By now it should be clear that encryption isn't just for security geeks and IT administrators. You can take precautions to secure your own most sensitive files and folders by encrypting them. Some encryption utilities turn files and folders into encoded versions of themselves. Others create secure storage locations that act like standard drives or folders but can be locked, encrypting all of their contents. Still others maintain encrypted storage in the cloud. Most encryption utilities stick to just one of these functions. Folder Lock does all three things, and more, balancing ease of use with a wide range of features.
Installation of the product is quick and simple When you do pay up, you'll receive a serial number and a registration key. Keep that serial number stored in a safe place. If you forget your master password, you can unlock the program by entering that serial number.
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Like AxCrypt Premium, Folder Lock relies on a master password. Once you've logged in with the master password, you're free to lock and unlock files, folders, and drives without having to enter it again. Of course this should be a strong, memorable password, something that you can remember but that nobody else would guess.
So, what does it mean to lock a file or folder? A locked file is not encrypted. Instead, Folder Lock uses a technique called kernel level filtering to hide the locked file from Windows, and from all programs running under Windows. If that sounds a bit like the way a rootkit hides its components from Windows, well, it is quite similar, but working for good, not evil. Locked files are protected from casual snooping, which may be all you need.
To lock a file or folder, you just drop it on Folder Lock. It appears inside Folder Lock and vanishes from Windows Explorer. The locking process happens in a flash, faster than encryption. You can also use a menu within the program to lock files, folders, and drives. Of course, you can't lock the Windows drive.
The Lock Folders page in the program's main window lists all of your locked items, with a green padlock next to each. If you're done locking one or more items, you select them and click the button Unlock Items, or right-click and choose Remove. When you do so, the item vanishes from Folder Lock and reappears in Windows Explorer.
It's more likely that you'll simply want to access a locked item while keeping it secure. Clicking Protection Off leaves the item inside Folder Lock, with a red open padlock icon replacing the green locked padlock. The item reappears in Windows Explorer so you can access it. You can configure Folder Lock so that when it shuts down, it turns protection back on automatically. In use, it feels somewhat similar to AxCrypt's Secured Folders feature.
Folder Lock doesn't just hide files and folders. It can actually hide itself as well. Just engage Stealth Mode and anybody snooping around your computer won't see a trace of it. To bring it out of hiding, you press the hotkey combination that you selected when invoking Stealth Mode. Security experts turn up their noses at security through obscurity, but this feature really can help fend off casual snoops.
Locking items makes them invisible, but a determined hacker with physical access to the computer could conceivably still get at the data, perhaps by booting to a non-Windows environment. For serious file protection, you need to create one or more encrypted lockers. These correspond to vaults in CryptoExpert and to encrypted volumes in Cypherix Cryptainer PE.
You start by naming your locker and accepting (or changing) the location for the file that holds the locker's data. Next you set a password to protect the locker's contents. Like InterCrypto Advanced Encryption Package 2016, Folder Lock includes a virtual keyboard to eliminate any possibility of password capture by a keylogger. It rates password strength as you type, but unlike AxCrypt it's pretty forgiving. It accepted "Password1" as strong password.
Next you must choose whether to create a backup-able FAT32 locker, accepting the limitation that no file larger than 4GB can be stored, or go for the no-limits NTFS format. You also set a maximum size. The initial size on disk is much smaller, growing as needed up to that maximum. Folder Lock takes care of formatting the drive, whichever file system you use. Cypherix Cryptainer PE, by contrast, relies on Windows to format NTFS virtual drives.
By default, Folder Lock assigns drive letters starting with Z: and works down from there. When you open a locker, you can choose a specific drive letter, and optionally open the locker in read-only mode. I did not, however, find a way to permanently assign a specific drive letter to a locker, the way Cypherix and CryptoExpert permit. If you try to close a locker that contains open files, the program warns you to close those files first.
Folder lock uses government-standard AES 256-bit encryption, and it claims to have the fastest AES algorithm around. That should be fine for most users. Yes, Advanced Encryption Package offers a choice of 17 different algorithms, and Ranquel Technologies CryptoForge lets you apply any or all of its four algorithms simultaneously, but most users don't have the crypto-expertise to pick an algorithm.
