Home Premium - How do I restrict access to folder/drive

Deathwing · 15 Oct 2010

Hi I have Windows 7 Home Premium and I am usually the sole user and administrator on the computer. I want to create a Guest account or Standard User account with restricted access so that it cannot do the following:

(1) Access My Documents (not the standard folder but one I created)
(2) Access the internal backup drive E:
(3) Change system settings.

It all looks very complicated and I am not at all sure what to do. Is there any way to do the above with Home Premium?

Or if none of that is possible in Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) is there a program that allows me to prevent other users accessing specified folders/drives?

Preferably freeware but if I have to pay for it I will!

whs · 15 Oct 2010

1. If you have a password on your Admin account, then a user cannot change the system settings without the password.
2. If you want to protect your files/folders, you may use encryption. E.g. like this Protect private data with Truecrypt - Tutorial 1 - Installation or this: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/6169/...ure-your-data/

Deathwing · 15 Oct 2010

Thanks so you are saying standard users and guests cannot change system settings anyway?

How does Truecrypt work? It sounds like it takes a while to encrypt/decrypt an entire drive and doing that on a daily basis might be frustrating. Will I be able to access the encrypted folders and other users unable?

Advanced Folder Guard looks good but at $70 it's a bit expensive for protecting 1 folder and 1 drive. Something like that but cheaper that works on this system would be fantastic.

whs · 15 Oct 2010

There are a lot of free encryption programs on the web. TrueCrypt seems to be one of the more popular ones. Here is some verse of what it does: TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source Disk Encryption - Documentation

Deathwing · 15 Oct 2010

I appreciate the resource - TrueCrypt seems a good workaround, though I'm not keen on having to copy the files to its virtual disk. It doesn't sound workable for a backup drive either.

I'd be happiest just to render the drive/files inaccessible in the Windows environment e.g. by locking access to the relevant folders unless a password is used?

DeaconFrost · 15 Oct 2010

I don't use the Home versions of the OSes, but I'm guessing if you are asking this question, it means that Home Premium doesn't include the security options to restrict access by user account?

Deathwing · 15 Oct 2010

Nope - can't specify by user on Home Premium... which kinda makes having user accounts in the first place rather pointless!

DeaconFrost · 15 Oct 2010

Would an Anytime Upgrade to Pro be out of the question?

Deathwing · 15 Oct 2010

Forgive my ignorance but I do not know what that is. I am guessing it is an upgrade of the operating system to Windows Professional?

Is that expensive, and would that require reinstalling all my applications & games after the upgrade?

Bill2 · 15 Oct 2010

Deathwing said:

Nope - can't specify by user on Home Premium... which kinda makes having user accounts in the first place rather pointless!

I dont know what that means. You should be able to restrict access to drives/files/folders by setting user permissions. Heres a nice pic tut (its for vista but would apply to win7 as well).

How to Deny Access to Files or Folders in Windows Vista - How-To Geek