Secure File Protector

If there are files on your computer that you don’t want anyone else to see,
you can copy them to a thumb drive, burn a CD and carry it next to your heart,
or you could simply remove your hard drive and carry it with you to work,
to the market and to visits to the IRS. For the rest of us, however,
there is a wonderful, simple program called Secure File Protector.

Wonderful because it does one thing, and does it very well.

After a quick install, you decide which files you want to protect.

There are four levels of what’s called “encryption.”

When you’re satisfied with the level of security that’s adequate for the file
you want to protect, you can assign a password.

You need to remember that password, so make it simple enough that
you won’t forget what it is, and hard enough so that prying eyes and curious
officemates or roommates won’t get it. Hint: Don’t use your name.
Or you can skip the password and rely on what comes next.

After you’ve selected a file to protect, the program encrypts it,
which means it basically jumbles the data.

When you’re ready to use the file again, you choose it from a popup window,
choose “decrypt” and enter the password if you’ve used one. The jumbled file is now usable.

You can protect portable drives, too, as long as they are rewritable,
and assign different passwords  to different files, but you must have the program running on both the PC
that you encrypt it on and the one you’re decrypting it to.

You can use the same copy of the software on both ends. Sounds complicated but it’s very simple, intuitive and safe.

And it sure beats removing your hard drive and carrying it with you to the market.

For Windows Vista or XP