Yesterday I had introduced a software called WinMend Folder Hidden which is used to hide files/folder either in your computer or in your removable drive (So when other exploring your drive, they cannot see the files/folder that you had make hidden with WinMend Folder Hidden. The hiding and unhiding process of this software is very straight forward, as you can see from its interfaces (see yesterday post). However, if you still feels that it is complicated to use or lazy to explore how to use the software, below I will show you how to hide files/folder easily with this software.

Initial Run

For the installation of the software I would not elaborate here as it is rather simple. After the software get installed, run the program by clicking on the desktop shortcut or run from start menu program. On the first run, it will ask you for a password. This password is set by yourself, which will be required to enter every time you run this software to hide/unhide files or folder. For security purpose, try to insert a long password, ideally 15~20 characters, with number and alphabet mixed.

Then you will come across to the software interface as shown below:

Hide Files/Folder

Obviously, the top right two buttons ‘Hide Folder’ and ‘Hide File(s)’ are used to hide files/folder.  To hide a folder, click ‘Hide Folder’ button, browse to the folder you would like to hide, and then OK. The same process can be done to hide files (Multiple selection allowed), except you click on ‘Hide File(s)’ for it. Series of screenshots below shows the process of hiding:

1) Click ‘Hide Folder’ or ‘Hide File(s)’

2) Browse for your files or folder

When the status is written red ‘Hidden’ means you have already successfully hide your files/folder. The hidden files/folder will not reveal themselves even the option ‘Show Hidden Files’ in Windows is enabled. They will only appear when you unhide them using the same software (apparently). I had even tried to uninstall the software and reinstall it, with deleting all the registry related to WinMend, I still can’t seems to be reset the password that has been set during earlier installation phase. It seems quite secure for me, especially for home users.

Unhide Files/Folder

When you require to access the hidden files/folder, just start up the software, enter your password, select (mark the checkbox) the files/folder that you would like to unhide, click ‘Unhide’, and you’re done. Simply and straight forward. Check the sequential screenshots below if you can’t get it:

1) Enter the password

2) Tick the checkbox for the files/folder wanted to unhide

3) Click ‘Unhide’

4) You are done. They are visible now. (Status is Visible)

Good or Bad?

This software is provided by WinMend for free which is of course a good thing for every computer user, however, this is only meant for home user, or can be used to hide non-private and confidential documents. For company and business user, they possibly found this software inadequte to protect office used or business related important documents, as this software is unable to provide a very secure way in protecting those documents, as mentioned in the official documentation of WinMend Hidden Folder, which they mentioned it is best for home user only.

As mentioned before, even if you try to uninstall and reinstall the software on the same computer that has the password set, it can’t eliminate the password thus kind of impossible to access your files/folder which is a good thing. However, I was thinking if it was used to hide my removable drive files/folder, then of course they are hidden when the drive is being explored, but what if I urgently needed to access those files? Besides installing to the computer you are accessing, I can’t think of other way. Though I haven’t try whether it is portable or not. That will be a question mark indeed.

If you require a more secure way of protecting your files/folder, you can always try TrueCrypt, which is free and very famous due to their very unique way of encrypting and protecting files/folder. It is a little bit of my league at the moment, but shortly I will try to use it and possibly write a post about it. As always, you can go ahead explore yourself if you can’t wait or you like to try new stuff.

For WinMend Hidden Folder, you can download from their official site. Don’t forget to check out software and freeware they offered!