password protecting fetishy folders

[Orionbob]

I don't know if other people know about this, but just in case I thought I'd share what I do in case it helps anyone.

Ideally I'd keep nothing fetishy on my computer, even though I'm lucky enough to never have anyone else want to use it. But every now and then I just feel the urge to write fetishy stuff, and I'm not a writer but I wanted to be once so I treasure all the sneezy WIPs, I can't delete them no matter how much safer it is.

So. On to the point. Recently I discovered that, with certain programs (I use 7-zip) you can put all your fetishy stuff into an innocently named folder. You right click that folder, hover over 7-zip, and select "add to archive". The first thing should be "archive format", and you set that as a zip. Then you fill in your desired password in both boxes, and there you go!

You have to do this after every time you want to re-zip the file, and it involves a lot of deleting of the folder that holds the old versions of your files, and then going back and clearing your recycle bin, which gets confusing if you've done what I have and apparently forgotten to re-zip the file again. But if you can keep up with it, it may keep your privacy a bit more private.

Hope this helped someone.

Forgot to add, it only really works for keeping things secret if the files themselves are also innocently named. The zip folder can be almost extracted without a password, so the list of files in it can be seen. It's just that none of them can be opened unless you extract the zip folder properly. I'm sure I'm complicating things horribly but I can't think of how else to say it.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Orionbob

[EmeraldThread]

This seems helpful! I've been looking for a way to protect my fetishy writings (because I've accumulated quite a few of them over the past year or so since I started writing them), but have been too intimidated by the amount of reorganizing I'd have to do. XD Thanks for posting this, I'll have to try it when I have some more time. Until then, I'm not letting anyone use my computer out of my sight!

[Anonymouse]

This is a great idea, and one I've thought of a few times, but I'm just too lazy to get everything together. My stories are spread all over the place on my laptop, but I have an "innocently named" folder on my desktop computer that leads to a few other "innocently named" folders, one of which leads to another folder, etc., until folderception yields my stories. I figured nobody would care enough to snoop that deeply into my files.

[kitsune]

Hey, so I'm not the only one who does that! I use the passworded zip trick too for all my fetish-related stuff, though I feel far more secure about my privacy because everyone knows not to touch my computer. I've also used Anonymouse's trick, but then decided it was too easy to circumvent since all my other 'decoy' folders were either empty or shortcuts, so the folder sizes pretty much gave everything away... Hehe, I'm pretty paranoid about this stuff.

But just a reminder if to anyone who wants to protect your writing using the zip method - every time you want to edit a zipped document you have to remember to unzip it first, and then re-zip it after you're done, or it'll end up saving to some temp files place and you'll never find it again. (I speak from personal experience...)

I really wish there was just a way to password protect entire folders. *sighs* Ah well, I guess we can't have everything...

[Kiwifruit]

My computer is mine. No one else uses it Except my mother very occasionally, but she asks first, and I trust her not to look through my things (which is good, because I have random fetishy stories and pics scattered all over the place xD). I always lock my entire computer whenever I step away (nosy little sister with no respect for privacy...) so I'm pretty happy. It's useful to know how to do this though - I've looked for a way to lock folders before! Thanks!

[JenJen]

folderception

YES! HAHA! This is exactly what I do.

[Mirf]

Well there are a few ways to password protect normal folders but most of them involve their own programs. What you can do pretty easily if you use multiple User Accounts to log into the PC is set the rights to a folder so no one but yourself can actually look inside. Though personally back when i shared my PC i always thought passwords and locked stuff was creating way too much of a stir. As soon as something is password protected everyone gets curious what is inside. What i did back then was kind of similar to AnonyMouse. But instead of creating a folder on the desktop i would hide it in already existing folders. Like for example "C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Icons" or "C:\Windows\Help\Windows" Or something like that. No one EVER goes into those folders well except yourself if you hid something there .

[Kiwifruit]

^ The awkward moment you go to hide your files in the "C:\Windows\Help\Windows" folder and find the secret files of someone else sharing the computer...

[Jorm]

Like Kiwi my computer is mine and unless I choose to let someone borrow it no one sees anything on it. I've never bothered to hide my fetishy stuff particularly carefully as a result. I mean, I don't put a big label that says "SNEEZE PORN" on it or anything, but I don't folderception it either. Pictures and wavs are both in folders marked "sf" which I figure is pretty innocuous and unlikely to be payed much attention to in the unlikely event someone was poking around. Stories are sorted by unrelated categories and so fetish stories are scattered about and completely unprotected.