Have you ever had the idea of wanting to hide some specific personal folders so that others, e.g. your kids and your wife – if its a family computer, or your prying officemates – if you’re using your office computer, may not be able to see some files?
The files you want to hide may range from porn to just about anything you want to use exclusively. Just password protecting those files (there are apps that can do that) is not enough. In fact, when you password protect a file, it makes the curious even curiouser and more insistent on finding out what secret you’re hiding. Thus, making them invisible is the best way as no one can start looking for something if they don’t know what they want to look for.
Not all Folder hiding apps are good
About 2 years ago, I remember using some cool software that effectively hides folders from anyone, even yourself if you forget your password. The thing with that software (I forgot its name) is that it turned out to be a trojan-carrying application that eventually caused my antivirus software to shriek in chaos. Well, of course, it just confirms the grim reminder that not everything you download are good for you (especially if you get it through torrent downloaders).
There was one other similar app I tried that did not contain any virus or trojan, but it limits the size of the folder I want to hide. In other words, you need to shell out a few bucks to lift the limits. Now, I am not that desperate enough to hide my folders as to get myself a few bucks poorer. Besides, I knew that if I search further enough, I’d eventually find some free ones that will work just as efficiently.
Free Hide Folder
Lately, I stumbled upon this software called ‘Free Hide Folder’. It can hide folders very efficiently. It can even fool windows explorer because the folder count in its status bar shows only the visible folders. And there’s no limit to the number of folders or the size of the folders you want to hide.
One thing I’d like to be a feature of this app though is a shortcut key that can be set by the user. Say, I want to load the app up by pressing ‘ctrl-alt-b’. It doesn’t have this feature at present. Instead it creates a shortcut in your desktop and in your start bar effectively announcing to everyone that you have this app in your desktop. Although the curious may not know what folder you’re hiding, he’d still be suspecting that you’re indeed hiding something.
For those who have an aptitude for programming, this can be remedied, say, with AutoIt or some other similar program. I’d probably try that out sometime. After creating a hotkey, I can thus delete the shortcuts, and voila! I’m the only one who knows the app exists in the computer and how to run it (except for smart guys who might stumble on it while browsing the Program Files folder in the C drive).
Again, this is totally free as its name ‘Free Hide Folder’ says plainly. One caveat: everytime you fire up the app, it’d show you a nag screen asking you to go get a registration code. To get a registration code, you need to send some donation. If you don’t feel like donating however, you can always just click the ‘Skip’ button and you’re good to go.
If you’re interested to know more about this cool application, check it out at this site.