Setting up user accounts, how to hide your personal files from those users

[chad]

Hi ALL

I'm about to go OS for a month and have a house sitter coming to stay who will feed the fish and email me from my own computer with updates...

I've set her up a password protected user account in XP and passworded my own acount, but I want to make all my own files and folders inaccesible to her... currently her account can view everything in my C and D drives, this no good!

I'll need to spend a day burning and saving emails, photo's, chat conversations etc that I'm not keen for her to stumble across... is there an easier way to make all my folders unavailable in her account? I've had a good look around Windows XP with not much luck...

thanks... !

[kpac]

Are you using Vista?

If you are, just hide all the folders you don't want them to see, and then turn on User A/C Control.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

What do you think your house sitter will do on the computer?

I'm pretty sure he/shewon't be able to access your files but Program Files will be accessible.

[JJ 3000]

Right click the file you don't want her to see and select properties.

Click the Advanced button and put a check mark next to "Encrypt contents to secure data"

This should make the file unreadable to other users.

Make sure by logging into her account and trying to access the file from there.

Hope this does it for ya.

[chad]

Are you using Vista?

If you are, just hide all the folders you don't want them to see, and then turn on User A/C Control.

nope, XP

What do you think your house sitter will do on the computer?

I'm pretty sure he/shewon't be able to access your files but Program Files will be accessible.

Not quite sure, but it's a housesitter from an agency in my home, just wanna feel comfortable and protect my emails, pictures, and documents if I'm giving them access to keep in touch with me. :-) And currently they can see a lot more than just program files... the entire C and D drives are available.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

What about encryption? You can encrypt drives with a program called TrueCrypt.

You will need feedback from Zylstra (another member) because I know he has experience with that program.

[Zylstra]

Encryption is a great solution for making sure that if someone takes your computer, they cant access your information.

However, if you encrypt the drive, whoever needs to use the computer MUST have THE password. (You cannot set up multiple "usernames" for encryption...)

TrueCrypt www.truecrypt.org is my favorite encryption program (heck, the only one I have ever used/wanted to use.)
It doesn't noticeably slow your computer down. Just be sure to read every bit of information on every instruction page in the drive encryption wizard. You will need to burn a recovery CD (Keep this safe!), which, I see you already understand burning. (You need to burn an ISO file, thats a little different. Do you understand how to burn an ISO?)


Of course, if you want your house sitter to be able to use your computer, then the best option is to create a second account on your drive as a limited user. Log into that account, can you still access your photos on your own account while logged in as the limited user? If so, something must be a bit off with your setup.

[chad]

Log into that account, can you still access your photos on your own account while logged in as the limited user? If so, something must be a bit off with your setup.

Yes, I can definitely still see every file and folder from that second account... I have set it up as limited, and I have passworded mine as protected. hmmmmm...

[Zylstra]

In your account settings, somewhere, there should be the ability to make the account private.
(Or: "Prevent others from seeing my account" something like that... sorry for the vague description.)

*looking right now to see if I can find it...*

Nope, sorry. It should be there somewhere though, under the Settings area of the administrator account..

[joefido]

If you have a limited user account for the House Sitter why not just Hide the files you want privite? Right Click  the Folder or File that you want privite, select Properties, and select Hidden from file attributes. Unless she logs in with your password, she won't be able to see the Hidden folders or files.

[Zylstra]

If you have a limited user account for the House Sitter why not just Hide the files you want privite? Right Click  the Folder or File that you want privite, select Properties, and select Hidden from file attributes. Unless she logs in with your password, she won't be able to see the Hidden folders or files.

Unless, you simply go to:
Tools> Folder Options> the "View" tab, and select "Show Hidden and System Files"

[chad]

If you have a limited user account for the House Sitter why not just Hide the files you want privite? Right Click  the Folder or File that you want privite, select Properties, and select Hidden from file attributes. Unless she logs in with your password, she won't be able to see the Hidden folders or files.

I don't think that would work... but I tried it in case... nope. Zylstra and my instinct is spot on.. it reappears if you go into the folder options tabs...

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Hmmmm.....what do you think guys, do you think attrib +h +s would be useful here?

[chad]

whats attrib +h +s?

Windows gives this below, but it works with ONE folder only... only my 'named' document folder in C, My Documents. The option to Make Private comes up under 'properties' in every single folder on the computer, but it is 'shadowed' or non-clickable...

I'll need to move everything to C-My documents?? we can put man on the moon (didn't happen) but we can't hide folders to different user accounts...! Ah the humanity... 



To make your folders private
Open My Computer.
Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.

Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
Double-click your user folder.
Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.
On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box

[Zylstra]

Hmmmm.....what do you think guys, do you think attrib +h +s would be useful here?

Nope, thats the same as right clicking, going to Properties, and selecting "Hidden" and "System" which will be shown in Windows Explorer if you set it to show System and Hidden files...