I work in a small office. One of my bosses wants to password-protect his files.
He’s running Windows XP on a Dell Inspiron notebook. At his log-on screen, his username shows up, but no password. He simply hits “OK” to log on.
I’m hesitant to simply enter a password at his log-on screen. (Don’t want to mess things up).
Once Windows loaded, I hit control-alt-del and selected “change password”. I was prompted to enter his password. He says he doesn’t HAVE a password. Tried a few guesses, but all were rejected. The rejection message said that the computer was “locked”, and could not be unlocked without the correct password.
I’m afraid to tinker around too much, lest I destroy something.
So I figured I’d try to simply password-protect his individual files. He uses Wordperfect 10. Now I can’t figure out how to do that, either.
Feeling like a moron, I’m skulking into the SDMB in hopes of rescue. Any computing-knights in shining armour? I’d really appreciate any enlightenment.
If it’s serious, then don’t use the built-in Wordperfect passwording. It can be cracked. No, I won’t tell how, because the SDMB Staff don’t want us to do that.
But they certainly don’t mind telling how to protect files. If you serious protection, get PGP Personal for Windows (which includes PGP Disk) from www.pgp.com - $50. Military-grade simple disk encryption, which can be tied to his Windows login, or to a passphrase. It’s what I use to protect all my work and personal files, and have done so for years. Because when I take my laptop to Greece or Poland or East-South Asscratchistan, I don’t want to worry about what happens to my data if it’s stolen or lost. I just come back, get a new laptop, restore from my pre-trip backup, and I’m back and running.
If it’s only encrypting for casual purposes, then someone else will have to help, as I only speak Word.
Very simple to password protect in WP10. Click on “save as” and in the “save as” dialog box a check box for password protection will appear appear in the lower right hand corner. Saving will then prompt you for a password.
The Windows login password does not password protect the files on the disk, it just allows you access to the computer and its settings for the individual user. It is likely that your boss’s login name has no password attached. To change it, go to the change password option in the control panel, leave the old password blank and enter the new password you want to change it to. Windows XP built-in password protection for files is only available if the partition is an NTFS partition. It is not available for FAT32 partitions.
Here is an excellent, simple and free encryption software:
This guy doesn’t need super-protection, he simply wants to keep one particular secretary from messing around with his files. She knows very little about computers, so it won’t take much.
I think astro may have solved the problem with Wordperfect’s password protection – though I was hoping to figure out how to secure ALL files (so that he only has to enter his password once to access all his files, but so that she can’t get at any of them).
Thank you SO SO SO much for all the info. I appreciate all the ‘smarts’ you’re willing to share.
