The Padlock

Some people do not understand the concept of privacy and they will not hesitate to go through your personal files if you leave them alone with your computer. Nowadays, it is not difficult to protect files against unauthorized access. Simply named The Padlock, this simple application enables you to lock any number of files, regardless of size or format, in just a few seconds. You can use it to lock individual files or entire folders and protect them with a master password.

After downloading a 2.17 MB executable file, you can run the application straight away, without going through an installation procedure. This means that The Padlock is portable, so you can use it on any computer, from a removable memory device, such as a USB flash drive.

To protect your data, you just need to drag and drop your files or folders over the software's interface, select them and click a button. Besides hiding your files, The Padlock will render them useless. They will appear in Windows Explorer, if you set it to show hidden files, but the system will not be able to open them.

Unlocking data is done in a similar fashion, but with a different option. There is no need to provide a password each time you lock or unlock your data. Access to the application's interface is granted only with the correct password, which you must create when launching The Padlock for the first time. The software will use the same master password, when you lock your files.