according to user posts you can just change drive letter to reveal a hidden folder , have not tested it myself but it must be true since users and posts are legitimate, only the hidden function is borked though as far as I know , read only should work fine and thus provide protection against ransomware unless it encrypts system components so you never load windows ( so maybe use dedicated anti ransom) Read only is a beautiful function used by shadow defender too
Are you talking about Secure Folders? I'm asking cause you first posted and seem to be replaying at @Deletedmessiah who's talking about Secure Folders. But and fwiw, respect Secure Folders, changing a drive letter doesn't affect a hidden folder. Also, on Secure Folders, hideing a whole Volume or Drive, Disk Management gets blocked from making changes to Drives Letters. Look,
Used to use Secure Folders, simple solution. The only shortcoming is that one can select folders and programs for protection, but not combinations? Using Folderfication now, but it is paid software.
I dunno these ppl are pretty confident hidden folders can be bypassed this way, thanks for checking btw: https://www.dobreprogramy.pl/Secure-Folders,Program,Windows,63036.html link is safe, but on this site you can get pup during installs, its like majorgeeks or similar
BTW, about Secure Folders, let's say you lock the Downloads folder, then how can I still install software from this folder? Making explorer.exe a trusted process isn't enough because .exe files keep getting blocked somehow, so I'm guessing I also need to whitelist some other system processes.
Rasheed187- I never bother with that. Secure Folders is even today very extreme and stable. What i can share with you is how i handle the Downloads folder. And that is by using Sandboxie, separate a dedicated Downloads Folder box where you can install anything that you well please but in a confined guarded state within it. Hope that helps
I'm using similar conception thru the Restricted Appps feature of SpyShelter - you should add folder with downloaded content (for example) to the list and add this folder to the list of folder with allowed access. Files from this location are first copied to special folder and then axecuted in virtualised system (SD).
To clarify, I simply want to block other untrusted apps from getting access to for example my Documents and Downloads folder, but when I choose to lock them, then I can't run any .exe files from inside those folders anymore. For now I have solved it by making them read-only, but this won't stop malware from stealing data. I must say that Secure Folders truly is quite impressive, it works just fine on Win 10. On Win 8.1, I'm using another excellent tool named Hide Folders 2012, but sadly enough it doesn't work correctly on Win 10, and development seems to have stopped. To clarify, even the newer Hide Folders 5 version doesn't seem to work correctly. https://fspro.net/hide-folders/
Agreed that Secure Folders is a whopping success even on my Windows 10. And that says a lot for an abandoned product for some time now. I think i encountered a similar something amiss the way Secure Folders pins down the executables under LOCK mechanism. I also went Read Only for that if my memory serves. Another issue i run into on 10 was that i can Move but not Copy which i assume has to do with ACL/s A really spectacular program for assigning ACL's i been using is SetACL Studio https://helgeklein.com/setacl-studio/
Yes, I need to figure out how to fix this. But like I said, there are certain system processes that will load on Win 10 as soon as you install .exe files, so I will probably need to add them to the Trusted Apps list, then I can once again lock these folders. And thanks but no thanks, I don't know anything about ACL's, it's too complex for me.
I don't envy having to learn a new version all over again and why it looks like since Windows 11 sprung that surprise about a fall release date for it, i won't be bothered scouting thru all the 10's in's and out's but instead Windows 11. Windows 8.1 is totally phenomenal for my current preferences.
