Making your documents private

I've always encouraged my friends NOT to login using an administrator account because it will expose you to alot of viruses and spyware. This is evident in my case because up to now, I've never gotten any viruses or spyware. There's also a problem where all the local administrators of the same computer is able to see the other users' My Documents anytime.

Anyway, for those that still insists on using computer administrator account for your day to day use, there's a way to make your documents private, such that even local administrators of the same computer are not able to see your files in your "My Documents". I think this works only if your harddisk is formatted using NTFS. To check, just right click on your drive letter and click on properties. It should state NTFS, not FAT32.

These are the steps:

1. Open your Windows Explorer (WINKEY E)
2. Right-click on My Documents on the left panel, which is just below the Desktop
3. Click on the Sharing Tab
4. Click on the checkbox that says Make this folder private
5. Click on the OK button at the bottom
   

Ensure that your current user account is password protected. These steps will ensure that your "My Documents" folder access level will be elevated to Access Level 1.

The following table describes the permissions:

Access Level	Everyone (NTFS/File)	Owner	System	Administrators	Everyone (Share)
Level 1	n/a	Full Control	Full Control	n/a	n/a
Level 2	n/a	Full Control	Full Control	Full Control	n/a
Level 3	Read	Full Control	Full Control	Full Control	n/a
Level 4	Read	Full Control	Full Control	Full Control	Read
Level 5	Change	Full Control	Full Control	Full Control	Full Control

That's all to it. This is the link direct to Microsoft that explains the settings.