Protected directories (not for virtual servers)

So I know how to protect a directory using the interface for a virtual server (very nice feature, BTW). What I want to know is if I can and how if so, can I protect a directory that’s not a virtual server. For instance, my server responds to http requests out of the /var/www/html directory (as opposed to the virtual sites which respond from /home/sitename/public_html), I’d like to load some non-site-specific server tools there and use the interface to allow users from multiple domains to have access to those tools.

I tried pointing to …/…/…/var/www/html/newdirectory/ under a virtual and it (thankfully) won’t allow me to do that. So other than hand creating and maintaining .htaccess files, is there a way to accomplish this through the interface?

Yes, you can. Just do it with Webmin->Others->protectedDirectories …