How do I make folders private???

I asked this very simple question in another forum and after two days of responses nothing has worked. This is getting very frustrating.

So I have Windows XP "Media Center Edition" and all I want to do is make it so that my "my documents" folder is only accessable by me, and not by anyone who logs in as guest. I had thought for the last few months since buying this computer that it automatically was private but I just logged in a guest the other day and even though I didn't see the "my documents" folder of my administrator account I could still go to C:\documents and settings and find the folder with my name on it where "my documents" is actually stored, and I had access to everything in that folder.

Let me recap what I have tried so far. Originally simple file sharing was selected, and when I clicked on a folders properties and then clicked the sharing tab I would see the option for making a folder private but it would be greyed out, preventing me from selecting it. After rebooting in safe mode and logging in as administrator (the actual administrator account, not just my account with administrator rights) and clicking on a folder's properties I didn't even see the option for making a folder private. So after deselecting simple file sharing I clicked on a folders properties again, and the sharing tab, now looking different, allowed me to set permissions for folders. The default permission was set to 'everyone' so I deleted that and added my admin account, giving myself full control. I then added the guest account, denying everything to the guest account. I thought that must surely do the trick, but I logged back in as a guest and was still able to access everything in the admin's "my documents" folder.

One person who responded in the other forum said that the fact that I have a 'sharing' tab, instead of a 'security' tab meant something, but I don't know what. I don't really see how that's significant since I still am able to set permissions in the sharing tab.

I don't have any reason to believe there is anything wrong with my computer so either windows xp media center addition doesn't allow folders to be set to private by the admin, which is hard to believe, or I am having the worst luck in finding someone who can offer what must be a very simple solution.

 

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307286
Try this .
Or this:http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_mydocs.htm
Good luck!!

 

Hi Miscreant,

Simple file sharing is not a good thing to be using because it can expose you to easier access out from the internet, so you've done the right first step by turning it off, added to which, you've discovered you need to!

Next, the guest account; if you right-click on My Computer, I think you will have an option to "Manage" which you should select. (XP Pro and XP Home are slightly different so I'm not sure about that because I don't have XP Home.) What you're looking for when you get into your computer management is the users folder which is probably under Computer Management (Local) - System Tools - Local Users and Groups - Users. If you know another way of getting at users and setting their passwords, that will probably work for this next step.

Look for the Guest account and see if it has a red circle and white x across it. This symbol means that the account is disabled, which is the best thing to do with your Guest account. I'm assuming that yours isn't disabled since you are logging in under it. As far as I know, it can be disabled in XP Home as well as Pro. If it isn't disabled, right-click on it and choose Properties. You should find a check box next to "Account is disabled" and should make sure it's checked.

If this isn't right, could one of you savvy Home users please correct these instructions for Miscreant?

It isn't usually necessary to set denial access to a folder and correctly set up, you can probably remove this. I've also been taught that setting denial permissions should be avoided whenever possible because it can make security control a bigger headache.

The final comment; I'm not sure if Home has separate tabs for Sharing and Security but you do have to set both before what you want will take proper and complete effect. I used to forget the Security tab almost constantly in Win 2000 so I can testify that it causes major problems to leave out the Security settings! Kelly's corner probably explains that, although I don't remember from my glancing through what links you'd been given.

Hope this is of help,

 

thank you for your replies. I actually discovered what the problem was before I checked back here, but thanks. It turns out my drive is formatted in fat32 instead of ntfs, and fat32 doesn't support folder privitization. so i will be converting now.

 

You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS. For information about converting your drive to NTFS OPEN HELP AND SUPPORT AND TYPE convert drive to NTFS do your research on all and then convert.
This will allow you privacy as follows:
This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.
When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.
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