1. I wanna password protect a certain directory on my computer that has saved personal information I don't want anyone but me getting into. Is this possible, and if so, how? I know password protecting your desktop does the trick for entire My Documents folder, but I don't wanna take any chances.
2. Is it possible to set ZoneAlarms (firewall) to only allow certain desktops on the computer to allow programs access to the internet. My brother is an idiot, downloads garbage P2P programs, and I believe proxies too. So yeah, I wanna block him from allowing stuff to connect to the internet. I know Norton has this feature, but I'm too cheap for norton.
Thank you.
Here's an easy way to do your first question. Zip the entire directory into a winrar file and make sure the winrar file is password protected, then delete your directory as it will be in the .rar file. As far as I know, there isn't a way to password protect a directory on winblows.
http://www.password-protect-software.com/password-protect-directory.html
There's some external software which does it.
[quote=gamerz]As far as I know, there isn't a way to password protect a directory on winblows.
"Winblows"? Oh, please, it's not as if you're proficient in any OS.
You could set your computer to be in such a way that he has to log onto his own user account and you log onto your own. Obviously he shouldn't be allowed to know your password or access your account - that way you can just go to the file permissions of the folder you'd like to protect (assuming you have NTFS) and allow only your user account to have full control over the folder. You should add his account to the permissions also but deny him all permissions to said folder - he will not be allowed to access the folder at all, unless he is the right user with the right permissions to do so. Particularly good for networks but works locally also.
As for ZoneAlarm, go to the Overview tab and then click on the Preferences section and set a password that only you will know. You might want to pre-configure software permissions so things don't have issued when he's on and the program is set to 'ask' instead. Web browser, MSN and other simple clients for example. Anyway, setting a password should prevent him from being allowed to make changes to the security settings - if he tried, he would have to enter in the password before it would allow him.