Wise Folder Hider is a free program that is designed to hide folders and files on your computer. When using Wise Folder Hider, you can hide files, folders or USB drives, and if necessary, you can block access to hidden data with a password. This way, hidden data will not be visible and will be password protected.
Many people have files or folders on their computers that are not intended for public viewing. Private videos or photos, confidential information, just important data that can be lost by mistake. This is especially true if several users have access to one computer.
In the Windows operating system, you can make folders or files hidden, but anyone on the computer can make them visible again. Therefore, to hide folders and files, special programs are used, with the help of which it will be possible to hide folders or files, to make them invisible.
You can use an archiver to protect a folder or file with a password. You can also set a password for a Word document using the built-in tools of the program.
In this review, we will take a look at Wise Folder Hider Free, a free program that can be used to hide and protect data on your computer. The manufacturer also has a paid version of the program - Wise Folder Hider Pro.
On the downloads page of the official website, you should pay attention to the links where you can download this program to your computer.
To download the portable version of the program, click on the "Portable Version" link.
To download the installer for the regular version of Wise Folder Hider, you will need to click on the "for direct download" link (direct link). Do not click on the "Download" button in order not to download the program installer from another site. In this case, when installing the program on your computer, you will be prompted to install other programs that are not related to the Wise Folder Hider program.
Although the Wise Folder Hider program has support for the Russian language, the installation of the program will take place in English.
After completing the installation of the program on your computer, start the Wise Folder Hider Free program. Portable (portable) version of the program does not require installation on a computer. It runs from the folder that contains the Wise Folder Hider program.
After launching the Wise Folder Hider program, a window for entering the password for the program will open. Using this password, you will open the program. To do this, enter the password, confirm it in the lower field, and then click on the "OK" button.
The first time this window will be opened in English, later, after turning on the Russian language, the window for entering the password will be displayed in Russian.
Attention! Remember the password well, save it somewhere else, you will need it to enter the program. Without this password, you will not be able to open the program and access hidden data.
Including Russian in Wise Folder Hider
To enable the Russian language, you will need to left-click on the Menu button located in the upper right corner of the main program window. In the context menu that opens, select the "Languares" items, and then "Russian".
After that, the interface of the Wise Folder Hider program will be switched to Russian.
Change Wise Folder Hider Login Password
If for any reason you need to change the password to access the Wise Folder Hider program, then you can change the password using the main program window. To do this, click on the menu button "Menu", and in the context menu select the item "Change password".
Next, the Change Password window will open. In this window, you will need to first enter the old password, then enter the new password, and then you will need to confirm the new password. After completing the password change, click on the "OK" button.
How to hide file in Wise Folder Hider
In order to hide a folder or file, you can simply drag this file or folder into the program window. For some reason this method did not work on my computer.
After installation, the Wise Folder Hider program will be integrated into the context menu. You can hide any folder or file directly from the context menu.
You can also hide folders or files using the Hide File and Hide Folder buttons.
After clicking on the appropriate button, you will need to select a file or folder that you want to hide. In the "Browse folders" window, select a folder or file, and then click on the "OK" button.
After that, the file or folder will be hidden, they will disappear from view. They will not be visible through Explorer either.
Hidden files and folders will be displayed in the main window of Wise Folder Hider.
- Section "Name" - the name of the file and its location on the computer are displayed here.
- The "Blocked" section displays information about the access status - "No" or "Yes".
- The "Status" section displays the status of a file, folder or USB drive - "Hidden" or "Show".
- The "Action" section opens the context menu commands for managing the program.
You can look at hidden files if in the "Action" section select the "Open" context menu command. In the "Status" section, the item "Show" will be displayed.
In order to hide the file again, you will need to close the Wise Folder Hider window. Immediately after that, the folder or file will be hidden again.
How to password protect a folder in Wise Folder Hider
Files or folders are hidden from view, but access to them is not blocked. For greater security, access to hidden files or folders can be locked with a password.
For each hidden file or folder, you can set your own password. To do this, in the program window, you will need to select the appropriate file or folder, and in the "Action" section, select the "Set password" context menu item.
