Pdf Protector for Windows

There are more than a couple of problems with this program to protect PDF files, from its lack of user guidance to its unintuitive functionality. Another complaint has to do with the publisher, and the extra item the program installed. PDF Protector's compact interface only has a few buttons, and three of those are for Help, About, and Exit. There's actually less information found with the Help button than with About, and nothing about how to use the program. Three additional buttons are a twice displayed Open function and Protect. A field for PDF Name is the only other item related to using the program.

After using the Open button to locate a PDF file (the demo only works with files under 50kb), users merely hit Protect. This opens a standard Save As window, with the file type shown as .exe. A dialog window displays with the message the file was encrypted successfully and to save the file. Users are prompted to set a password, and no previous step offered the opportunity.

During our tests, opening the protected executable is easily accomplished with no need to enter a password. The only thing different about the file was that it opened in Foxit Reader 1.3 Beta, a program that wasn't mentioned when PDF Protector was installed.

A trip to the publisher's Web site reveals it has been abandoned. Even if it worked, adding another program without permission isn't proper. You can definitely skip PDF Protector.