hi,
its a great software product very useful thanks i was looking for such a great thing for a long time...
thank you..

In my comment number 54 I was responding to comment 53, not 52.

@52
Read the description of the file written above. The password prompt is built into the code stuck onto the front end of the program. You do not need the program to "decrypt" the exe, as the exe is not encrypted. The exe will run whether or not this program is installed on your system or has ever been installed. You could even e-mail the exe you've protected to someone else, and they could open it provided they knew the password. There is no trap.

after THOROUGHLY Testing this program, i would say first off "ENCRYPT" It's .exe file, THEN encrypt any others You want to protect from running. and I will also say, the program will NOT run until after You unencrypt the .exe file with correct password, that's another thing that has not been mentioned till now. THEN after entering correct password and unencrypting said program with ".EXE PASSWORD PROTECTOR, it will THEN run but not UNTIL... This not only guarantees protection, but it also guarantees that another .exe file cannot be put in the protected .exe file's PLACE see? therefore I LOVE This program, and Give it the highest THUMBS UP 9.8/10 from me. Also all the comments about how this does not work have been proven wrong by my testing ".EXE Password Protector" and it deserves even higher praise because there is a code with it, and thus the code can be re-used even after a reinstall... Thanks GAOTD, there's my final two cents $$

#53... AGAIN with the stupid comments, geez man try the program and read why don't YOU, You BACKUP STUFF You fool!!! Problem solved, besides this program hasd a CODE man! you can use it AFTER REINSTALL OF WINDOWS and SHEESH backup why dont YOU, see? thanks again GAOTD

#5 how on god's green earth will 7-ZIP protect my stuff that run's via .exe files if i have it archived the stuff WONT RUN (Ok, well MOST of it will not load up...) besides i use WINRAR Premium for my archives I prefer it to all others, anyway there's my two cents $$

#1 That's ridiculous UAC did "NOT" Screw up Your computer I guarantee You that much, LOL UAC if mucked with just might in fact muck a pc up so don't muck with it, leave it on, same goes for DEP As well, anyway about today's GiveAway, I am exctatic this is just what I have been looking for since I got a pc in 2003. and man HOW COOL, It attaches to the .exe file and stays there for transport anywhere!!! Thanks GAOTD, This one is a real winner!

I thought i knew little about what is actually going on inside this computer.

I bet most of you would say bananas grow on trees.

No good - won't run on DR DOS 2.13. Plus I don't understand what this kind of softwares does or whats it used for anyways. Why would you want somethings like this when your compuater alredy has a password? Three thubms down.

BTW - I haven't downloaded or looked at it, and I have not gone to the website or searched. Some other freewares that is way better are Launchy, and SketchUp and Word.

Visit my site www.altreviewofGOTDsoftwares.info for more real good reveiws like this one.

Hi Joe comment #52, good point, but I always download noDVD patches for all the DVD/CD based games I purchase (due to having had discs get so damaged through frequent play that I've had to re-buy them), so the executables are already hacked. There’s always a way around everything. If I wanted to play online I replace the noDVD version with the original, all of which I keep backed up on one of my external discs.

AJ34, what do you mean by a trap? .....Ah just read Giovani's post.... no this program is not one of those types of programs that if you lose the program to a format you wont be able to open your password protected executables. All you need once you've set the password is the password.

The serial number provided will also activate the downloadable demo from the developer’s site. Nice one. :) Though if I decide to use this extensively I'd rather buy it so that I can get the upgrades.

A pleasure Ashraf

lol Mike, I can just imagine my kids doing that; but as I pointed out in my original comment, I'd inform them about the protected games, telling them that it is pointless for them trying to play them because they are no longer accessible. Of course as they get older (they are 8 and 9 at present) I'm sure they would be able to work around such passwords if they wanted, knowing Callum, he'd reinstall the game elsewhere, copy the executable and delete the rest and just exchange the exe when he wanted to play; but I envisage that when he gets to the point where he's capable of such manipulation, he'll be okay to play most video games. I do worry about many of the games I install because the language is very strong as is the blood and gore; all of which are added for a more realistic playing experience. Some may say, why install them in the first placve – the answer to that is because I can.

Yeah ZoneAlarm blocked it, so I had to turn it off. It apparently
was a virus. It also is a good way to freeze and shut down a computer,
I accidentally protected Explorer.exe, so now I need to "Enter Password" every time the file is accessed. Good enough it wasn't mine though :) I can't do it on , my mac.

I have not had a problem with this program before, the reason why you have problems with Anti-Virus is because this program has been black flagged by most personal security companies. The makers of this software also make a Keylogger for personal use.

