Password Protect in Windows 7

[07jotters]

Hi there,

 

First post on here, but looking for some help regarding password protection. We have been asked to send off video evidence of a drama project. And asked to password protect it, due to it containing images of students.

 

However, I have attempted to password protect it using 7zip/winRar but obviously this would require the external PC having one of these programs installed. I just wondered if there is an easier way that doesn't require them to download a piece of software to open. I'm aware this was made extremely difficult when windows 7 was introduced but thanks for any help in advance.

 

James

[Norphy]

Rather than password protecting the file, would it be easier to password protect the media that you use to send the file?

 

You could send it on an encrypted USB stick or by a password protected file sharing service such as Dropbox or OneDrive?

[07jotters]

Thanks for the response.

 

This may be an option.. However, we plan to send them off on DVD-R is there a similar type of encryption available for DVD's?

[Norphy]

Not without third party software, no. You'd be back at square 1.

[07jotters]

Not without third party software, no. You'd be back at square 1.

 

Haha, thanks anyway! I may have to look into something like onedrive/Dropbox. Only difficulty is the sheer size of the files.

[mac_shinobi]

Could you use something like 7 zip / win rar to compress the files into multiple zip / rar or 7z files that will each fit onto a dvd and burn each of those off onto dvd and number the dvd's in terms of file number so if you end up with say four 7z files you would number the discs like

 

7z00 - Disc 1

7z 01 - Disc 2

Etc etc

 

So you know which disc has which file and then just a case of

 

1) Advising them of the password

2) They copy all files into one directory and extract said data

 

Am sure this is what was meant by using 3rd party software

[Norphy]

Haha, thanks anyway! I may have to look into something like onedrive/Dropbox. Only difficulty is the sheer size of the files.

 

If your school has Office 365, you get a Onedrive for Business account with 1TB of space per user with it. It's free so it's well worth looking into.

[themightymrp]

Dropbox will give you 5Gb free to start with (which should be enough for a DVD). Copy.com Starts at 15Gb and you can quickly expand this by referring friends - each referral ups your total by 5Gb! Or a whole DVD-R

[07jotters]

Yeah, the one drive thing sounds great. Unfortunately we don't run office 365 here. Also, teachers being teachers want us to move roughly 20gb worth of videos onto several different Dvd's. I swear this would have been easy on XP!

[RichCowell]

Does the 20GB of vids need to be sent off too? If so, maybe a larger USB drive or old portable hard drive? Then just zip them with a password and they can all go on one thing...

 

Can you reduce the quality at all? I use Xilisoft Video Converter as everyone records in HD and that's definitely not necessary most of the time... that can have a huge effect on file sizes...

[sparkeh]

7zip/winRar but obviously this would require the external PC having one of these programs installed.

Not true.

 

Use 7-Zip to create a self-extracting archive (its the option called 'Create SFX Archive'), it creates an .exe that the end user can run without having 7-Zip installed.

[themightymrp]

You could create a password protected self-extracting Zip file (with zero compression) - this way they wouldn't need any software installing at their end.

 

 

EDIT - damn you @sparkeh - beat me to it

[Graham-Millgate]

You can buy encrypted USB sticks that will handle more than 20GB and you can't get in to them without the password. I have one at home and it would be ideal for what you need.

 

They are not particularlily cheap with an 8GB costing about £25-£30 but if this becomes a regular thing it'd be a worthwhile investment.

[RichCowell]

They are not particularlily cheap with an 8GB costing about £25-£30 but if this becomes a regular thing it'd be a worthwhile investment.

 

If it's for the exam boards etc. you don't usually get them back, so it'd be a nice little gift for them, and expensive for the school :-p

[mac_shinobi]

Not true.

 

Use 7-Zip to create a self-extracting archive (its the option called 'Create SFX Archive'), it creates an .exe that the end user can run without having 7-Zip installed.

 

Completely forgot about SFX, doh !

 

SFX I thought meant Self Extracting EXE / Executable ??

[Roberto]

If it's for the exam boards etc. you don't usually get them back, so it'd be a nice little gift for them, and expensive for the school :-p

 

If you offset the cost of the time for one person making a multi-dvd archive against the cost of just using a memory stick then the overall loss might not be so steep.

[Gibson335]

7zip allows you to also save standard zip files with password encryption.