HOW TO PASSWORD PROTECT YOUR FILES IN WINDOWS XP

Working in a shared computer has a big problem. Privacy. You would like to store your private documents and photos in a protected folder. By default, Windows XP doesn't have a strong protection system.

Anyway, there is a protection method available. This method has one condition. The drive of the folder should be in NTFS format. You can not make a folder private if it is in FAT 32 system. Here is how you do it:

Step 1

Right click the folder you want to make private and click 'properties'

Step 2

Click on the 'sharing' tab on the properties window.

Step 3

If the drive is formatted in NTFS, you will see the 'make this folder private' enabled. Like this:

Check that option and supply a password. That is all. If the drive is not formatted in NTFS format, the 'Make this folder private' option will be disabled.

If you want to protect your My documents folder with a password but do not want to re-format your Operating System drive, there is another option.

Just change the path of the 'My document' folder by right clicking and selecting 'properties'. See the screenshot:

This way, you need not format your Windows drive.