# Ashraf



Ok, but how can one remember all the passowords set in every exe.files?

I suppose (but maybe I'm wrong because I still didn't prove this SW) you can do it through the software, right?

In fact at the end of the blurb there's written verbatim:

"Password adding and removing is very simple. EXE Password Protector provides dialog-based wizards that guide you through the steps of selecting the necessary file and setting/removing the password."

But what if I lose the GAOTD time-limited licence following a PC crash?

How can I retrieve all the passwords set on my exe.files previously?


The only way to do so could be, besides buying the licence of the SW, to put the same password for every EXE.FILE which of course is not the best way to protect our EXE.FILES against cracking or intruders, is it?

hey, i already download another freeware alternative for similiar type of this program,

you can check at freewarefiles at this link :
http://www.freewarefiles.com/Game-Protector_program_46137.html

maybe the title was game protector, but it can protect any exe files

For anyone who will be using EPP to prevent unauthorized access to installed software, like as games to kids, there is one alternative:

Kruptos 2

Kruptos 2 is a powerful 256 bit file encryption utility that allows you to secure any sensitive files stored on your PC or portable storage device. Kruptos 2 includes a powerful file shredding utility, and the ability to generate self decrypting files.

Kruptos is an encryption tool that is very easy to use.

The reason why I suggest this tool, and not other software like AxCrypt, is because when you want to use an encrypted file, you just double click the program, enter your password and use it. There is an option, that is selected by default, to automatically encrypt the file after you are done using it. So this program can be an alternative to EPP in terms of preventing your kids from accessing games or preventing unauthorized access to software. The one difference, though, is that you must have Kruptos 2 to encrypt/decrypt files.

Example: You do not want your kids to play WarcraftIII. You encrypt war3.exe with Kruptos 2. Whenever you want to play WacraftIII, all you do is double click on the war.exe icon, enter your password, and play the game. When you are done playing the game and you exit, war2.exe will be encrypted again by default.

@44 (giovi69)
That's exactly what I thought when I saw today's & yesterday's giveaway: they look good, but what happens when my computer crashes or I need to re-install Windows? Looks to me like a trap - you'le have to buy the software to de-crypt the exe.

I appreciate all of the giveaways on this site, but the ones like these should, in my opinion, be considered a trap and not allowed.

Wow, now you have an app to password protect your favorite porn downloader and porn viewing app.

But seriously after the first blush of looking at this app, how many real uses are there for this program (especially considering it creates false positives in the modified exe with many popular anti-virus software)?

Secondary warning: If you are thinking of password protecting violent video games so your kids don't play them, you should be aware that many retail video games use a byte checking scheme on their executables to protect them from hacking and cracking.

ooh i hope they give away hide my folders, and usb to ethernet connecter, becuase if they are even half as good as this then they would rock! thanks giveaway of the day and eltima software for another great giveaway!! =D

#29

Stephen,

I never looked at this program that way.

I do not have children, so I obviously do not know the fine details, but I just assumed that parents would keep things they do not want their children accessing on a different Windows Username. But you have added a nice spin onto this software - I see it in a new light now.

Thanks, I updated my suggestion for this software to reflect the view you have enlightened me to.

#44,

You also posted that comment on my blog, and as I said there, no...you do not.

Once you password protect a file with this program, you do not need this program to be able to run that .exe file. What I mean is you can literally password protect a .exe file, then uninstall this program. Your password protection will still be there and you will still be able to use your .exe file as long as you know the proper password.

Just do not forget your password =D.

OK, lets say all todays offer does is password protect executables. Why would anybody want to deliberately install a program thats going to do nothing but slow down the operation of certain, protected programs! This might be a good idea if theres children in the home that have permission to use that, particular PC. But, even if I had children or grandchildren here, they wouldn't be using my personal computer. And the old, test machine that they could use has nothing on it I'd care to keep from them.

Geez! Things must be getting hard here at GOTD because the quality of the recent offers has slacked off, big time! It's the Christmas season so how about offering something really useful to the average home user for the holidays? I pass again & give this offer a "BIG" thumbs down.

The feature in WinGaurd Pro that allows you to password protect a file, like EPP, is in premium only, not free edition =/

If you have a program you don't want someone to run -- as Stephen commented, probably young kids (or maybe the PC illiterate) -- this might come in handy if you didn't want to go the more complicated route of securing your PC / limiting what trouble they could get into.

Protecting something readily available like Firefox is easily by-passed if whomever knows enough to copy the exe file from another PC or install to the right folder. You could do the same thing if someone protected word or excel and so on, so for this to work it has to be used either for a program they couldn't get their hands on, or it has to be intended for someone who doesn't know how to copy / paste the right executable file.