This will open the "Password Setting" window. You will need to enter the password and its confirmation in the corresponding fields, and then click on the "OK" button.
In the main window of the program, in the "Locked" section, an image of the lock will appear and a confirmation - "Yes".
If you need, you can open a locked file or folder for a while.
To do this, in the "Actions" section, select the "Open" context menu item. In the window that opens, you will need to enter a password.
After that, the file or folder begins to be displayed in Explorer, you will get access to the necessary data. Once the program window is closed, files and folders will become hidden again.
How to remove hidden folders from Wise Folder Hider
To delete a folder or file from the program window, in the "Action" section, in the context menu, click on the "Show folder" item. After that, the folder or file is removed from the program window. The file or folder becomes available for further use.
How to hide USB stick in Wise Folder Hider
Wise Folder Hider can hide USB drive. The principle of operation of the program when hiding the contents of a flash drive is exactly the same as for folders and files.
In the main window of the program, click on the "Hide USB disk" button. In the "Select USB disk" window, select the USB flash drive that was connected to the computer via the corresponding USB connector. If only one USB flash drive is connected to your computer, then it will be automatically selected in this window.
After selecting the USB drive, click on the "OK" button.
In the next window "Confirmation" you can choose whether to block this USB flash drive with a password or simply hide it.
If you click on the "No" button, then the flash drive will simply be hidden, without blocking access to the contents with a password. The flash drive itself will be visible from Explorer, but its contents will not be available for viewing.
After clicking on the "Yes" button, in a new window you will need to enter a password to block access to the USB flash drive. After entering the password, the disc will be closed. It will be possible to access the content on the flash drive only after entering the password.
Viewing the contents of a USB disk and deleting it from the program is exactly the same as described earlier.
After clicking on the "Open" context menu item, the flash drive will be open for a while. After restarting Wise Folder Hider, the USB drive will be hidden again. If the "Show folder" context menu item is selected, then the blocking of access to the contents of the flash drive will be disabled.
Wise Folder Hider password recovery
Once again, I draw your attention to the need to store passwords that you used to block access to the program, files, folders or disks. If you lose your password, you will not be able to access hidden files. The best way to store passwords is to use a password manager.
The Wise Folder Hider program has the ability to recover passwords for accessing the program or locked files. In this case, it will be possible to recover lost passwords for a fee.
To do this, in the window for entering the password, you will need to click on the "Forgot password" link. After that, there will be a transition to the program website. You can translate the content of the page using the built-in translator, or any online translator.
After paying and performing some actions, you will receive forgotten passwords to access the program and locked files.
You can also try the free option - boot your computer from a LiveCD or Windows PE. Once downloaded, find the locked files and copy them to another drive. Then they will be available to you again.
The free Wise Folder Hider software hides folders, files and USB drives, and also protects hidden data with a password.
Wise Folder Hider - a program to hide folders and files
Or why protecting your data with encryption is better than hiding folders in Windows.
Briefly: There are many programs on the network to hide individual folders and files from other computer users. These programs offer a simple method for hiding folders by filtering requests to the file system. But this does not mean 100% data protection.
In fact, hidden files and folders can be seen and viewed through other means. If more reliable protection is required, then disk encryption programs follow.
How to hide a folder or file - the standard way
One of the greatest desires of the user is often the desire to hide their personal documents, programs and other data somewhere far from prying eyes. The most common way to do this:
- Use programs to hide files and folders. There are quite a few of them now: Folder Lock, Hide Folders XP
- Use standard tools in Windows: mark the folder \ file as hidden, or deny access to the folder / file by specifying the rights to access the object.
Directories and files marked as "hidden" in Windows Not visible in Explorer to other system users if the user has the following flag enabled: Do not show hidden folders
Visible in programs: FAR, Total Commander, etc., which do not use the standard dialog for displaying files and folders.
We deliberately overlooked EFS (built-in encryption in Windows 2000 / XP) as it takes a lot of effort and skill to set up this feature.
