QB & XP Pro file encryption

I am not familiar with the QB side of your question, but I am very familiar with the XP side. EFS (Encrypting File System) is an excellent way of protecting your personal data. That being said, be sure to set a complex password and don't write it on a sticky note attached to the laptop, or the desk drawer, etc. I would recommend creating a password recovery disk if you have a floppy drive available, because if you forget your password and it gets reset by the local admin, you will lose access to the encrypted data. Also, once you have set it up, you should make sure at least one other account on the machine (preferably the admin account) is also on the list of people able to access the folder. Then if you forget your original password, and you didn't create the password disk, the admin can still get access to the data and give the regular user account access again.

Hope this helps.

Bill Griffith

That's funny. I'll bet people do that all the time.

I'll definitely do the password recovery disk. Thanks. But, I am not sure what you meant by the password being reset by the local admin. I'm not quite sure what the local administrator means. Is that the administrator logon that someone can get to if they boot the system in safe mode? If so, I guess I would also have to have another complex password for that too. Does the local administrator have the same rights as any other administrative user account I set up?

Yes. What you already provided helps a lot.

The idea behind creating passwords is to make it difficult to guess. When you can't remember your password, you have succeeded.

Bob

LOL! The trendy thing is to use a "pass phrase", instead of a password. You could go with something like MyDogIs#1!, which is easy for you to remember but would be impervious to a dictionary attack. It would also satisfy password complexity rules in most establishments, since it uses both upper and lower case, plus numeric and special characters.

Inline...

I am a trainer and you'd be surprised what my students tell me their users do :)

When you install the Operating System (Windows XP) there is an account created called Administrator. This account has the power to do anything on the computer, including creating accounts, installing software and hardware, etc. There should be a password assigned to that account. You shouldn't use that account for regular everyday use, like reading emails and stuff like that. That could prove to be a security problem. However, if you read my post from a few days ago, running QB seems to require Admin or Power User credentials. Anyway, that's what I mean be the local Admin account.

Good, glad I can help. I will be out of town for this coming week and will not have access to this group, so if you need me, feel free to email me at bilnosppppamgriffith at hotmail dot com, without the nospppppam of course.