- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try (15-day trial); $29.95 to buy
- Operating system: Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows 2000
- Date added: October 12, 2006
- Total Downloads: 86,080
- Downloads last week: 1,671
- See full specifications
A newer version of Advanced File Lock is available.
(Download doesn't provide access to previous versions of this program.)
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 70 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: CNET staff on February 25, 2009
On the surface, Advanced File Lock seems to fulfill its purpose well enough, but we found enough quirks--and one feature that just didn't work--to make us want to bypass the application altogether.
The interface appears clean and simple, but we would have preferred direct Windows Explorer integration. Especially with the proprietary file-selection mechanism, which breaks standard Windows file selection conventions and makes the interface feel clunky. Most of the functionality worked without issue, and the capability to easily hide and show files was nice. Unfortunately, you can't lock AND hide files, so which was a usability annoyance. The last notable feature was "Clean Free Space," which should prevent the recovery of any previously deleted files in your drive's free space. But that wasn't enough to save this app from its fatal flaw, the broken "Self Extractable File" functionality, which deletes your source file even when it doesn't successfully create the output file.
Excepting the broken feature and the interface's quirkiness, there were no stability issues during our testing. The features of this 30-day trial don't appear to be limited, and it is mostly nag-free. Installation was simple, but icons were placed on the desktop and in the start menu without asking. Uninstallation required a trip to Add/Remove programs, or to the install directory. With the quirky interface and the broken feature resulting in data-loss, this application is currently NOT recommended. There are other applications with similar, if not identical, features and the tighter Explorer integration Advanced File Lock is missing.
Publisher's description
From Blue Lakes Technology :Hide or password-protect any file instantly by clicking on it. Advanced File Lock works with all file types including pictures and movies. Once a file is locked or hidden, it is completely encrypted and none of its contents can be viewed. To lock a file or folder, simply right-click on it and select the lock option. Extremely easy to use. Version 3.2 improved product activation. Version 3.5 features sortable columns in user interface, adds warning when user attempts to use a blank password.
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User reviews of Advanced File Lock 3.5
- Average user rating: 0 stars Not yet available
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0 out of 13 people found this review helpful
Version: Advanced File Lock 3.5
"Corrupts Files And Won't Uninstall"
Pros: Too good to be true...nothing else.
Cons: Well, where to start...First of all, sometimes a pword works, then it doesn't and all of a sudden it works again. You can have the same pword on an entire file yet not all of the docs within will open, even though the pword for the file and the doc are identical. Example: John Doe's file pword is "doe", thereby making all docs within, "doe" (unless one specifies otherwise). On Tuesday, "doe" is entered and 2 out of 5 docs open. The other 3 say "wrong pword". On Thursday, "doe" is entered and all docs miraculously open.
Then another customer's file is affected.
We have had files completely corrupt and be irretrievable.
Secondly, IF an employee changes a pword and forgets it, you're totally hooped. There is no admin fail safe to get rid of this password, bypass it or anything! You will FOREVER lose the ability to access the file or doc, despite what AFL says!
Now for the next problem: According to the guys at AFL, the softward is easily unistalled, which will automatically unlock all passwords. (First of all, if it's that easy to bypass, it's not a very secure program is it? No. However, Bluelakes is WRONG. They told us to uninstall the program and all our files and docs would no longer require pwords.
They claimed this would solve the problem of one doc in a file being strangely "unlockable".
Good thing we backed them up because after we uninstalled AFL, NONE of our files and docs would open. They were all corrupted.
We had to reinstall AFL, just to open them again, unlock what we could and THEN uninstall again. After this process even more files gave us the error message "wrong password", yet we'd done nothing but try to uninstall and reinstall the program.
Use at your own risk, folks. Home business, beware. You could lose all your customer data in one swoop like we nearly did.
We are again on the hunt for a decent file lock program. It definitely won't be anything from Blue Lakes Technology. Waste of money and a damaged database. Thanks guys.
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