The convenience of these methods for hiding folders is that you don't have to do anything extra to hide. Everything is quite simple: just one click of the mouse is enough to hide this or that folder / file, regardless of its size. But what are the disadvantages of this kind of programs? Let's try to figure it out.
What is the degree of protection?
Not all folder hiding utilities will reliably hide your data. Moreover, even fewer of them, besides hiding them, will reliably protect them with encryption from various methods. Many of these programs hide folders and files for only one operating system. What if there are several operating systems installed on the PC? From one system, the data will not be visible, but from the other - everything is in full view!
Simple hiding of folders and restricting access to files does not help in the following cases:
Booting the PC to a different operating system or boot another OS from CD-ROM. For example Linux Live CD, Windows Live CD.
- in another OS that connects to your HDD, all files will be visible, since there will be no restrictions and protection.
After such a download, all folders will be visible, even those that were hidden programmatically. Indeed, when booting in safe mode, Windows loads only the drivers necessary for the system to work, and skips all additional drivers (filter drivers) in order to discard potential failures in advance.
Remove HDD disk and connect it to another Computer.
If you remove the hard disk (HDD) and connect it to another computer, you can see and open all hidden folders and files. Even those folders to which access is denied (on an NTFS disk) will be visible.
There is one more opportunity to view files hidden by various programs. To do this, you must have Administrator rights (Account with Administrative rights). Because if you are a system administrator, you can uninstall programs to hide folders, or boot into crash protection mode, and then all hidden objects will become visible.
Enhanced data protection - through Encryption
How to get around all the obstacles mentioned above?
One of the methods to protect data is to encrypt it. Everything is simple enough. You select the required data and assign a password to access them. If only you know the password, then only you will get access to the information!
To further improve the reliability of data storage, they are encrypted. That is, with the help of special encryption algorithms, they transform the data in such a way that even if the file is opened, it will be impossible to read it - there will be "mess" in it. To convert the "mess" into normal data, they are decrypted using the same encryption algorithm.
Encryption allows you to:
Hide folders and files from prying eyes (or other users of the same computer). And also Protect data from viewing using the methods listed above and other "force" attacks.
Rohos Disk Encryption: encrypts and hides
As practice shows, the greatest reliability of information storage is provided by the combination of several protection methods. This path was chosen when creating the Rohos Disk Encryption program.
The program works according to the following principles:
- All data is stored on a separate virtual disk that the program creates. This disk is stored on your PC or USB flash drive. The disk is encrypted using high-speed, that is, "on the fly", directly in the process. Such a disk is called.
- After finishing working with files, you disconnect the disk. The disk itself and all the information that is stored on it becomes inaccessible until the disk is turned on again. A disk is a single file that is the same size as the disk. This file can be seen, but it is encrypted, so information cannot be extracted from it.
- Allows you to hide and encrypt individual folders and applications on your PC, such as Skype, Firefox, Chrome.
How to hide a folder using Rohos Disk Encryption:
First, in Rohos Mini Drive (free) or Rohos Disk Encryption, you need to create your encrypted virtual disk R :.
In the Hide Folder dialog, select the preset folders, such as My Documents, Profile Folders Skype and other programs.
Or specify the Folder manually by clicking on the "..." button.
The problem of protecting confidential data when working at a computer always remains relevant. It is safe to say that most users have information that they would not want to share with others. This can be important financial or business documents, or personal information. In any case, if you do not take care of the security of this data in advance, then it is quite possible that it is completely accidental or as a result of deliberate actions that may not fall into the eye of anyone. This is especially often the case when several people work at your computer or it remains turned on unattended. Therefore, we want to acquaint you with the most accessible methods for solving this problem, both with built-in Windows tools and with the help of special programs.
Protecting files and folders with built-in system tools
Encrypting files and folders with EFS
The easiest way to prevent unauthorized access to your data is to use the built-in encryption tool EFS (Encrypting File System). It provides "transparent" work with encrypted files and folders, that is, you do not need to perform any additional actions with them. To activate EFS, you must select the appropriate checkbox in the properties of a file or directory. The entire contents of the encrypted directory will be classified, and any file or folder added to it later will also become protected from unauthorized access. Thus, you can reliably hide your data from other users of your computer.
