Shoutbox

alright never mind then - il just delete stuff i dont want ppl to see

Cookie, zipping files into an archive and compressing them are two different things. Zipping files is much more effective at reducing size, and if you have the WinZip utility, it allows you to apply a 256-bit AES encryption to the archive, making it hard for people to get at what's inside the archive. Compressing them without putting them into an archive (disk compression) is an NTFS feature. As mentioned above, it's not as effective at reducing file size.



I know that .01MB isn't that big, but I was compressing JPG images, which is already a compressed format, so there isn't much change. But in any case, it still shows that NTFS compression isn't as good as WinZip(or WinRAR) compression

Do considder that the encryption of .zip files is more easily brute-force hacked than for example .rar, but if you use a password with over 8 characters it won't matter much.

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Originally posted by Ezra


Do considder that the encryption of .zip files is more easily brute-force hacked than for example .rar, but if you use a password with over 8 characters it won't matter much.

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Brute force takes ages

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Originally posted by Johny
Brute force takes ages

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Just a few hours with a good automated tool when the password isn't to long and no weird characters are used.

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Originally posted by MenthiX

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Originally posted by Johny
Brute force takes ages

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Just a few hours with a good automated tool when the password isn't to long and no weird characters are used.

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dont think my family are rllly that arsed {or would no how to do it!} to break into my pc files

If you have a good tool and the password is not longer than 6 chars then it's a matter of hours , Good tools can get up to a couple million passwords a second.

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Originally posted by Concord Dawn
Cookie, zipping files into an archive and compressing them are two different things.

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Yes I know...  We are also talking about two different things here: compressing data and encrypting data. Reread the thread from the beginning

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Originally posted by Concord Dawn
Compressing them without putting them into an archive (disk compression) is an NTFS feature. As mentioned above, it's not as effective at reducing file size.

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It is almost equaly effective! Especially if you compare it to the zip method; Both use almost the exact same methods of compressing. (hence why zipping is nativly part of Windows XP; it uses the same libraries) You might wanna study the technical compression algorithems used by Winzip (see the PKZIP consortium for that) and the nativly windows compression algorithems (look up the source for uncompressing packed windows files).

What you showed in your screenshots doesn't say a thing I'm afraid. The sizes shown there in the red rectangles are the normal, uncompressed sizes, not the true sizes on the disk after compression.

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This thread is seriously going in all directions except towards the real problem/solution... Why do people rather make it difficult for themself instead of using already available stuff??????

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
This thread is seriously going in all directions except towards the real problem/solution... Why do people rather make it difficult for themself instead of using already available stuff??????

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agreed!
il re-ask the question and see if anyone can help me then as it will be clear - maybe!

is it possable to passoword protect my 'my documents' folder using windows XP home edition.
i dont want to password prototect my whole user account as i liike the convenience of being logged in automatically upon booting windows.

It's actually *slightly* harder than that to prevent other users from accessing My Documents, as I found out the hard way.

The easy way is to boot into safe mode and log on as Administrator, because this account usually doesn't have a password and can usually access all the files.

The harder way is to use a linux boot disk, but as you say your family isn't going to do this to check up on you .

Basically, without a single-file encrypter, or XP Pro's builtin functions, actually *Encrypting* the files will be impossible. All you're doing is restricting access, which can be pretty easily circumvented.


P.S. Try:
Start -> Run. Type "cmd". Now type (replacing <user> with your username):
cacls c:\documents and settings\<user>\My Documents /G <user>:F

This should prevent even Administrator from opening the folder .