Everyone has some little secrets on their computer that they don’t want people to know, and the conventional way to protect them is to use third-party encryption software. However, encryption software can take up system resources, and the memory of passwords can be a headache. For Windows 10 users, you can protect your secret files with the help of the batch protection file that comes with the system.
First, start Notepad and enter the following code, then save it as lock.bat and place it on the desktop (Figure 1).
cls
@ECHO OFF
title Folder Private
if EXIST “Network. {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}” goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Private goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Is the encrypted folder to be locked? (Y/N)
set/p “cho=>”
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Private “Network. {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}”
attrib +h +s “Network. {208d2c60-3aea-1069-a2d7-08002b30309d}”
echo Folder is locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Please enter the password to unlock the folder
set/p “pass=>”
if NOT %pass%== cfan goto FAIL
attrib -h -s “network. {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}”
ren “network. {208d2c60-3aea-1069-a2d7-08002b30309d}” private
explorer Private
echo The folder has been successfully unlocked
goto End
:FAIL
echo Wrong password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Private
echo The encrypted folder has been created
goto End
:End
Code Explanation.
The above batch encryption file is achieved by creating class identifiers and setting system, hidden attributes for them. First, create a directory named “Private” in the current directory, set the password (created with the if NOT %pass%== cfan statement, the default is “cfan”), and then rename it with the rem command “network. {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}” (class identifier, you can expand the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareClassesCLSID] located in the registry and choose any identifier you need). After entering the password again, the code will use the rem command to restore the “Network. {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}” as “Private” and unhide its system and hidden attributes for easy access.
So when we need to hide the files, just copy the above batch process to the directory where we need to hide the files. Run the above batch process as administrator and it will automatically create the “Private” folder in the current directory (Figure 2).
Figure 2 Creating an encrypted directory
Follow the prompts to move all the files to the above encrypted directory, and continue to run the above batch process after you finish moving the files, and when prompted whether to encrypt the directory, enter “Y” to confirm (Figure 3).
Figure 3 Confirming the encrypted folder
When you are prompted to enter Y to confirm, the batch process will automatically rename the “Private” folder to “Network” (the folder will automatically become the system folder Network), and the system and hidden properties will be added automatically (Figure 4).
Figure 4 The encrypted folder is renamed to “Network”.
Because the folder created above becomes a system folder and is automatically added with system, hidden attributes. So by default users cannot see this directory (you need to set the folder view mode to “Show hidden files, folders and drives” and remove the “Hide protected OS files” checkbox). This will allow the user to see the encrypted folder (Figure 5).
Figure 5 View mode setting
Of course, because the encrypted files are renamed as system folder (network), even if the user can view the above encrypted directory, the user cannot see the files in it after double-clicking to open it, and the system network directory is opened (Figure 6).
Figure 6 User cannot see the encrypted files when opening
If you need to access the encrypted directory yourself, run the batch process again as above and enter the access password “cfan” in the window that opens when prompted (Figure 7).
Figure 7 Enter the access password
After entering the correct password, the system will prompt that the folder is unlocked. At the same time, the batch process will automatically rename the network system folder to “Private” in the background, and call “explorer Private” to open the encrypted folder automatically, and access the encrypted folder in the open window (Figure 8). (Figure 8).
Figure 8 Accessing the encrypted directory
If you need to encrypt the folder again, run the batch process again after accessing the directory as above to re-encrypt and hide it. Of course, since the encryption is done in the form of a class identifier, if we forget the password and need to access the encrypted directory, we can decrypt it ourselves by starting a command prompt and entering the following command (Figure 9).
rem Unhide the attribute
attrib -h -s “network. {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}”
rem Rename to Private folder
ren “network. {208d2c60-3aea-1069-a2d7-08002b30309d}” Private
Figure 9 Manually decrypting a folder