BitLocker and Applocker
The BitLocker feature, available in "older" versions of Windows 7 / Vista, allows you to protect data by fully encrypting the hard drive, and it can be used on both the system and regular volumes. BitLocker To Go helps you keep information on portable devices such as external hard drives or USB drives private. BitLocker is enabled through the appropriate tool in Control Panel.
Applocker is a Windows 7 feature that is designed to restrict the launch of certain applications. It is managed through Group Policy for power users and administrators.
Special programs
Free Hide Folder | www.cleanersoft.com/hidefolder
Free program to hide folders from prying eyes. It is less than 1 MB in size and works in all versions of Windows. Using the utility does not cause any difficulties - you just need to specify the folders you want to hide in the main window and click the Hide Folder button. When you start Free Hide Folder for the first time, you will be asked to enter a password that prevents you from changing settings and showing your secret directories. Thus, you can hide an unlimited number of folders and the files they contain. In addition, the utility allows you to create backup copies of your data.
Folder Lock | www.newsoftwares.net/folderlock
Folder Lock is designed to encrypt files and folders. The program contains a whole set of tools that serve to maintain secrecy, and has an unusual interface in the form of a bank safe. To save your data, the utility creates special encrypted vaults called Lockers. You can put as many files and folders as you like there and protect them with a password. Folder Lock also knows how to restrict access to a USB drive or CD, has a hidden mode of operation, and monitors hacking attempts.
Easy File Locker | www.xoslab.com
Easy File Locker runs on Windows 2000 / XP / Vista and boasts a tiny size of only 300KB. It allows you to protect confidential files and folders so that unauthorized people cannot open, read, modify, move or copy them. Such files / folders will be invisible to all users and programs, even when loaded in safe mode. You can add data using the standard file selection dialog or simply by dragging and dropping them into the main program window, after which a dialog will appear indicating the password and privacy options.
My Lockbox | fspro.net/my-lockbox
My Lockbox is used to hide and password protect folders on your disk and can be installed on any version of Windows, including 64-bit. Even at the installation stage of the program, you will be asked to indicate the location of the protected directories and enter a password, and after the installation is complete, access to them will already be limited. Protected folders are managed in My Lockbox Control Panel, which can be opened using a shortcut in the main menu of the system or by using a hotkey. Basic functionality is provided free of charge, but there is also a more advanced Pro version for money.
WinMend Folder Hidden | www.winmend.com/folder-hidden
WinMend Folder Hidden is a free utility for protecting files and folders. Knows how to quickly and safely hide data on both local and removable media. At the same time, access to encrypted information cannot be obtained from another operating system and even when the hard drive is connected to another computer. The program settings specify the folders and files that need to be protected, and set the password. The utility has a multilingual interface and allows you to change the view using color schemes.
TrueCrypt | www.truecrypt.org
This program is open source and available for Windows 7 / Vista / XP as well as Mac OS X and Linux. It allows you to create a special encrypted space that appears in the system as a separate logical drive. TrueCrypt can also completely encrypt a hard drive partition or USB drive. Distinctive features of the utility are reliable encryption algorithms, a double-hide mechanism (in case you are forced to issue a password under duress), portability, encryption of system partitions, support for hotkeys for mounting encrypted disks, etc.
Free of charge program for hiding programs and active windows entitled HiddeX first of all, it will be very useful for office workers who do not like to work at work, as well as for simply secretive people.
The thing is that HiddeX allows you to instantly, by pressing a button on the keyboard or mouse, hide (namely, hide, and not minimize to the taskbar) certain programs you have specified or just active windows of Windows Explorer, and the unspecified ones can be left visible on the desktop. computer desk. At the same time, she herself perfectly hides.
Eh, if this program were installed on the computer of my work colleague, he would not fly "on the ground" in any weather, but would continue to shoot at the balls in the monitor sitting in a warm office and would not catch his boss for this occupation.
