Recommendations for encryption & locking software wanted

I currently us a program called Protect Folder by Everstrike Software. I'm fairly satisfied with the product, but I'm not sure the company is still a going concern. Also, the few times I've tried to get technical support I got no response. So I'm trying to find alternatives.

Features I find important:

• Folders are password protected. Until the password is entered the folder looks empty to File Explorer.
• Folders are encrypted. If the software is removed, everything in the folder (including contents of sub-directories) is unreadable.
• An unlocked file is locked when the user logs out of when the PC goes to sleep.
• A folder unlocked for one user of the PC is still locked for other users. (Actually, I'm not sure if that's true for Protect Folder, but it's important to me.)

Are there other programs around that provide these features? I'm willing to pay, but not too much. (I think Folder Protect cost around $35 per PC 4 or 5 years ago when I bought it.)

Have you checked this one? VeraCrypt - Home

Thanks for the tip. I just looked glanced at the doc. It certainly provides a lot more security than I need. (I want to thwart casual prying eyes, not commercial or international espionage.) VeraCrypt looks like serious overkill, but the price is right. :)

I use it to encrypt my personal files I keep on external drives. It does everything I want and more. :)

I think I have two independent needs VeraCrypt might address one of them that I didn't mention - protecting backups from ransomware attacks - but I'm not sure it is a good match for the need I described in my opening post. I'm really looking for a lock/unlock function.

I want folder to be password protected. Once a user unlocks the folder it and all its subfolders and files are available to that user without further need need to enter the password. The folder will stay unlocked until the user locks it, the user logs out, or the PC goes to sleep.

From my cursory read of the VeraCrypt doc. I can't tell if VeraCrypt requires the password every time a file is opened, of if it just requires the password to "unlock" an encrypted file container. I will be happy to discover that the latter is the case.

I get the impression that if an encrypted file container is created on an otherwise unprotected drive or partition, that container can be deleted without giving the password - it has no kind of protection itself. I could live with that, and it would certainly simplify cleanup and/or recovery, but I would prefer to have the container protected from accidental deletion.

I also get the feeling that an encrypted file container is sort of like a partition. It is a fixed size which either wastes a lot of space or would need to be expanded often. And it sounds like expansion is sort of a hassle.




Encryption enters the picture only because it is the only way (that I know of) to keep the folder unavailable to when outside the control of the locking software - if copied to another computer, etc. And I would be satisfied with a simple munging ... as long as it includes the file names, not just the contents.

Tie down the folder access with permissions?

Make sure other user accounts are not local administrators?

Move files to a network share?

There's plenty of options rather than adding an overhead of additional software

pokeefe0001 said:

I think I have two independent needs VeraCrypt might address one of them that I didn't mention - protecting backups from ransomware attacks - but I'm not sure it is a good match for the need I described in my opening post. I'm really looking for a lock/unlock function.

I want folder to be password protected. Once a user unlocks the folder it and all its subfolders and files are available to that user without further need need to enter the password. The folder will stay unlocked until the user locks it, the user logs out, or the PC goes to sleep.

From my cursory read of the VeraCrypt doc. I can't tell if VeraCrypt requires the password every time a file is opened, of if it just requires the password to "unlock" an encrypted file container. I will be happy to discover that the latter is the case.

I get the impression that if an encrypted file container is created on an otherwise unprotected drive or partition, that container can be deleted without giving the password - it has no kind of protection itself. I could live with that, and it would certainly simplify cleanup and/or recovery, but I would prefer to have the container protected from accidental deletion.

I also get the feeling that an encrypted file container is sort of like a partition. It is a fixed size which either wastes a lot of space or would need to be expanded often. And it sounds like expansion is sort of a hassle.




Encryption enters the picture only because it is the only way (that I know of) to keep the folder unavailable to when outside the control of the locking software - if copied to another computer, etc. And I would be satisfied with a simple munging ... as long as it includes the file names, not just the contents.

The best I can suggest is to try it with test files and folders and see if it does any of the things you want. If not you can always remove it.

pokeefe0001 said:

I think I have two independent needs VeraCrypt might address one of them that I didn't mention - protecting backups from ransomware attacks - but I'm not sure it is a good match for the need I described in my opening post. I'm really looking for a lock/unlock function.

I want folder to be password protected. Once a user unlocks the folder it and all its subfolders and files are available to that user without further need need to enter the password. The folder will stay unlocked until the user locks it, the user logs out, or the PC goes to sleep.

From my cursory read of the VeraCrypt doc. I can't tell if VeraCrypt requires the password every time a file is opened, of if it just requires the password to "unlock" an encrypted file container. I will be happy to discover that the latter is the case.

I get the impression that if an encrypted file container is created on an otherwise unprotected drive or partition, that container can be deleted without giving the password - it has no kind of protection itself. I could live with that, and it would certainly simplify cleanup and/or recovery, but I would prefer to have the container protected from accidental deletion.

I also get the feeling that an encrypted file container is sort of like a partition. It is a fixed size which either wastes a lot of space or would need to be expanded often. And it sounds like expansion is sort of a hassle.




Encryption enters the picture only because it is the only way (that I know of) to keep the folder unavailable to when outside the control of the locking software - if copied to another computer, etc. And I would be satisfied with a simple munging ... as long as it includes the file names, not just the contents.

You are correct in that the container itself is subject to being deleted without having to enter a password. I supposed you could given the container file hidden attributes so as to make it more difficult to delete accidentally. In years and years of using TrueCrypt (on which VeraCrypt is based) and VeraCrypt, I have never done that accidentally.

The container is a fixed size. You can either specify its size at time of creation, or make it "dynamic" in that the actual formatted portion of the container grows as it is filled up to the maximum size stated at creation.