Your home computer can be the place to which all family members have access at any given moment. In case you completely rely on it, chances are you also want personal files to be kept away from others. In this regard, SafeHouse Personal Edition lets you create virtual storage volumes where you can keep practically any file and folder safe and hidden.

Once the application is launched, you need to go through the steps needed to create your first virtual volume. This requires little effort, with options first requesting a master password you need to remember, as well as volume specific attributes like size, and whether or not it can be adjusted later on.

The volume is saved to a custom location on your computer, but can’t actually be accessed without the password. When accessed, your computer recognizes it as a fixed or removable drive, which is found in My Computer as long as its active. It behaves like a generic folder, so you can manage files freely.

A new icon is created in the tray area, with the possibility to manage general options from there. It’s also the place you can use to open and close your virtual drives. The first volume you create is used as a primary volume, with dedicated controls to easily open and close it.

Accessing the application’s options menu gives you the possibility to change the password, create other volumes, and edit primary volume settings. A custom drive letter can be picked, and you can even configure the application to ask whether or not to open the primary volume at every Windows startup.

If all drives are closed, you can choose to adjust space, if you consider more is necessary. Description and other related options are also found in the tools section, as well as a volume activity monitor to restrict access after custom periods of inactivity.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that SafeHouse Personal Edition is a reliable application you can use to create one or more virtual drives in which you can store files and folders like in an ordinary directory, but automatically hiding and locking itself when closed. It’s easy to use by individuals of all levels of experience, and comes in handy especially for home computers.