By default, Folder Lock simply overwrites the file or folder with zeroes. You can set it to overwrite with random bytes instead. If you're willing to have the shredder run a bit slower in order to more thoroughly erase the data, you can choose the three-pass Department of Defense algorithm, or the 35-pass Gutmann algorithm. But unless you anticipate law enforcement spending huge amounts of time and effort to recover your sinister deleted files, the single pass with zeroes or random numbers is probably sufficient. If shredding algorithms fascinate you, check out the 18 distinct algorithms in Advanced Encryption Package, most of which are government sanctioned.
By default, Folder Lock won't shred any lockers, locked files, or wallets (more about wallets in a bit). That makes sense to me. But if you think otherwise, you can turn off this precautionary setting.
CertainSafe Digital Safety Deposit Box stores your encrypted files directly to multiple encrypted cloud servers, ensuring security by splitting up parts of the file to different servers. Folder Lock doesn't do that, but it offers secure backup for your encrypted lockers.
Once you've logged in to your secure backup account, you can configure automatic backup for any locker that you defined as backup-able during its creation. The already-encrypted locker data is transmitted via a secure SSL connection. You can optionally choose to sync a locker between multiple PCs that have Folder Lock installed.
Cypherix SecureIT and Advanced Encryption Package can turn encrypted files into self-decrypting executables, files that don't require the program itself for decryption. In an interesting twist, Folder Lock lets you make entire lockers into self-decrypting files that you can store on USB drives or even on DVDs. You can either make a self-decrypting copy of an existing locker or create a new locker directly on the removable drive.
Creating a new wallet is simple. All you do is indicate the name and location for the file that represents the wallet and enter a password. As with locker creation, Folder Lock rates password strength as you type.
It wipes out Windows temporary files, clears the clipboard, and deletes the system's memory of what folder you last used when opening or saving files. It clears recently used file history from Media Player, WordPad, and the Paint app. And it clears a number of Windows recently used file lists.
This isn't remotely the full system cleanup you get from a purpose-built tune-up utility. It doesn't wipe browser traces, or recently used lists from third-party utilities. On the plus side, it runs in an instant.
Folder lock is software designed to let even a non-technical user take control of files and folders on their system, and even USB key stored content, and secure it from those that might want access with nefarious intent.
If you have folders and files that you'd like to keep private, you should check out Folder Lock. It's not a free app, like My Lockbox, but it does have excellent configuration options and lots of ways of keeping important and private documents away from prying eyes.
Folder Lock gives you several options. Firstly, it's integrated with Windows Explorer, so if there's a file or folder you'd like to lock, simply find it and right click. From here, you'll have the option to lock or shred. If you open the program interface, you'll have loads more options, including the ability to lock and encrypt files, protect USB sticks, CDs and DVDs and encrypt email attachments.
Folder Lock is a really flexible program and offers much more than just locking folders. You can also create virtual encrypted Wallets, for storing things like addresses and bank data, and also back up all of your encrypted data to the cloud. Folder Lock's configuration settings are also comprehensive and, obviously enough, password protected.
Folder Lock is a great program. There are lots of free folder locking apps out there, but not many have the multiple features and ease of use of this one. Download it and give it a try - we think you'll like it.
Folder Lock is a full suite solution letting you keep your personal files encrypted and locked, while keeping an automatic and real-time backup of encrypted files to an online storage. It also offers portable security for USB drives and CDs/DVDs. Folder Lock also lets you lock files, folders and drives; save your personal information in Wallets; shred files and clean your Windows History. Folder Lock offers 256-bit AES on-the-fly encryption as well as syncing of encrypted files to an online storage. No need to decrypt or manually backup your files. You can later restore files at any time, on any computer. Lockers can also be converted to executables using the 'Protect USB/CD' feature that allows you to keep your encrypted files wherever you go in USB drives or CDs and DVD or convert your files and folders to encrypted ZIP files for email attachments. 2ff7e9595c
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