Many of us have private and personal files that we wouldn’t want others to see. They may contain passwords, personal information, or private photos. If other people use your computer, you might be at risk of them discovering your personal files. Here are some easy ways to hide them (on a Windows OS at least).

Mild Protection:

• Move your files to your C:/Windows or C:/Windows/System32 folder. Be careful, if you delete or rename any files in this folder you might crash your computer. You can also use the C:/Program Files/ folder.
• Rename your files to something random. For example, you can rename “passwords.txt” to “546dsfg645fds.txt”. Just hit some random keys on your keyboard. That way if someone does a search for “passwords” they won’t find anything.
• If you have multiple user accounts, turn off file sharing and make your files private.
• Set a password for Windows.

Moderate Protection:

• Make a ZIP or RAR archive of your files, and make it password-protected. A good program you can use for this is WinRAR or 7zip. 7zip is free.
• Use a drive or folder encryption program.

There are many more ways to protect your files, but these are the easiest to do for most people, and are mostly free. These should stop your average family members from accessing your private files. If you have more ways, post them below.

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