How to protect private files from others to view/copy on a LAN

Question

I'm on a company network and I want to protect my private files (or folders) from others (i.e. those who can access my computer) to view and copy. Those files are mostly MS Office and PDF files. What kind of free protection methods can I use?

Answer 1

If you can install software, you might use TrueCrypt, to create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and then mount it as a real disk using a password. You may also use a USB flash drive or a hard-drive "unpartitioned" space.

Documentation can be found in here.

EDIT:

Another solution is My Lockbox. This is what this evaluation article says:

My LockBox solves this problem by removing the private file or folder from view. In fact the hidden folders can't even be seen by Windows itself. You can however make them visible at any time by running the LockBox application or better still, by using a special hotkey combination.

In fact I recommend you delete the application icons from your desktop and Start Menu and rely totally on the hotkeys. That's because once again, the very existence of the My LockBox icons can flag you are hiding something.

Answer 2

If you right click on the folder of files in question and click properties and then go to the security tab you will be able set permissions of that file/folder. This might help a bit more

You may need to disable simple file sharing for this. This shows how to do that

Answer 3

Just right click and in the properties dialog set the permissions to deny access to anyone but you.

However, as it's a company network your IT department may take a dim view of you hiding files in this way. If nothing else they won't be able to back them up for you.