't know it's there, then you can't target it.

To successfully put your directories and the files within out of public sight, you need a dedicated utility that can safely conceal them and allow only the owner, that is you, to view, access and modify the contained data. This is where Hide Folder comes in. It is a freeware application designed especially for this purpose: keeping your private data really private.

This utility is easy to install and the operation is also quite simple as you won't find any complicated features because it is built to do just a single job but do it first-rate. The interface is pretty straightforward, though good looking and with a strong accent on practicality. All the functions you'll need are in the right places, easily accessible using the large buttons from the main toolbar or from the menu list. The right-click menu in Hide Folders steps in to help you by providing immediate access to the main commands of the application.

Once you load the folders you want to protect, all you need to do is press the “Hide” button and they will simply vanish. There will be virtually no trace of their existence, so no one will try to get to them simply because they won't know the directories are there. Even in the filesize of the containing folder or partition there won't be any indication that there is a certain amount of extra space occupied by some invisible files. The fact that this usually telltale indicator is also dealt with brings a big plus for this tool and certainly increases the trust factor for anyone using it.

Another good thing about this application is the fact that it can work with several folders at once and give you the opportunity to batch process them. Consequently, you can check the directories individually or all at once and just as easily they can be removed from the list. When the “Hide” button is pressed, only the checked folders will become undetectable, therefore you need to pay attention so as not to leave any data exposed.

If Hide Folders helps you by shielding your data from unauthorized views, you can, in turn, protect it by restricting the access with a personalized password. This can be easily done from the main window and this measure will step up the security level. Once the software is password protected and your folders are out of sight, the only way of making them visible again is by logging into the application with your pass phrase and selecting the “Unhide” function. Even if the utility is uninstalled from your computer, the concealed directories will remain in hiding. And if you think “Safe Mode” will get you out of this, think again because it won't, so you'd better remember that password if you need the information back. However, if you do not use a passkey and remove the application, after a restart the directories will come out into the open. The same will happen if you use for example an Ubuntu Live CD - the magical protective cloak will magically disappear.

An interesting thing happens if you load an entire partition to the hidden folders' list: it is still visible, but very much inaccessible and also all the details regarding it become in turn unavailable. So, I guess this is a really nice, even though not documented feature that definitely qualifies as a positive addition to this tool. In fact, the other let's call them “extras” of Hide Folders are related only to the looks of the software. There is the skinnable interface, the grid lines that ca be added to the main window just like in the case of the right pane of the application and that's all.

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