If a snoop can’t log on to your Windows PC, does that
mean your data is safe? No, unfortunately, it most certainly does not.
If a cracker has physical access to your PC—either by sneaking into your
office or by stealing your computer—the cracker can use advanced
utilities to view the contents of your hard drive. This means that if
your PC contains extremely sensitive or confidential
information—personal financial files, medical histories, corporate
salary data, trade secrets, business plans, journals or diaries—it
wouldn’t be hard for the interloper to read and even copy that data.
If you’re worried about anyone viewing these or other “for your eyes only” files, Windows 7 enables you to encrypt
the file information. Encryption encodes the file to make it completely
unreadable by anyone unless the person logs on to your Windows 7
account. After you encrypt your files, you work with them exactly as you
did before, with no noticeable loss of performance.
Note
To
use file encryption, your hard drive must use NTFS (New Technology File
System). To check the current file system, click Start, and then click
Computer. In the Computer window, click the hard drive, and then examine
the file system information in the Details pane. If you need to convert
a drive to NTFS, click Start, type command, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator. Type convertd: /fs:ntfs, where
d is the letter of the hard drive you want to convert, and press Enter. If Windows asks to “dismount the volume,” press Y and then Enter.
Follow these steps to encrypt important data:
1. | Use Windows Explorer to display the icon of the folder containing the data that you want to encrypt.
Tip
Although it’s possible
to encrypt individual files, encrypting an entire folder is easier
because Windows 7 then automatically encrypts new files that you add to
the folder.
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2. | Right-click the folder icon and click Properties to open the folder’s property sheet.
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3. | Click the General tab.
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4. | Click Advanced. The Advanced Attributes dialog box appears.
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5. | Click to activate the Encrypt Contents to Secure Data check box.
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6. | Click OK in each open dialog box. The Confirm Attribute Changes dialog box appears.
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7. | Click the Apply Changes to This Folder, Subfolders and Files option.
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8. | Click OK. Windows encrypts the folder’s contents.
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Tip
By default, Windows
displays the names of encrypted files and folders in a green font, which
helps you to differentiate these items from unencrypted files and
folders. If you’d rather see encrypted filenames and folder names in the
regular font, open any folder window, select Organize, Folder and
Search Options. Click the View tab, click to deactivate the Show
Encrypted or Compressed NTFS Files in Color check box, and then click
OK.
