Portable folder encryption software that doesn't require admin rights?

Question

I enjoy TrueCrypt a lot. It's fast and offers a decent amount of options, but it also requires you to have admin (super user) rights on the machine you use it on. I've experimented with DCU, Peazip and some others but they seem to work on a single file at a time.

Are there any portable tools that can open an encrypted folder once and give access to all the files in that folder without needing admin privileges?

Solution

FreeOTFE can be a solution for you

Highly portable - Not only does FreeOTFE offer "portable mode", eliminating the need for it to be installed before use, it also offers FreeOTFE Explorer - a system which allows FreeOTFE volumes to be accessed not only without installing any software, but also on PCs where no administrator rights are available. This makes it ideal for use (for example) with USB flash drives, and when visiting Internet Cafés (AKA Cybercafés), where PCs are available for use, but only as a "standard" user.

You may have a look at their two provided versions and read the comments about FreeOTFE

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Tip: If you are looking for portable software for a specific task, this is the best way:

• go to portablefreeware.com → search the relevant category → sort by popular first

Comments

[Thomas]

When you say "encrypted folder", do you mean an actual folder which only contains encrypted files, or do you mean a virtual folder, like a mounted encrypted archive which you could access transparently?

[Thomas]

This is kind of an off-topic question, as it's a product request. That said, because what you want usually requires a user-mode filesystem, I'm not sure you'll find a way to do so without admin privileges, at least not with the same flexibility. This could be migrated to SuperUser.. perhaps..

[CodesInChaos]

Which operating systems are you interested in? Windows?

[RandomPhobia]

Windows would be what im going for

[RandomPhobia]

After researching for a while it seems my question may be impossible thanks to some Windows kernel limitations, but thanks for the help.

[russellpierce]

@RandomPhobia is right. After you go through the installer (which requires admin rights) you then can create a portable version... which does not install the drivers on the host computer but does still require some admin rights to work.