I want to hide a folder

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wentworth
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Wentworth

We are on a network of 5 computers & Laptops.
I want to be able to hide a folder from 3 of the other computers or password
protect a folder so anyone with the password can access it. We have 3
Windows XP Home, 1 XP Pro and one Win98 machine.
I thought this was a simple process, but I have not been successful.
Can someone steer me in the right direction, please?
Thanks in advance.
Pat
 
We are on a network of 5 computers & Laptops.
I want to be able to hide a folder from 3 of the other computers or password
protect a folder so anyone with the password can access it. We have 3
Windows XP Home, 1 XP Pro and one Win98 machine.
I thought this was a simple process, but I have not been successful.
Can someone steer me in the right direction, please?
Thanks in advance.
Pat
Click to expand...

Pat,

With Windows 98, you can have share-level protection. With Windows NT / 2000 /
XP, you have user-level shares. You have to setup users, and give them
appropriate access (or not) to the folder in question.

Unfortunately, if you have a workgroup, as I suspect, you will have to setup
users on all of the computers, and maintain passwords for each user on both the
server (where the folder resides) and on the clients (computers where you want
to access the folder).

If you have any folders, other than the secret folder, that everybody needs to
access, this will be a problem with XP Home. With XP Home, anything shared is
shared to everybody. Which computer hosts the secret folder?

For more information:
<http://nitecruzr.blogspot.com/2005/06/file-sharing-under-windows-xp.html>
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...db-aef8-4bef-925e-7ac9be791028&DisplayLang=en>
 
It is the Widows XP Home machine, but it could be relocated to the Pro.
Would that help?
 
It is the Widows XP Home machine, but it could be relocated to the Pro.
Would that help?
Click to expand...

Pat,

If you use an XP Pro system with Advanced File Sharing, you can have much better
granularity on any folder or file, so yes, that would be a good move. If you
have a workgroup, you'll still have to setup and maintain multiple accounts on
multiple computers. Beyond 4 or 5 computers / employees, I would personally be
looking in to setting up a domain.

Read my article, it will explain the details.
 
"Wentworth" said:
We are on a network of 5 computers & Laptops.
I want to be able to hide a folder from 3 of the other computers or password
protect a folder so anyone with the password can access it. We have 3
Windows XP Home, 1 XP Pro and one Win98 machine.
I thought this was a simple process, but I have not been successful.
Can someone steer me in the right direction, please?
Thanks in advance.
Pat
Click to expand...

Put a dollar sign at the end of the folder's share name, like DATA$.
The shared folder won't appear in My Network Places on any computer,
so only someone who knows the folder's share name will be able to
access it over the network. One way to access it is to specify the
computer and share name in the Start | Run box in this format:

\\computer\DATA$

Windows XP doesn't have passwords for shared folders. If you make the
hidden folder's share name obscure enough, it can effectively act as a
password. For example, use a share name like A34B4T5QL$.
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

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