Windows password

[trendy]

Hi There all.
I have windows 7 home premium and with Microsoft office 2010 paid for version
Thought that I would do a bit of googeling regarding passwords etc.And came across that there is a password method built into the Microsoft office.
So went and looked into it and did a password for a word document,Now my question according to Microsoft its a very secure setup encryption,Can anyone give any thoughts on this Please.
Many Thanks.

 

[Layback Bear]

The only thing I can think of is don't loose the password.
Write it down and keep it in a safe place.

 

[Mark Phelps]

The level of security depends largely on the complexity of your passwords. I use password protection on several Office files and use a combination of letters, numbers, special characters, and upper-lowercase that mean nothing to anyone except me. I also have an encrypted file that I keep securely locked up where I can retrieve all my passwords, if I need to.

You might stumble across utilities on the Internet that claim to be able to "recover" passwords from encrypted files. That implies that they can somehow "extract" the password from the files -- which, fortunately, they can NOT do. Instead, all they attempt to do is guess the password, and if you look at their examples, they're always something simple (and stupid!) like "abc". Anything more reasonably complex, it going to require a brute-force attack, and is going to take months, years, decades (and more) to crack. And, don't believe the entertainment industry that shows passwords being cracked one character at a time -- that's totally bogus.

 

[trendy]

Mark.Thanks for that very interesting info you gave,May I ask you for some advice on a password software that can password a folder in my documents not just a single file.
Been looking at the WIN RAR software but some info says its not very good.
Any help there Please.
Many thanks.

 

[Layback Bear]

Well I guess my first post wasn't long enough.

Many people come here because they have not done what I and Mark have stated.
They didn't save their passwords in a safe place that is not on their computer. Loosing passwords is the number one complaint people have when posting here about encryption problems.
The odds of getting into a password protected file,folder, or drive are slim to none without a password.
Have a nice day.

 

[trendy]

Thank You both.
Got it all now.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

There are password recovery tools that can crack more or less anything made by Office by harnessing the GPU's massive power (and up to 8 GPUs working together), but they cost money (a lot).
Free programs to do it suck at best but they aren't any indication of what a pro can do.
Yeah, Office passwords don't use serious algorithms, who was expecting that?

Anyway, I would NOT and i repeat NOT trust Office to lockdown something. I had too much issues with it to trust that in the next version it will open my stuff again, let alone password-protected stuff.

If you want your stuff to be really safe, get something that can encrypt the files with AES-256 encryption. 7zip can do it and is free, as is Truecrypt (it can also encrypt your whole drive but it is overkill imho)
Then if you have a strong password your stuff is safe.
But if you lose it then you are in serious trouble. Here are brute-force decryption times.

 

[trendy]

bob,
Any good tips on using 7-ZIP
Thank You.

 

[bobafetthotmail]

Sure, read this. Goes a bit over the top in the Warning section about wiping the hard drive (wiping free space, CCleaner can do it, and once or twice is enough, if you are on a SSD or on a flash-based memory or a RAM disk it's not needed), but the rest is perfect.

 

[trendy]

Thankyou

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Try SIW it gives some passwords SIW | System Information for Windows by Gabriel Topala

If really desperate for retrieving data try a Ubuntu boot and view the drive data from it

Download Ubuntu | Ubuntu create a bootable disk and use the TRY version NOT the install

When open the drives can be seen and opened although some docs will not open then it is just copy / paste to a stick if you so wish.

Anyway have a look at the previews in that site ref first.

Don't forget to set the BIOS to boot from optical first.

 

[trendy]

Thanks for that.I haven't lost or forgot a password.
My aim is to password protect a specific folder in my documents.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear in my first posting.

Many Thanks for the input have bookmarked your item for the future

Thank You

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks for that.I haven't lost or forgot a password.
My aim is to password protect a specific folder in my documents.
Maybe I didn't make myself clear in my first posting.

Many Thanks for the input have bookmarked your item for the future

Thank You

Oops sorry thought you had lost one / some.

The Ubuntu too is useful for when Windows crashes totally at least you an get online (FireFox - Google) for drivers etc by just booting and using TRY until you have got what you need.

 

[trendy]

ICit2lol.

Thanks for the PM