CompTIA A_ Certification All-In-One Exam Guide, Seventh Edition - Michael Meyers [271]
Making Personal Documents Secure
The fact that most users of Windows XP computers will be computer administrators rather than limited users creates a bit of an issue with computers shared by many users. By default, administrators can see all of the contents of Documents and Settings, where the My Documents folder for each user account resides. You can override this option in the My Documents Properties dialog box. Selecting the option to Make this folder private blocks the contents from anyone accessing them (Figure 16-29).
Figure 16-29 Making personal documents secure from prying eyes
Note that an administrator can take ownership of anything, so the only true way to lock down your data is to encrypt it. In the My Documents Properties dialog box, select the General tab and then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Attributes dialog box. Click the check box next to Encrypt contents to secure data and that’ll handle the encryption. Just make sure you have a password reset disk if you’re going to use encryption to secure your files.
Shared Documents
You can use the Shared Documents folders to move files and folders among many users of a single machine. Every account can access the Shared Documents and the sub-folders within, such as Shared Music and Shared Pictures (Figure 16-30). Because new folders inherit the permissions of parent folders, by default any new subfolder you create in Shared Folders can be accessed by any account.
Figure 16-30 Shared Music Properties dialog box
Simple File Sharing
With simple file sharing, you essentially have one local sharing option and that’s to put anything you want to share into the Shared Documents. To share a folder over a network, you only have a couple of options as well, such as to share or not and, if so, to give full control to everybody. Note that the sharing option is enabled in Figure 16-31. It’s pretty much all or nothing.
Figure 16-31 Folder shared, but seriously not secure
Windows XP Home and Media Center only give you the simple file sharing, so the sharing of files and folders is straightforward. Windows XP Professional, on the other hand, enables you to turn off simple file sharing and unlock the true power of NTFS and permissions. To turn off simple file sharing, in some form of Windows Explorer, such as My Documents, go to Tools | Folder Options and select the View tab. The very last option on the View tab is Use simple file sharing (recommended). Deselect that option, as in Figure 16-32, and then click OK.
Figure 16-32 Turning off sinple file sharing
When you access sharing and security now, you’ll see a more fully formed security dialog box reminiscent of the one you saw with Windows 2000 (Figure 16-33).
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NOTE When you join Windows XP Professional to a domain, simple file sharing is disabled. You must use the full power of NTFS.
Sharing in Windows Vista
Microsoft tweaked the settings for sharing a single PC with multiple users in Windows Vista to fix the all-or-nothing approach offered by simple file sharing; for example, enabling you to target shared files and folders to specific user accounts. They beefed up the Standard User account (as you read about earlier in the chapter) so users could access what they needed to get meaningful work done. Plus they expanded the concept of the Shared Documents into the Public folder.
Figure 16-33 Full sharing and security options in Windows XP
Targeted Sharing
To share a folder or file with specific users—or to everyone, for that matter—you simply right-click on it and select Share. This opens the File Sharing dialog box where you can select specific user accounts from a drop-down list (Figure 16-34).
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NOTE If the computer in question is on a Windows domain, the File Sharing dialog box differs such that you can search the network for user accounts in the domain.