Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I was wondering how to do this as well.

So your telling me that something easy to do in Windows (password protect a folder) would require me to go into Terminal and do it that way? How the hell is that secure?

Say I have the last few years of my tax returns, bank statements, etc. on my MBP. How would I keep that folder from being accessed?

You asked about "hiding files" and got an answer for that. A password protected folder in Windows is not hidden - it is clearly visible. There is a difference between "hidden" and "not accessible"; you got the answer for the question you asked and not for the question you wanted to ask. Hiding things is difficult to do and that is intentionally; once things are hidden you can't see them anymore and they are difficult to unhide. This is just meant as an explanation.

<Useful stuff deleted>

Now **** and stop being a little fanboy btch. Why is it so hard to acknowledge a flaw in an OS!??!!? Is it a personal insult or something? I really don't understand...|

There was some useful information here which would have solved your problem but I removed after reading this.
 
You asked about "hiding files" and got an answer for that. A password protected folder in Windows is not hidden - it is clearly visible. There is a difference between "hidden" and "not accessible"; you got the answer for the question you asked and not for the question you wanted to ask. Hiding things is difficult to do and that is intentionally; once things are hidden you can't see them anymore and they are difficult to unhide. This is just meant as an explanation.

<Useful stuff deleted>



There was some useful information here which would have solved your problem but I removed after reading this.

Wow, get off your high-horse. Yeah, I mistook hidden and accessibility. Shoot me. Folks were kind enough to answer and it is appreciated. But don't come into the thread and post <stuff deleted>. What are you, ten?

And I bet you still cannot tell me (without using Terminal) how to PASSWORD-PROTECT a folder while being logged in under my account. So far, the encrypted disk image sounds like the best method - you know, for us not so fortunate to know Unix peons.
 
And I bet you still cannot tell me (without using Terminal) how to PASSWORD-PROTECT a folder while being logged in under my account. So far, the encrypted disk image sounds like the best method - you know, for us not so fortunate to know Unix peons.

An encrypted disk image is, for all practical purposes, a password protected folder. I know you're in a bit of a bad mood now and don't want to admit that you already have all the info you need to construct such a thing, but you've lost any reason to argue about this further.

ummm i cant believe that this hasnt been said (pretty sure it hasnt).

add a dot "." infront of the file/folder name. easy peasy.

Check post #6...
 
An encrypted disk image is, for all practical purposes, a password protected folder. I know you're in a bit of a bad mood now and don't want to admit that you already have all the info you need to construct such a thing, but you've lost any reason to argue about this further.

im sure there are password "programs" to do this type of thing, they dont count as terminal do they ;)
 
ummm i cant believe that this hasnt been said (pretty sure it hasnt).

add a dot "." infront of the file/folder name. easy peasy.

still you have to add the period before the filename with hidden files shown or in Terminal you cant do it normally. thats why i like the chflags better.
 
still you have to add the period before the filename with hidden files shown or in Terminal you cant do it normally. thats why i like the chflags better.

its an easy command to do in terminal (or an external program that provides GUIs) to show the hidden files.. i would prefer it to using terminal tbh.
 
Not pron....I'm 27 and my g/f doesn't really care so I don't need to hide it.

I'm talking about really sensitive documents....


Solutions above are pretty annoying...wow, so here's the third thing that has pissed me off since switching...

1. Cut/Paste in finder
2. Recovering to original location of deleted files
3. Easily hide/unhide files


This list better not get any longer...


=|

Windows, at least on the user interface level, is better suited for such tasks than OS X. Under the hood, however, OS X is a FreeBSD-based UNIX with all the power that comes with UNIX. BUT: To harness all those features, you -have- to use the shell (Terminal). It's the same in Linux or any other UNIX or UNIX-like system.

Besides that, just hiding a folder is not a secure option. The encrypted disk image as proposed by other forum members is the better way.
 
I am thinking that the thread starter is looking for something more like a password enabling program / automator script, isn't it?

I was just thinking that the it might be inconvenient to mount the image everytime you want to read the drive...

I'm sure somewhere in the world there's at least one person made this kind of automator script / program, right?
 
I was just thinking that the it might be inconvenient to mount the image everytime you want to read the drive...

Why? You mount it when you start using the files, and when you are done for the session, eject it. Think of it as keeping the files on a password-protected, always-available thumb drive.
 
I haven't really tried this, but when we are browsing and we decided we need to save a document in that encrypted drive, would it be possible to open it in firefox's save to.. dialog?

That's what I was trying to convey in the previous post when I say read/write files. Sorry for being a little bit unclear.
 
It better not get any longer or Apple's market share will continue to drop like it did last quarter, not least of which because people like me tell their girlfriends and their girlfriend's father not to get a mac because of stupid quirky sht like not being able to recover deleted files easily. (They're both quite happy w/ the Vaio they ordered a few weeks ago, btw.)

Now **** and stop being a little fanboy btch. Why is it so hard to acknowledge a flaw in an OS!??!!? Is it a personal insult or something? I really don't understand...

I'm not going to "just deal with it." I'm going to complain and make it known when something is a pathetic oversight. And I'm going to exercise my opinion with my wallet the next time I make a purchase or have influence over somebody that is making one. You can be happy just bending over and quietly taking it whenever you feel that you've got no choice.

Call me crazy, but that's just not my deal.


=|

Is this a joke? April fools early or something? Apple is posting record profits, they are not hurting. AND, one thing so many people here don't understand, Apple does NOT read these forums! So complain here all you want, nobody here can fix your complaints and they are never reaching Apple. Not that they would change anything anyway. Go complain on a Unix mailing list, and you will get laughed at, 10,000 times over.
 
So your telling me that something easy to do in Windows (password protect a folder) would require me to go into Terminal and do it that way? How the hell is that secure?

AFAIK Windows doesn't have any built-in support for "password protecting" a folder.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.