Sec?

Ever wondered how to prevent your younger brother from peeking into your personal files in your shared home PC?

Well, if you have such worries, relax now because you can use Windows NTFS permissions and file and folder encryption to secure your private data.

However, REMEMBER that the drive containing the data should have been formatted with NTFS file system. So, first of all you should verify the file system of the drive. If it is FAT16 or FAT32 convert it to NTFS. How to do it?

It is very simple.

• Click on the Start button
• Click on Run type cmd
• On the command prompt, type the following command convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs.where drive_letter is the drive letter of the drive that contains the data and press enter.

For example, if the drive that contains the data is d: then type “convert d:/fs:ntfs”.
If your drive contains a volume label, then you will have to enter it and press y and enter to complete the conversion process.
If the drive that contains the data is either a system or a boot volume then Windows will convert the drive to NTFS only after a restart.

• Once the volume is converted to NTFS, create separate user accounts for each user of the PC.
• After you log on with your user account, browse to the folder that contains your data.
• Please turn off simple file sharing by going to Control Panel, Folder options and click on View. At the bottom there is an option called “Use simple File sharing (Recommended)”. Uncheck the option.
• Now, right click the folder that you want to secure and click on sharing and security

• click on Advanced.
• Uncheck the option Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these eith entries explicitly defined here.

• Click on copy. Now select and remove each permission entry that does not contain your user name, the SYSTEM group and the CREATOR OWNER group.

• Click on O.K twice.
• Now if the other user logs on with his user account and browses to that folder .He won’t be able to view the contents of it. He won’t be able to delete it either.