How to make a folder non-readable in Java?

Question

I am trying to create a folder structure as Test1/gotcha/Test3 I want to make Test1 non-reable. The below code does not work:

new File("D:\\Test1\\gotcha\\Test3").mkdirs();
PrintWriter writer= new PrintWriter("D:\\Test1\\gotcha\\Test3\\testing.txt");
writer.write("Hello");
writer.close();

File f1= new File("D:\\Test1");
f1.setReadable(false,false);
f1.setExecutable(false,false);

I am still able to open the Test1 folder. Any suggestions on how I can fix this?

Answer 1

It is not possible to make folders non-readable in Windows, that is why setReadable() in windows does not work.

Answer 2

That cannot be done.

One way around is to change the file extension of files in that folder to a random name, so that even though the user tries to open it he cannot find an application to do it.

Even though he figures out that it can be opened with a text editor, We will encrypt it. So it becomes non-readable.

This was just a key-substitution cipher. You can use a more complex algorithm like SHA or AES to make it impossible to break.

import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;

public class Demo 
{
    public static void main( String[] args )throws IOException
    {   
        File file = new File("C://temp//Hello1.sddf");// a random extension.
        // creates the file
        file.createNewFile();
        // creates a FileWriter Object
        FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(file); 
        String data = "Hello world!";//hello world is the data.
        // Writes the content to the file
        writer.write(encrypt(data)); 
        writer.flush();
        writer.close();
    }

    private static String encrypt(String data) {// I used a simple cipher I advise to use any other encryption technique.
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        String op = "";
        for(int i = 0; i < data.length(); i++)
            op += (char)(data.charAt(i) - 5);
        return op;
    }
}