IObit protected Folder solves the problem that very often we share our computers with people with our own user account with all our personal files or we are infected by ransomware that takes away full access to all our files forever and we do not have backup many times.
IObit Protected Folder is a program to encrypt and protect our folders. What it does is hide and password protect them so that they cannot be accessed if not through the application itself.
It is an expensive and “toy” commercial program, since its security is seriously threatened by free programs that we will be able to find online, although it is capable of keeping our files hidden and defending them against ransomware that we will be able to do ourselves for free if We do not save our files in the default Windows locations and we hide the folders with the right button and we assign the hidden attribute to the folder that we want to hide.
The program was launched in 2012 and its latest update has been the current version 1.3, which is from the year 2017 and has never undergone any remodeling of the user interface or its functionality.
Commercial program that has not updated its functionality or interface since 2012
The first time the program starts, it will ask us to enter a master password to access all the files, we must enter this twice and a password hint is recommended in case we forget to be able to recover our files and folders that are stored within the application.
Once the password and the recommended password are entered, we will have access to the main menu where we can drag the folders that we want to protect and encrypt.
Clicking on the folder will give us a series of options that will be open or unlock. The option to open shows us the content of the application and unlocking allows us to recover the folder with the original permissions that we had before using the application.
The option to open shows us the contents of the folder in a list format, so if what we have saved are photographs, unfortunately it will not show us more than the list of images and they have already had a lot of time to improve this functionality that is still outdated and bad .
In the configuration options we greatly miss being able to independently configure the read and write execution permissions, since the options that the application allows us are: hide the folder, deny read access and deny write access and it is applied to all files and folders and not individually which after almost 8 years for commercial software should already be implemented.
Options that do not allow working with folder permissions individually
It also allows changing the master password in case we want to change it later to establish a more secure one or a faster one if we use the application a lot, the minimum number of characters for the password is 6 without any type of restriction. We have used a password “softzone” and it has not warned us of the poor security of a password of this type without numbers or special characters, so it does not worry at all about informing the user about the recommendation of using more secure passwords. .
Another option that the program allows is the change of language to multiple languages among which Spanish is included. In an update they could have made sure that the program reads the language of the operating system where it is going to be installed, since by default it is installed in English and if you don’t understand it you will have to find your life to be able to change the language in the options .
It also allows generating a list of excluded files so that the IObit Protected Folder does not have access to those files, by default it already comes with a list of excluded files and system files and our documents.
It is advisable to look for a free alternative
After 17 uses, the program will show us a message with the reminder that we must pay to use this program, warning us that we only have 3 more uses left before having to go through the till.
Once the attempts are finished, it will show us the message that it has finished and the only option that will be enabled will be to register the program after going through the box and to recover the files if you do not want to go through the box to find another better alternative and free as LocK-A-FoLdeR or the integrated encryption function of the free 7-zip program.
If we try to access one of the folders that the program has hidden and encrypted it will give us a permission error and even if we try to access it it will not be possible unless we use Unlocker that completely destroys the functionality of this program and gives us full access to all the information that this program tries to hide and restrict giving us full rights to modify, read and write to files that this program is not capable of protecting against this type of tool that overwrites permissions.
Download and buy
It can be tested with a free download from the IObit website, which allows its use for a maximum of 20 times and then costs 19.95 euros. It is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10.