Lock Access to Executable Files on a Windows Machine Easily
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Security is of utmost importance for many computer users due to a number of reasons, and it becomes even more important to protect sensitive data when your computer is not physically very secure or you have some other users that are using the same machine. If we rule out the discussion related to the physical security then still there are a lot of ways to secure your valuable data on the computer. This is a very large topic and an expert in this domain can easily fill out entire books to cover it in a satisfactory manner but there is no doubt that one of the most effective approaches to secure your data is to use strong encryption.
If you have a lot of data to encrypt then On-the-fly encryption(OTFE) is probably the best solution that allows to encrypt large amounts of data in a container and access is allowed like any other drive on your system when the container is mounted using the software. Best freeware software for this purpose is TrueCrypt that even surpasses all commercial software in this category(that I have seen so far). Latest version also allows system partitions to be encrypted. I have already discussed at great length about it and why it is an essential tool for any security conscious computer user. You can also use file based encryption software and there are too many utilities available under this category on the Internet.
But in some scenarios you are just looking for a simpler and straight-forward solution to just block access to a program (executable) rather than resorting to a full-fledged security solution. Protect Exe is a tiny utility that may come handy in this scenario. It allows to encrypt/protect any Exe file of your choice by assigning a password that will be required if someone attempts to execute the file or program. Two Fish encryption with 256 bit key-length is used to encrypt the exe file so can be absolutely sure about its protection. You can also restore an already encrypted exe file from the interface if a need arises.
This is a simple but effective solution to block access to sensitive programs on a Windows machine. However it should be noted that it is not a complete security solution by any means (and no security software is).
You can download the Protect Exe here.
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Comments
Hmm nice application.
Well, I have a question. If I rename a picture file to .exe extension and then try to protect it, can it work in that case as well?
If it does, I am surely going to use it.
Rakshit: It can’t do what you want from what I can see. However there was another utility exactly for the purpose you wanted. I just forgot it’s name. I am trying to recall it and will let you know
i’ve been looking for this. it is very dangerous in windows for auto execute virus. especially in thumbdrive. in linux they will ask for password evey execution. thanx dude
[…] it is only a few days back that I had written about Protect Exe, a utility that allowed to encrypt executable files and today I have found another one which is […]
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Well this is useful for System admin to prevent installing of softwares.