I don't know that EXE Password Protector would always be that great to keep the kids from running your game... Please bear in mind that if you went to quite a bit of trouble setting up a game, or maybe had a saved game that you wanted, someone re-installing that game might lose that for you. And I could easily imagine a kid saying: "Hey, this was broke so I re-installed it for you".

@32....

No, you are wrong. What dialog box is going to pop up to allow you to insert the password. The dialog box from the Password exe protector. That's the only way to unencrypt the file.

What if my PC crashes or is struck by lightning and everything is lost?

Would I be forced to buy the licence of the program and spend 20 $ in order to recover the passwords implemented on the EXE.FILES?

These kind of applications are just TRAPS and should not be offered by GAOTD in the form of time-limited license.


Do you agree with me guys?


Cheers from Italy

Giovanni

@Spiritwolf, #36:
The false possitives occur with the resulting protected exe-files not the application self.

The protected exe-files do not need the giveaway installed, so you only need the password on whatever machine you're working on (selfcontained). Nothing scary about a one-day-giveaway.

@Belgian Dude, #25:
The password protection is not something that cannot be bypassed. It is to prevent starting-up executables unwantingly, like starting up by somekind of malware, or some user not paying attention, etc.

Modifying an exe in order to protect it is a poor way to protect. One drawback, for instance is that some programs will refused to load when it detects a modified exe. (Eg: Nullsoft installers)

Seams to be a lot of confusion about what this program does, or does not. It does not encrypt your EXE files, it just password protects them. It does this by adding about 100 kilobyte code to your original EXE file. This is very much the same that viruses do, so you will get lots of false positive virus warnings on EXE files protected by this code.

A virus adds itself to the EXE file and moves the entry-point of first execution to its own entry-point. Then it transfers execution back to the first entry-point of the EXE file after it has done it's malicious work.

The 100 Kb code added here does exactly the same, but it is not malicious. It just prompts for your password, and transfers execution to the EXE-file first entry-point if you provided the correct password.

Encryption programs are not alternatives for this software. WinGuard Pro is a free alternative, as mentioned by #21/nas.

first time for everything and it may have been a false positive what with the anti virus crowd getting in a tad deep on their fixes to stop . I have one I may have to pitch it slams my home page and I had to shut it down over it being nothing but tracking cookies which all websites use . but this came up a right now as a win 32 virus a Trojan and it locked it in the vault before I could react I deleted the file and deleted the program it is not worth a chance for a virus to infect my computer been there and done that about three times in 12 years and don't want it to be a fourth time . I will pass on this one for that reason

I'm not trying to be mean, but I have been checking this site nearly every morning for over 3 months, and am yet to see more than one or two pieces of software that are even worth wasting the bandwidth to download. I just don't understand. I will admit that I often read the comments of others and appreciate their inputs, but the folks who operate this site really need to find some software that is remotely useful. It about time to take this site off my daily check-it list.

It's a nice little program for layered encryption like we used to do years ago.

take a zip file and add a password. Rename it to .exe and then encrypt that with this program. That should stop anyone from getting your info, unless they are at the very highest levels.

As data-intensive organizations are well aware, any good archiving algorithm stores "source" data, data as it is at the time of encounter. Any encryption procedure should include the storage of the source executable or whatever it is that is being encrypted.

With this 'good business sense' caveat, there is no problem using an executable password protector.

On the issue of virus protectors catching modified .exes, of course they often do. I have had it happen with commercial archiving software, with batch file creators, etc. Much of this is due to the requirements that as the years go on the heuristics for virus, worm, and malware get more and more complex, and hence subject to false positives. Gone are the days when there were few virii save floppy-based boot virii (ah, the good old days).

If you use EXE Password Protector, or any other executable modifier, it is as much up to you to make sure it is compatible with your anti-virus software, to make precision-enough alterations to the tables or heuristics your AV software uses, or do without encrypting the executables.

I checked virustotal just now and this program scanned CLEAN except for PANDA reporting it as a suspicious file, and Panda is the one engine in the list at virus total that has the largest number of false positives.

http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/350ebae001fdce2a6aaab367f150165e

Lots of "whys" here today!

1) Why would GOTD even offer such a program? Seriously, the folks that run this site have to have more smarts then this!
2) Why would anyone deliberately install something that any anti-virus worth one grain of salt will raise holy, heck about!
3) Why would any software programmer deliberately write a clean program that most assuredly mimics one thats such a common form of a virus being released/injected?
4) Why would anyone want to deliberately install something that would make a fast computer, slow?
5) And lastly, what happens if you, for some reason, you loose the program that encrypted your executables? You'd be toast at that point & you'd have to know how, have the disks to reformat and lots of free time because reformatting is a big, time consuming, unpleasant job.

