Your password-protected files may not be as private as you think. Getting around the password protection in such programs as Microsoft Office and Quicken is often as simple as point, click, and crack. Luckily, if you want to make certain that your files are really private, there are some apps that can give them Fort Knox-like protection.

The Web is rife with tools like ElcomSoft's Advanced Office Password Recovery Professional Edition ($199), which can puzzle out the passwords used by Microsoft Office apps (versions 97 through XP), passwords for Microsoft Money 2002 through 2005, and a few other types. The program first tries to open the file using a list of typical passwords; failing that, it attempts to figure out the passwords through brute force, testing every possible combination of numbers, letters, and special characters until it finds the right one (read a review that focuses on AOPR's Microsoft Office version).

ElcomSoft's other password recovery tools (for other programs), range in price from $30 to $120. And a Web service called PasswordNow.com can hack passwords for Office files within 36 hours.

Of course, each of these companies aims its products at people who have forgotten their passwords. But the programs can also be of service to someone whose intentions aren't so benign.

Think your PC itself is protected because you use a log-in password? Think again. ERD Commander 2005 from Winternals Software ($149) can't figure out your log-in password, but it does permit an intruder to change the password to something else, effectively bypassing the protection.

You've probably been told that the Recycle Bin isn't a safe way to permanently delete files. Here's why: ERD Commander's FileRestore utility (among many others) can undelete documents.

Okay, so you can't trust your Windows or Office password to protect the privacy of your files, and you can't count on the Recycle Bin. But file encryption and file deletion tools can help.

One such product, Steganos's Security Suite 7 ($60), can protect files as well as delete them so that they're unrecoverable. File Shredder, another tool in the suite, permanently removes files by writing multiple sets of zeroes over the spots on the hard drive where the files were stored.

You can also find free tools that do many of the same things, but they involve a few trade-offs. Though PGP Freeware can encrypt files and folders, it has a difficult learning curve; Eraser can delete files or folders with one click, but it runs more slowly than Steganos's tool.

Andrew Brandt is a senior associate editor for PC World. You can send him e-mail at consumerwatch@pcworld.com.