On the official website of HiddeX there is a very short guide to the program. I, in turn, will try now to describe it to you in more detail. So…
Download HiddeX
The size of the program is only 285 kb. and it's portable (no need to install). Downloaded, unzipped and run ...
Immediately poke at "RU" and get the Russian interface of the program ...
In the upper section of the program, we see all our active windows. Find the ones that need to be hidden by pressing the magic hot button and double-click on their lines to send them to the lower section of the HiddeX program ...
Now we set the "panic button" on the keyboard for allocated active windows or programs ...
... or on the mouse ...
Now, when you press the specified button, the specified active windows or programs will instantly disappear. And they will not be minimized to the taskbar, but will be completely hidden.
If you check the "Hide in tray" checkbox in the advanced settings ...
... then the HiddeX program will be completely hidden along with the windows. You can return it from the other world (and send it there again) by pressing the keys on the keyboard (pressing them sequentially, without the plus signs, without releasing the previous one) Ctrl+Shift+Alt+F12.
By unchecking the checkbox in the list of hidden windows, you can temporarily remove a specific program or active window from participation in this disgrace ...
Wise Folder Hider is a free program that is designed to hide folders and files on your computer. When using Wise Folder Hider, you can hide files, folders or USB drives, and if necessary, you can block access to hidden data with a password. This way, hidden data will not be visible and will be password protected.
Many people have files or folders on their computers that are not intended for public viewing. Private videos or photos, confidential information, just important data that can be lost by mistake. This is especially true if several users have access to one computer.
In the Windows operating system, folders or files can be made visible, but anyone on the computer can make them visible again. Therefore, to hide folders and files, special programs are used, with the help of which it will be possible to hide folders or files, to make them invisible.
You can use to protect a folder or file with a password. It can also be installed using the built-in tools of the program.
In this review, we will take a look at Wise Folder Hider Free, a free program that can be used to hide and protect data on your computer. The manufacturer also has a paid version of the program - Wise Folder Hider Pro.
wise folder hider download
On the downloads page of the official website, you should pay attention to the links where you can download this program to your computer.
To download the portable version of the program, click on the "Portable Version" link.
To download the installer for the regular version of Wise Folder Hider, you will need to click on the "for direct download" link (direct link). Do not click on the "Download" button in order not to download the program installer from another site. In this case, when installing the program on your computer, you will be prompted to install other programs that are not related to the Wise Folder Hider program.
Although the Wise Folder Hider program has support for the Russian language, the installation of the program will take place in English.
After completing the installation of the program on your computer, start the Wise Folder Hider Free program. Portable (portable) version of the program does not require installation on a computer. It runs from the folder that contains the Wise Folder Hider program.
After launching the Wise Folder Hider program, a window for entering the password for the program will open. Using this password, you will open the program. To do this, enter the password, confirm it in the lower field, and then click on the "OK" button.
The first time this window will be opened in English, later, after turning on the Russian language, the window for entering the password will be displayed in Russian.
Attention! Remember the password well, it is in another place, you will need it to enter the program. Without this password, you will not be able to open the program and access hidden data.
Including Russian in Wise Folder Hider
To enable the Russian language, you will need to left-click on the Menu button located in the upper right corner of the main program window. In the context menu that opens, select the "Languares" items, and then "Russian".
After that, the interface of the Wise Folder Hider program will be switched to Russian.
Change Wise Folder Hider Login Password
If for any reason you need to change the password to access the Wise Folder Hider program, then you can change the password using the main program window. To do this, click on the menu button "Menu", and in the context menu select the item "Change password".
Next, the Change Password window will open. In this window, you will need to first enter the old password, then enter the new password, and then you will need to confirm the new password. After completing the password change, click on the "OK" button.
How to hide file in Wise Folder Hider
In order to hide a folder or file, you can simply drag this file or folder into the program window. For some reason this method did not work on my computer.
After installation, the Wise Folder Hider program will be integrated into the context menu. You can hide any folder or file directly from the context menu.
You can also hide folders or files using the Hide File and Hide Folder buttons.
