Secure Folder is a tiny piece of software for Windows users that can help you secure your folders easily. This free software can hide, lock and encrypt your folders. 

Reach Secure Folder by following the link. Installing the software is a breeze. It will walk you through the installation steps. 

Launch the software once you finish the installation process. You will get to see a window as shown below:

Here you will be providing a password which you will have to remember to access your folder back. It will ask you the credentials every time you access Secure Folder.

Interface:

The interface is quite simple and intuitive. There are three modes of folder protection – lock, hide and encrypt.

Click the ‘add’ button to add the files that you need to protect and select the appropriate mode of folder protection.

‘Lock’ – As the name says, it just locks the file and will not allow anyone else to open it.

‘Hide’ – This mode actually hides the folder from anyone else who is using the machine

‘encrypt’ – Secure Folder uses AES encryption algorithm to protect your folder.

One can use any one or all the three of these options.

Features:

• Easy to use interface
• Uses AES encryption
• Protection modes – lock, hide and encrypt.

Secure Folder does a neat job in what it claims to be. The software won’t even allow a secured folder to be moved or copied or deleted. And I expected it to keep me off from renaming the secured folder too. But actually it did allow me to rename it, but that cost me my folder. I couldn’t recover it back. The best recommendation would be to go with 7 mode protection (select all ‘lock’, ‘hide’ and ‘encrypt’) so that no one other than you can even view the folder.

Also make sure that you are not even accidentally uninstalling the software when you still have any secured folders in your machine. 

The software requires .NET framework 2.0 or better to work.

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Works with: Windows (32 & 64 bit editions)

Paid/Free: Free

BullGuard Internet Security suite is a bundled package of internet security tools. It comes with an antivirus, anti spyware, firewall and an online backup storage of 5GB space. The latest version BullGuard 9.0 also has a Game Mode feature in it and it’s all wrapped up in an entirely new user interface.

The virus scan engine of this software is based on BitDefender technologies. BullGuard is meant to run on all Windows platforms.

Installation:

You can reach BullGuard here. The software comes with a free 60 days free trial period. Follow the standard steps to install the software. It may take a while to complete the installation and a reboot is also required at the end. If you don’t have an account already created with BullGuard, then you may have to register anew with your email address. And you are all set to start with your BullGuard Internet Security Suite.

Interface:

One of the notable added features of BullGuard 9.0 version is its new user interface. Personally I like its new look and I felt even a naïve user would find it very easy to use the product with this new interface. Below is a snap shot of the new interface.

Key Features:

·         Antivirus and Antispyware – I felt BullGuard Antivirus is pretty good in scanning all files – scanning for rootkits, scanning the registry, bootsectors etc – in real time and also monitors incoming and outgoing emails. The AV scan settings allow the user to have the desired protection profile.

·         Firewall – The BullGuard firewall is pre-configured to provide access to over a thousand known applications. I was not quite satisfied with the firewall that came along with the previous versions of BullGuard suite. But BullGuard 9.0 version firewall did a pleasing job for me. Still I may suggest you to make sure that you are not entirely relying upon this single firewall protection.

·         Anti-Spam – To keep your inbox free from junk. Also you can report suspicious phishing attacks.

·         Online Backup – The product comes with 5GB online backup. All your online backup files are securely encrypted and stored redundantly. And accessing your backup data is very easy – no separate software installation is required for this. You can login from any computer to access it. 

·         Game Mode – The Game Mode included in BullGuard 9.0 is a new feature for safe game fun with minimal resource consumption. 

Here are some screenshots:

Antivirus:

Firewall:

Scan Log:

Apart from a new look and the inclusion of Game Mode, it’s hard to find a lot of additional features with the newest version of BullGuard 9.0 when compared to its previous version.

Conclusion:

With full antivirus, firewall, automatic updates and backup protection, BullGuard package provides real time internet protection for your system. The live 24X7 online chat customer support is a plus point that BullGuard team can boast off. But apart from all these, I still may not classify BullGuard as a killer product.

In order to review the product, I tried to run the software against a list of 5-6 active Trojan links that I had. I found BullGuard antivirus active during that time and it did knock out some of the Trojans, though it couldn’t impress me very much. The firewall also kept on warning me, blocking certain applications from network access. And finally I did a full system scan. Though it didn’t do a bad job, it still couldn’t quarantine everything.

While on its way to provide complete security, BullGuard team must also consider minimizing the resource usage of this product. Also the time it takes for the on-demand antivirus scan may not be agreeable with some people. But I optimistically look forward for the future releases of this software. Try BullGuard Internet Security suite for yourself and let me know what you think about it.

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