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Hide Folders – Hide, lock and password protect your private files and folders from other users

Hide Folders is a software application that enables you to password-protect private information on your hard drive. You can quickly make your files and folders inaccessible or invisible, or protect them from modification or deletion.

Protected folders and files are inaccessible to users, no matter how they try to access them, either locally or over a network. An effective protection mechanism, an intuitive user interface, and a set of fine-tuning options will suit the needs of everyone from novice Windows users to computer experts.

Since 2001, our Hide Folders products have helped users hide private files and folders from prying eyes.

There is no easier way to protect a folder or file than with Hide Folders!

With Hide Folders you can easily protect any number of folders and files on your computer. You can select any file or folder to protect from the program, drag-and-drop the desired files and folders from File Explorer into the Hide Folders window or protect the file or folder using the File Explorer context menu.

  • Hide Folders Dashboard - a control center to lock and hide your files
  • Hide Folders List displays protected files and folders and protection methods: Hide, Lock, Read-only, No Exec
  • Hide Folders Settings provides you with options to manage locking folders

    Functionality

    • Immediate data protection (protect and unprotect commands are executed in no time);
    • 5 protection methods available: Hide, Lock, Hide & Lock, Read Only, No Execute;
    • NTFS, FAT32, exFAT and FAT volumes are supported;
    • Support of file masks (wildcards);
    • The Trusted Processes option lets you specify programs permitted to access the protected data;
    • An unlimited number of files and folders can be protected at the same time;
    • No limits on the size of protected data.

    Security

    • Password protection to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your private data;
    • Safe mode support – Your files and folders can be hidden even if your computer is running in safe mode;
    • Protected uninstall;
    • Different wiping tracks options.

    Safety

    • Removing the Hide Folders application folder from the system will not uncover hidden folders;
    • Files from hidden folders will not be lost even if someone tries to remove an upper-level folder.

    Reliability

    • Data integrity – no file system structure modifications;
    • Critical-folder awareness – Hide Folders prohibits locking system folders for stability reasons.

    Availability

    • Hotkeys to manage basic Hide Folders functions;
    • Command-line support for all main Hide Folders functions;
    • Support for folder names containing international characters;
    • Multilingual support: the user interface supports multiple languages and can easily be translated into new languages;
    • Intuitive and extremely easy-to-use user interface with skins.
    Difference from internal Windows data protection features

    A lot of advanced users believe that Hide Folders (as well as any other third-party folder protection software) is useless because Windows has integrated file and folder lock features.

    Well, indeed, you can lock folders with Windows and the folder will be inaccessible to other unauthorized users. But there are some annoying limitations that you should be aware of:

    1. Windows allows you to lock files and folders on NTFS volumes only. FAT and exFAT volumes are not supported;
    2. With Windows you can set user permissions to read/write/modify data, but you cannot hide files or folders;
    3. NTFS won’t let you make a folder invisible but accessible, which is helpful for tasks such as logging, private data recording, and backups;
    4. A system administrator can easily gain access to the folders and files locked with Windows NTFS features;
    5. Some Windows Home editions do not have a user interface to protect files and folders;
    6. Windows does not allow you to set a password for protected data. It authenticates users at logon. So if you share your Windows account with other users, then you can’t use Windows folder protection features;
    7. It takes time to manage access control in Windows and requires users to have administrative skills.

    Info

    Version: 6.1.1

    Released: May 27, 2025

    Supported OS: Windows 10, 11 (Win32, x64)

    License: Free to try

    One-time purchase: $39.95

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