After clicking on the appropriate button, you will need to select a file or folder that you want to hide. In the "Browse folders" window, select a folder or file, and then click on the "OK" button.
After that, the file or folder will be hidden, they will disappear from view. They will not be visible through Explorer either.
Hidden files and folders will be displayed in the main window of Wise Folder Hider.
- Section "Name" - the name of the file and its location on the computer are displayed here.
- The "Blocked" section displays information about the access status - "No" or "Yes".
- The "Status" section displays the status of a file, folder or USB drive - "Hidden" or "Show".
- The "Action" section opens the context menu commands for managing the program.
You can look at hidden files if in the "Action" section select the "Open" context menu command. In the "Status" section, the item "Show" will be displayed.
In order to hide the file again, you will need to close the Wise Folder Hider window. Immediately after that, the folder or file will be hidden again.
How to password protect a folder in Wise Folder Hider
Files or folders are hidden from view, but access to them is not blocked. For greater security, access to hidden files or folders can be locked with a password.
For each hidden file or folder, you can set your own password. To do this, in the program window, you will need to select the appropriate file or folder, and in the "Action" section, select the "Set password" context menu item.
This will open the "Password Setting" window. You will need to enter the password and its confirmation in the corresponding fields, and then click on the "OK" button.
In the main window of the program, in the "Locked" section, an image of the lock will appear and a confirmation - "Yes".
If you need, you can open a locked file or folder for a while.
To do this, in the "Actions" section, select the "Open" context menu item. In the window that opens, you will need to enter a password.
After that, the file or folder begins to be displayed in Explorer, you will get access to the necessary data. Once the program window is closed, files and folders will become hidden again.
How to remove hidden folders from Wise Folder Hider
To delete a folder or file from the program window, in the "Action" section, in the context menu, click on the "Show folder" item. After that, the folder or file is removed from the program window. The file or folder becomes available for further use.
How to hide USB stick in Wise Folder Hider
Wise Folder Hider can hide USB drive. The principle of operation of the program when hiding the contents of a flash drive is exactly the same as for folders and files.
In the main window of the program, click on the "Hide USB disk" button. In the "Select USB disk" window, select the USB flash drive that was connected to the computer via the corresponding USB connector. If only one USB flash drive is connected to your computer, then it will be automatically selected in this window.
After selecting the USB drive, click on the "OK" button.
In the next window "Confirmation" you can choose whether to block this USB flash drive with a password or simply hide it.
If you click on the "No" button, then the flash drive will simply be hidden, without blocking access to the contents with a password. The flash drive itself will be visible from Explorer, but its contents will not be available for viewing.
After clicking on the "Yes" button, in a new window you will need to enter a password to block access to the USB flash drive. After entering the password, the disc will be closed. It will be possible to access the content on the flash drive only after entering the password.
Viewing the contents of a USB disk and deleting it from the program is exactly the same as described earlier.
After clicking on the "Open" context menu item, the flash drive will be open for a while. After restarting Wise Folder Hider, the USB drive will be hidden again. If the "Show folder" context menu item is selected, then the blocking of access to the contents of the flash drive will be disabled.
Wise Folder Hider password recovery
Once again, I draw your attention to the need to store passwords that you used to block access to the program, files, folders or disks. If you lose your password, you will not be able to access hidden files. The best way to store passwords is to use a password manager.
The Wise Folder Hider program has the ability to recover passwords for accessing the program or locked files. In this case, it will be possible to recover lost passwords for a fee.
To do this, in the window for entering the password, you will need to click on the "Forgot password" link. After that, there will be a transition to the program website. You can translate the content of the page using the built-in translator, or any online translator.
After paying and performing some actions, you will receive forgotten passwords to access the program and locked files.
You can also try the free option - boot your computer from a LiveCD or Windows PE. Once downloaded, find the locked files and copy them to another drive. Then they will be available to you again.
Conclusions of the article
The free Wise Folder Hider software hides folders, files and USB drives, and also protects hidden data with a password.
Wise Folder Hider - a program to hide folders and files (video)
