Whether you are concern about your personal documents being accessed by other people who have access to your computer, or you are worried that your children might delete files relating to your next big project, Wise Folder Hider is an app that could help you. As the name suggests, the program makes it possible to hide folders from view, but the same option can also be applied to individual files and even USB drives.

You might wonder just what the point of hiding files and folders is. What can’t be seen can be snooped at and, perhaps more importantly, can’t be accidentally, or purposefully, deleted. This is something that can already be addressed to some extent by setting yourself up with a password protected user account within Windows, but this is an app that goes further, offering you the peace of mind that comes from having an extra layer of security in place.

The process of hiding files and folders is very simple. All you need to do is launch the program and you can then either select the option to hide files or folders before navigating to the relevant place on your hard drive, or you can drag files and folders onto the program window. By default, hidden files and folders will not be visible unless you are logged into your Wise Folder Hider Beta account, but you also have the option of increasing security further by adding a password. If you want to easily protect a batch of documents quickly and easily, you may want to take advantage of the ability to hide a USB drive.

This is not the most advanced or sophisticated piece of software in its class, but it gets the job done and the fact that it is available free of charge is a big plus point. It is great that it is possible to create as many user accounts as you need so everyone that uses a particular computer is able to keep their own documents hidden and protected – this is probably one of the most easy to use and yet surprisingly effective security utilities you could install.