DirGuard

[Queue]

Program Name: Folder Guardian
Short Name: DirGuard

Well, inspired by LockDir and HideDir, I decided to make my own folder obfuscater dealie. It's unfortunately a bit bigger than Redllar's HideDir (his is 23KB, DirGuard weighs in at 45KB) but it functions on Win98SE (and most likely WinME as well) and can mount the hidden folder as a Virtual Drive like version 5.0 of LockDir. It's been tested on Win98SE and WinXP (SP2).

See the following two threads for more information on this type of folder hiding:
http://portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2705
http://portablefreeware.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3092

Keep in mind there is no file encryption going on here; DirGuard is simply creating 3 very annoying nested subfolders in your target folder (whose contents you intend to hide) and placing everything from the target folder within this set of subfolders.

All this does is keep a novice computer user away from the hidden files and hopefully hiding them well enough that a more advanced user might not realize something is hidden there.

Again, this is by no means secure, it's just neat. Use this software at your own risk, and please don't use it to hide critical files without making a reliable and secure backup of them elsewhere. File loss should be impossible with the mechanisms used but I make no guarantees.

Download here:
http://localhostr.com/files/73cc73/DirGuard.zip

DirGuard was made using NSIS; the source script file is included.

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Tricks used:

The level one subfolder is named the same as the executable but with a .dll extension (you can rename the executable to change the name of the level one subfolder).

Desktop.ini is created within the level one subfolder and given the CLSID of the Windows Printers folder. This blocks basic navigation into this folder by Explorer and prevents Windows' basic search from finding contents of this folder (or its subfolders).

The level two subfolder (created within the level one subfolder) is given the name ßÅ¢ÖÑǵÉ.÷¬ to make navigation into it from a command prompt difficult. Depending on the file system, this folder name is less effective (NTFS gives the folder a simple unicode 8.3 file name while FAT/FAT32 maintain the unusual characters).

Desktop.ini is created within the level two subfolder and given the CLSID if the .NET assembly folder. If a .NET framework is not installed this will have no effect on this folder. The password MD5 hash, level three subfolder name and original attributes of the target folder are also saved in this desktop.ini file.

The level three subfolder's name is a 5 character random string suffixed with ~1. and the CLSID of a BMP file. This changes the folders icon and makes navigating into the folder more difficult on Win9x. The random string is saved in the level two subfolder's desktop.ini file. Using a random name makes automated recovery with a batch script more difficult.

The original contents of the target folder are contained within the level three subfolder.

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Bugs:

Don't hit enter when using the browse for file window unless you want your currently entered password to change to the name of the folder you selected.

Queue

[Master of Dice]

The level two subfolder (created within the level one subfolder) is given the name ßÅ¢ÖÑǵÉ.÷¬ to make navigation into it from a command prompt difficult. Depending on the file system, this folder name is less effective (NTFS gives the folder a simple unicode 8.3 file name while FAT/FAT32 maintain the unusual characters).

It's absolutely ineffective. On the windows command prompt, you can press tab to autocomplete the folder. Or you press tab to cycle through all the folders and files. It doesn't save you more then 2 seconds before you can change to this folder.

[Queue]

Thanks for the tip, I never knew about that. =D That sure sped up folder navigation at the command prompt for me! It was a headache typing out using ascii codes.

It appears that on Win98SE however, hitting tab at the command prompt simply creates a tab instead of autocompleting the folder name, so I guess it still has some purpose.

Queue