How in the Tech

Securing Folders with Vista’s File Security

By Adam Myers ⋅ October 7, 2008 ⋅

For most, using a computer in a shared environment is commonplace. Whether it’s the family computer shared by everyone or a computer just for the children, you are familiar with the challenges introduced by this particular setup. Specifically, I’m going to pose the question – are your files safe from others accidentally deleting them? With the assumption that every user has their own account, you probably know that data residing in My Documents or My Music are protected. That is, other users of the computer are not able to access anything contained in those folders. For some, this is enough flexibility. But what if you’ve identified other folders that should be secured as well – folders that aren’t able to be simply moved into My Documents? Vista has you covered.

1. You may set File or Folder security by right clicking on the item and selecting Properties.
2. Select the Security tab in the Folder Properties window and click Edit.



3. You are now in the Permissions window for this folder. It is from here that you can add users or groups and adjust their permissions accordingly. Click Add.



4. Enter the username of the account you wish to restrict. Use Check Names to validate that is is a valid username on the computer. Finally, click OK to return to the Permissions window.



5. Select the username you just added previously. To deny access to the folder in question to this particular user, check the box Full Control under the Deny header. Deny takes precedence over all other permissions so even if the user belongs to another group that has access to this folder, they will still be unable to view the files.



6. Click Apply to set the new security permissions.