Think about this, if you will: Viruses have a few very common means of attack. A) Email attachments. B) Executables C) Nasty websites that we all know promotes smut!

I use all paid security programs (having learned through "the school of hard knocks") and my machines have stayed clean for a long time. I'll be darned if I'm going to start fighting with my AV now. For those that are so paranoid as to think a program of this type is necessary, why not just encrypt the entire drive with "True Crypt" or another program of that type?

All kidding aside, this is bad business & todays offer is a program just for the very few!

Apps like this were very useful in shared office computer situations a number of years ago; one could protect, for example, their accounting program from being opened by the wrong person, but the problem now is that the majority of today's anti-virus programs are going to flag a modified .exe as infected. Depending on the av program, one may or may not be able to exclude it from detection, which then raises the problem of a real infection going undetected. Still, this is a useful program for simple protection of executables on a shared home pc, and there is always a backup of the original file.

thanks for your software.and could you please give again advance window care professional.thanks GAOD.

@10, 12...
You are wrong!
If you remember the password, you can always run the encrypted exe. You don't need to have Exe Password Protector installed to use an encrypted exe! You need it only to create the encrypted exe, or to remove the encryption from an encrypted exe. Read the documentation!

Having said that, that doesn't mean that I like this program. It might be useful to some users, but I'm not paranoid!

First opff, this program has a simplistict interface. Again it does not use astandard encryption algorithm. And according to the help file, the latest version, yhis one, was released on June 23, 2006. Also there is no way to remove the Protect this file from the right-click context menu. I already have enough.

I'd suggest a freeware alternative that's like the swiss knife of Windows customization and has a feature that allows you to set up and executable and set it to Restrict applications users can run. I typed notepad.exe into the box, then chose the option to resrt Windows Explorer. Tried executing note and received the following message....This operation has been canceled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administror. You can downoad it here:
http://majorgeeks.com/RegToy_d4997.html

Be aware, this program is still in beta, but it is one of the most powerfull applications I have ever used.

p.s. Or have I misinterpreted what this software does????

This is actually quite a good idea if you have children and like to play adult themed games such as Call of Duty, Crysis, Fallout 3 and Farcry 2, all of which are definitely unsuitable for children. I don't always supervise my 9 year old boy, who I've occasionally caught playing one of the above or other unsuitable games that I have. Now I can lock them. :) I will tell him as I don't like to hide things from my children.

Thank you to the Giveaway team and Eltima Software for giving this away today.

p.s.

I think that some community members seem to think that this is an archiving software such as Winrar, Winzip, Stuffit or 7Zip, which it isn't

. This is definitely one of the rare programs (apart from screensavers) that I'll be downloading. Thumbs up from me.

================================================

Today’s free game has been posted over in the forums. It’s called Abuse, a cult platform shooter that includes an editor so those that really like the game can make as many levels as they wish once they have finished the main campaign.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4348#post-46679

================================================

Though I have close to 500 EXE. files/programs I can't think of one reason why I would want or need to encrypt them. If I was creating EXE."s for distribution then this could be a time saver though I would have to create a different password (Or use a generator along with it)for each program I released. I already use a great "File Locking" tool so I can protect data from un-authorized use, and it encrypts everything within that folder and sub folders.

It says you can copy the protected files to another computer no matter what operating system it runs, but wouldn't you need this program on the target machine in order to unlock the EXE. file? If not then to those who can use it go for it. Thanks GOTD for the offer.

Why is everybody blabbering about encryption. The main feature is password protection; encryption never mentioned. So this does not nescessarily mean encryption is used at all and no encryptiontype is to be mentioned in the description at all in that case.

What this app does is binding a small executable to the executable to be protected, that provides an interface for inputting a password, storing this password, checking this password and calling for the protected executable when the right password is supplied. NO encryption needed (though possible in theory).

You can compare this (not really, but in concept) by the wrapper GAotD uses to supply the original setup.exe file with a date-checker to check the giveaway-date.

This same technique of executable binding is one of the techniques viruswriters can use to get their virusexecutables started. This is possible also the reason the virusscanners protest, detecting this binding technique. Normal behaviour is when you start an executable, that is the only executable started (not talking about the executable starting another executable, a serial concept vs a parallel concept) Some virusscanners warn about the bindingtechnique but did not check for parallel startup (the serial concept is here the case). I don not think the software is infected. #13 already stated that this is a problem for virusscanners manytimes.

