How To Password Protect A Windows Folder

Once you prepare upward a Windows password, everything should be safe and secure, merely unfortunately that's not the instance. While a Windows login password offers a basic level of protection to continue your files safe from others who share your computer, risks still abound.

If your laptop is stolen, the thief can boot upwardly your computer from a removable device and access your files. Or, they tin can remove the hard disk drive, install it on another estimator, and proceeds access to all of your files and personal data.

Use encryption to password protect a folder or a file

The well-nigh straightforward way to encrypt your folders (and all the files in them) is to apply Windows' congenital-in binder encryption. Here's how to encrypt a file or binder in Windows eleven, 10, 8, or 7:

Navigate to the folder or file you want to encrypt.
Correct-click on the item, click Properties, so click Advanced.
Check Encrypt contents to secure data. Click OK, then click Employ.
Windows so asks if you want to encrypt simply the file or its parent binder and all the files inside that as well. Opt for full-folder encryption to be safe.
Then, when you navigate to the encrypted binder, yous'll see a small yellow lock on the file icon. When you add new content to that folder, it will automatically be encrypted equally well.

Windows file encryption protects your files confronting anyone who gets their hands on your calculator. The encryption is tied to your Windows account, and so when you lot're logged in, the operating organization automatically decrypts your files. If someone were to log in through another account, they wouldn't be able to access files that were encrypted under your username.

But since your files are attainable through your account, if someone gets unauthorized access to your computer while you're logged in, this encryption is useless. This is where a strong login password can proceed you safe.

Regular Windows encryption will accept you only and so far, because it's easy to go around it by gaining access to your user business relationship. If a cybercriminal manages to hack your account or obtain your countersign, they'll accept full access to your files.

Keep your data safety with Avast BreachGuard. If your passwords or other personal information are ever leaked online, BreachGuard will warn you ASAP. That mode, you lot can regain control of your accounts before anyone has the take a chance to log in with your credentials.

Use password protection software

Unlike Windows' own file encryption engineering, third-party password protection bars access to files and folders regardless of which user account is logged in. These tools offer more security than built-in Windows security features and are highly recommended for sensitive data.

Password protect folders in Windows ten and 11

Folder Lock is 1 content protection feature for Windows worth looking at. Binder Lock makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to put a password on a folder, and it can password protect and encrypt files and folders at blazing speeds. The software uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-chip keys to keep your data safe — the same level of encryption you'll find with many powerful VPNs, like Avast SecureLine VPN.

The Folder Lock file encryption program for Windows 10

Folder Lock uses a master password to control locked content. You can besides create a "Locker," a secured folder on the drive to house specified content. And you lot tin can assign a unique password and configure the maximum disk space for each Locker.

Folder Lock comes with a powerful file shredder and a deject-based backup solution as well. The demo is gratuitous, while the full-version is $39.95.

Password protect folders in Windows 7 & 8

My Lockbox is a lightweight utility with an like shooting fish in a barrel-to-use interface that works for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 — it'south likewise compatible with Windows ten and xi. After installation, the tool will ask you to prepare a location for your locked binder.

All locked folders will be hidden on your drive until you unlock them. My Lockbox is gratis and resource-low-cal, making it an platonic solution for older computers or operating systems.

Passwords are almost always the weakest link in a security concatenation. A password strength checker can be of great utilize here. Online resource like The Password Meter and my1login are good tools.

While strong countersign protection will be enough for most users, if you lot take sensitive data, and so more than avant-garde methods such as tertiary-party encryption tools tin can be used to safeguard data.

Utilise full encryption software to secure files and folders

Beyond regular countersign protection, you can likewise use disk-encryption software that offers more robust security. Full-encryption tools block even the most advanced cold-kick and brute-force attacks, which try to cleft passwords and encryption keys using different combinations.

vii-Aught

7-Nada is free, open source software that tin be used on any computer, and virtually whatsoever Windows system. It is essentially a file archiver that uses high pinch and strong AES-256 encryption.

Your files are compressed and encrypted, and so when y'all go to admission them, yous simply demand to decompress the file first. Yep, information technology's an extra step, but a small cost to pay for high security. To secure your data with 7-Zero, follow these steps:

Download the latest version of 7-Zip and install information technology.
In your Windows directory, select 7-Zip File Manager.
From the vii-Null control panel, select the file or folder you'd like to protect and click the Add together button.
Cull your compression options (see image below).
1. Enter the name for your encrypted file.
2. Nether the Encryption section, fix a potent password for encrypting and decrypting.
3. We recommend setting your compression level to Loftier and your compression method to AES-256.
4. Click OK.

Your file or binder is now compressed, encrypted, and protected. Decompressing is just as simple:

From the 7-Zip control panel, select the file or binder you'd like to open up.
Click the Extract push.
In the dialogue box, enter the password. Then click OK.
Your file or folder will decompress and open for you.

