diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 67ca46c..9c570c7 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,5 +1,18 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Changes 4/24/2025
+
+- Enhance README and wiki with expanded installation instructions
+- Adjusted Dockerfile’s Apache vhost to:
+  - Alias `/uploads/` to `/var/www/uploads/` with PHP engine disabled and directory indexes off  
+  - Disable HTTP TRACE and tune keep-alive (On, max 100 requests, 5s timeout) and server Timeout (60s)  
+  - Add security headers (`X-Frame-Options`, `X-Content-Type-Options`, `X-XSS-Protection`, `Referrer-Policy`)  
+  - Enable `mod_deflate` compression for HTML, plain text, CSS, JS and JSON  
+  - Configure `mod_expires` caching for images (1 month), CSS (1 week) and JS (3 hour)  
+  - Deny access to hidden files (dot-files)
+- Add access control in public/.htaccess for api.html & openapi.json; update Nginx example in wiki
+- Remove obsolete folders from repo root
+
 ## Changes 4/23/2025 1.2.4
 
 **AuthModel**  
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 94c9ff3..07dbf20 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -62,19 +62,64 @@ RUN chown -R root:www-data /var/www && \
 # Apache site configuration
 RUN cat <<'EOF' > /etc/apache2/sites-available/000-default.conf
 <VirtualHost *:80>
+    # Global settings
+    TraceEnable off
+    KeepAlive On
+    MaxKeepAliveRequests 100
+    KeepAliveTimeout 5
+    Timeout 60
+
     ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
     DocumentRoot /var/www/public
+
+    # Security headers for all responses
+    <IfModule mod_headers.c>
+      Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
+      Header always set X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff"
+      Header always set X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block"
+      Header always set Referrer-Policy "strict-origin-when-cross-origin"
+    </IfModule>
+
+    # Compression
+    <IfModule mod_deflate.c>
+      AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/plain text/css application/javascript application/json
+    </IfModule>
+
+    # Cache static assets
+    <IfModule mod_expires.c>
+      ExpiresActive on
+      ExpiresByType image/jpeg      "access plus 1 month"
+      ExpiresByType image/png       "access plus 1 month"
+      ExpiresByType text/css        "access plus 1 week"
+      ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 3 hour"
+    </IfModule>
+
+    # Protect uploads directory
     Alias /uploads/ /var/www/uploads/
     <Directory "/var/www/uploads/">
         Options -Indexes
         AllowOverride None
+        <IfModule mod_php7.c>
+           php_flag engine off
+        </IfModule>
+        <IfModule mod_php.c>
+           php_flag engine off
+        </IfModule>
         Require all granted
     </Directory>
+
+    # Public directory
     <Directory "/var/www/public">
         AllowOverride All
         Require all granted
-        DirectoryIndex index.html
+        DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
     </Directory>
+
+    # Deny access to hidden files
+    <FilesMatch "^\.">
+      Require all denied
+    </FilesMatch>
+
     ErrorLog /var/www/metadata/log/error.log
     CustomLog /var/www/metadata/log/access.log combined
 </VirtualHost>
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c1e9421..89d42c6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # FileRise
 
 **Elevate your File Management** – A modern, self-hosted web file manager.
-Upload, organize, and share files through a sleek web interface. **FileRise** is lightweight yet powerful: think of it as your personal cloud drive that you control. With drag-and-drop uploads, in-browser editing, secure user logins (with SSO and 2FA support), and one-click sharing, **FileRise** makes file management on your server a breeze.
+Upload, organize, and share files or folders through a sleek web interface. **FileRise** is lightweight yet powerful: think of it as your personal cloud drive that you control. With drag-and-drop uploads, in-browser editing, secure user logins (with SSO and 2FA support), and one-click sharing, **FileRise** makes file management on your server a breeze.
 
 **4/3/2025 Video demo:**
 
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ If you prefer to run FileRise on a traditional web server (LAMP stack or similar
 git clone https://github.com/error311/FileRise.git  
 ```
 
-Place the files into your web server’s directory (e.g., `/var/www/html/filerise`). It can be in a subfolder (just adjust the `BASE_URL` in config as below).
+Place the files into your web server’s directory (e.g., `/var/www/public`). It can be in a subfolder (just adjust the `BASE_URL` in config as below).
 
 - **Composer Dependencies:** If you plan to use OIDC (SSO login), install Composer and run `composer install` in the FileRise directory. (This pulls in a couple of PHP libraries like jumbojett/openid-connect for OAuth support.)
 
diff --git a/public/.htaccess b/public/.htaccess
index dd58d5e..41825cb 100644
--- a/public/.htaccess
+++ b/public/.htaccess
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ DirectoryIndex index.html
   Require all denied
 </FilesMatch>
 
+<FilesMatch "^(api\.html|openapi\.json)$">
+  Require valid-user
+</FilesMatch>
+
 # -----------------------------
 # Enforce HTTPS (optional)
 # -----------------------------
diff --git a/uploads/.gitkeep b/uploads/.gitkeep
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29..0000000
diff --git a/uploads/.htaccess b/uploads/.htaccess
deleted file mode 100644
index 651f7db..0000000
--- a/uploads/.htaccess
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,7 +0,0 @@
-<IfModule mod_php7.c>
-   php_flag engine off
- </IfModule>
- <IfModule mod_php.c>
-   php_flag engine off
- </IfModule>
- Options -Indexes
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/users/.gitkeep b/users/.gitkeep
deleted file mode 100644
index e69de29..0000000
diff --git a/users/.htaccess b/users/.htaccess
deleted file mode 100644
index b94f347..0000000
--- a/users/.htaccess
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-<Files "users.txt">
-     Require all denied
- </Files>
\ No newline at end of file