You can check this for yourself binding for instance notepad.exe and calc.exe (use copies !!) with http://www.file-joiner.com/

You can use this for instance to protect outlook.exe (of course their is already a password possible their, but just demonstrating the concept) to be started by anyone but yourself (or the onces that also have the password).

If this gets posted, sorry for long comment.

First of all, This software is for developers, it's not for average users.
If you write programs, this might be useful to you, however for ordinary users, this program is useless.

Second, protection offered by this software is weak: When protected .EXE is run and correct password is entered, it drops an unprotected file (with extension .UNPROTECTED) which it then runs. So if you leave the protected program running, anyone can copy unprotected file to restore original program. For more advanced protection, this program should load protected code as-is and decrypt it in-memory instead of dropping unprotected file (this is a lot harder to accomplish though). That wouldn't be a top-notch protection (such as using a virtual machine, this is what some commercial game protections do), but it is better than just dropping the unprotected file. But no protection is 100% secure anyway.

And finally, some antivirus programs might complain if executable is crypted/packed, because many virus authors like to use packed executables and many antivirus softwares (even some really good ones) might detect packed exes as viruses.
For example, I packed and scanned a harmless EXE in virustotal, I got result 17/37.

Thumbs up for usefulness and thumbs down for protection, so no rating from me.

But thanks anyway GAOTD, keep up the good work.

One question. WHY?
Why would you bother password protecting a .exe file? What kind of protection would it give you? Think about it.

Imagine that someone would have password protected an .exe on your computer. You would know for what program it is because why else would you be trying to access it. Even if you didn't know you would have no problem figuring it out because of the surrounding folder and such. If you know what program the .exe is from then you can easily enough copy the original .exe in question from a CD/DVD, install package, .zip or download it. After which you replace the password protected .exe by the none password protected. Et voilà.... problem fixed.

If someone can be stumped by a password protected .exe then chances are that they would be equally, or even more, stumped by changing the .exe to a .txt if you solely want to prevent certain people using certain programs.

If for any reason the .exe was a standalone and therefor a completely self contained program or was a self made .exe then one could just as well just have used the encryption that comes in any compression package.

In a business enviroment it would be a far better and safer solution in using decent encryption tools for folders or even partitions (the fantastic opensource Truecrypt comes to mind) and no self respecting IT person would propose using this .exe protected.

In a home enviroment this would only prevent the smallest of children , the very elderly (80+), the mentally challenged or those that have no real understanding of computers nor logic and hate solving puzzles of any sort.

Pros:
Cute idea for if you want to prevent your 2 year old to activate certain games, viewers or other programs

Cons:
There are better solutions around for free which will even prevent your 19 year old to get access.

Axcrypt does it the easier way. Right click the exe file and axcrypt it.

There is no right click option in this program and needs extra steps to accomplish the same

Interesting, but there are too many other safer ways to achieve the same goal, so I'll pass. Most of the apps I'd think of protecting are my own, so I could easily code in such functionality myself. No-need to block other exe's since there's nothing secret about them. Or I could just go into the GPO and temporarily block those apps from being run, and if I need to send them I'll just use an archival tool to protect them.

fre alternative
http://www.winguardpro.com/

There seems to be something very Horsey about this program!
I start with A perfectly good exe file but When I use "EXE Password Protector" to add A password, AVG pops up and warns me that my perfectly good exe file is now A "Trojan horse BackDoor.Generic8.PYO" What's up with that!? I guess there's No wander why "EXE Password Protector" has the home address of, http://www.mykeylogger.com/
Is anyone else getting Horsed arround with this Bull!? Like the wise man said,"if cowboys would have had TV's,the indians would have won the war" Sure enough, it would have been as simple as confusing A cow on astro turf!

Thanks for the software. For regular internet browsing I use either Opera or Chrome .. but, for banking, credit cards, and utility accounts, I use Firefox, which has memorized my account numbers & passwords. Now I can password protect Firefox. Thanks.

Installed and registered ok on Windows Vista HP. thought I'de encypt Mozilla Seamonkey to protect my emails. Encrypted OK, but AVG 8, thought Seamonkey was infected, and although I told it to "Ignore" Seamonkey refused to run. I disabled AVG, but whe I tried to run Seamonkey (also as Administrator), Vista claimed I didn't have permission.

When I tried to unprotect Seamonkey I couldn't load it into Exe Password Protector as again Vista claimed I didn't have the correct permission. I had to go to the Seamonkey folder and delete "Seamonkey.exe" and rename the backup file (Seamonkey.exe.backup.