HTML Guardian 7.7.3

The Internet is fast becoming the primary source, destination, and medium for intellectual property, raising the stakes for both cyber-thieves and content providers. Cyber-theft is an old problem, though, which is why ProtWare's HTML Guardian has been securing data since the late 1990s. It's a free security tool that can encrypt and protect your code and digital property, including HTML, Javascript, VBscript, and ASP code and applets, images, music, and more. HTML Guardian makes it nearly impossible to steal your intellectual property online.

HTML Guardian did a quick scan of our system as soon as we opened it. The main interface is a small dialog that's packed full of features and controls, yet an efficient, clean layout makes everything easy to handle. This tool is actually a suite of utilities that offer ultra-strong password protection; file, site, an image protection; file conversion; and more. Access to settings is provided through the file menu, a Settings button, and a series of icons controlling each setting's properties interface separately. A Filters button lets you configure a variety of options, such as excluding files above or below a preset size. It's easy to use, too. We started with password-protecting an HTML file. We clicked Settings/Encryption and made our selections, including enabling any browser as well as setting the password and the conditions under which it's accepted. We browsed to an HTML file, opened it, and clicked Encrypt, which took just seconds as displayed by a progress bar. We clicked Test, and the offline Web page opened blanked out in Firefox with a password entry dialog. We entered the password we'd just enabled, clicked OK, and the page loaded. The other tools are similarly easy, though some, such as the Scripting tool, will appeal to more advanced users.

As the developers note, HTML Guardian is the cyber-world's de facto standard for securing digital property rights, and not without reason; the platform has undergone constant refinement and updating, and it shows. Coders, Web page developers, writers, and anyone with digital property they'd like to protect ought to take a look at HTML Guardian.