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Step 1
Camouflage offers an alternate method to datastreams for hiding files in a secure, hard-to-detect manner. There are both pros and cons to using camouflage and datastreams to hide your information. This article will mention some of those pros and cons in the steps below. If you are interested in learning more about hiding files with datastreams, refer to the eHow article "How to Hide Files in Windows Using Datastreams," found in the related articles links to the right or under the "Resources" section below.
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Step 2
To begin, obtain Camouflage from the link in the "Resources" section below. Extract and install it to your computer.
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Step 3
When installed, Camouflage will simply add two new items to your Windows Explorer context menus. Locate the files you want to hide and right click on them. In the menu that appears, select "Camouflage."
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Step 4
A new window will appear, displaying the files you chose to hide. Confirm your selection, then click on the "Next" button.
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Step 5
The next window will ask you to locate a container file to store the hidden files. Click on the "..." button to select a file on your hard drive. You can select any type of file as a container to hide other files. However, avoid system and program files, as altering these types of files could affect your computer's performance.
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Step 6
Unlike files hidden in datastreams, files hidden with Camouflage will affect the filesize of the container file. For example, if you camouflage ten image files inside a document file, that document is going to look suspiciously large. It is unlikely that a user will be able to retrieve the files you've hidden without knowledge of and access to the Camouflage program, but to be on the safe side, you'll probably want to choose a container file with an already large file size, so people don't recognize that you have hidden files in the first place. Video files work well for this purpose.
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Step 7
Once you've chosen a container file, Camouflage will make a copy of this file (using a name that you provide) and place the files you want to hide inside of it. (It's a good idea to leave the "read only" box in this step checked. Otherwise, another program could try to edit your new container in the future, causing a loss of the hidden files inside.)
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Step 8
Finally, you can select a password to encrypt the hidden files. This password will be required when you want to Uncamouflage the hidden files from the container file.
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Step 9
So, if you started out with "image.jpg," and chose to hide it in the container file "movie.avi," Camouflage will create a new file, called "movie2.avi," and put "image.jpg" inside of it.
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Step 10
And now, "movie2.avi" will look and act just like "movie.avi" did. No one will know that it contains a hidden file. (If you want to, you can now delete the original files, "movie.avi" and "image.jpg.")
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Step 11
But, if you right click on "movie2.avi" and select the "Uncamouflage" menu option, you'll see that "image.jpg" still exists inside.
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Step 12
Just like files hidden in datastreams, it's going to be fairly tedious to access files that you've hidden with Camouflage. So, you may only want to use this method of hiding files for secret documents that don't need frequent editing, or you may want to hide files immediately before a backup, simply so they don't show up in the backup media contents.