VeraCrypt

With back up for AES, Serpent, and TwoFish keys, VeraCrypt is a free, cross-platform information security tool that can encrypt files very finer. VeraCrypt comes with total disk encryption simply tin encrypt at the volume (folder) level too. Users can decide whether they want specific folders encrypted or entire systems.

VeraCrypt may seem intimidating, but it's actually quite unproblematic one time you become the hang of it. The software works similarly to the Daemon tools that tin can create a virtual CD bulldoze on your computer.

Download the setup file for Windows and install the software, and then follow these instructions:

To starting time, you need to create a volume, which is essentially an encrypted folder to house your data. Click on Create Volume.
Select Create an encrypted file container and click Side by side.

VeraCrypt lets you create a normal, visible container or an invisible one. For our example, we'll choose Standard VeraCrypt volume, but select whichever pick is best for you.
Click Select File and navigate to where you want to store your encrypted container. Click Side by side.
Now cull your preferred encryption method. We recommend AES-256, some of the strongest encryption used today. Then click Adjacent.
Note how much space you lot want the encrypted folder to have. 10 MB should be enough, but if you lot accept multimedia files, you may demand more space.
Finally, enter the countersign you desire to use for your volume (folder) and click Next. Make sure your password is strong.

VeraCrypt is now fix to create your container. Remarkably, the tool can use random mouse movements to create your encryption primal and encrypt the folder. Motility your mouse around a lot because that makes the encryption key stronger — do this until the bar at the bottom reaches the stop. And so click Format.

Using random mouse movements to create an encryption key in VeraCrypt for Windows

Your first encrypted volume should now be sitting in its designated folder.

To add together files or folders to your encrypted container, follow these steps:

To mount your volume, cull a drive number from whatever i of the drives available on the VeraCrypt dwelling house screen.
Click on whatever of the messages in your highlighted book name, click Select File, and navigate to the folder where you saved your encrypted container.
Click Open to select the volume.
Next, click Mount to mount the volume to the selected drive. Enter your password and click OK. Your container is ready.

Double-click the mounted drive to open another window of the container. You should besides come across the container in This PC along with your other drives.

A mounted encrypted drive in VeraCrypt for Windows

At present, copy the content to your new encrypted "drive," click dismount to shut the binder, and encrypt it again.

The difference between password protection and encryption

Password protection is like locking something in a safe, like a highly sensitive document. Encryption is like rearranging all the letters in a document and so that they can only be placed back in the right gild if yous have a special decoder key.

With password protection, knowing the countersign is literally the cardinal. That'due south why countersign protection is sometimes referred to as a form of knowledge-based hallmark. Once you know how to password protect a folder, anyone who wants to access it must know the password equally well.

If you need a physical cardinal, similar an actual key or a special USB drive, to access a secret document, this would be a form of possession-based hallmark. If the key were your fingerprint or face, you lot would be using inherence-based authentication, because yous're using something that is inherent to you lot and you lot lonely. These factors are important in 2-factor authentication.

Encryption scrambles a document's data so that it looks like a wall of random characters. To access the certificate, yous need to have a decryption cardinal. Unencrypted documents are stored normally in plaintext, and anyone can read them.

In the case of file and binder encryption in Windows, the "key" means beingness logged in to your account every bit the right user. Fifty-fifty on the same computer, documents encrypted by one user are unreadable on another user account.

Password encryption is a third pick that combines password protection and encryption. If someone has the correct password to unlock the file or folder, they still won't be able to read information technology if they're not logged in equally the authorized user.

Differences between files that are password protected, encrypted, and password encrypted.

Why password protect files?

You should countersign protect files because if you share your estimator with others, someone might accidentally delete or change an important file, or even share a individual binder. You might fifty-fifty make the critical error yourself, accidentally sending sensitive information to the incorrect person.

Sharing a computer is not a problem if you lot add together a password to your most sensitive files. Entering a countersign every fourth dimension yous admission that file may wearisome you lot downwards a chip, simply the added security is worth it.

Always employ strong passwords. Avast'due south free random countersign generator will instantly create a unique and hard-to-crack password whenever you demand one.

And you tin always apply Windows to encrypt an unabridged folder, as described in a higher place. Knowing how to countersign protect a folder and how to encrypt your files is key to making sure your content is locked up tight.

Managing files and passwords

Now that you lot know how to countersign protect and encrypt your files and folders in Windows, all that's left is keeping your passwords safety and following skilful security practices.

Back up your data

Consider what might happen if you lost your principal password, if your encryption software got corrupted, or if the files themselves got lost. Backing upwards your data regularly and using a password managing director can help ensure that never happens. You can even clone your entire difficult drive to an external storage device.

Some of the tools mentioned to a higher place, like Folder Lock, come with their own cloud-based data backup solutions. But you can apply Microsoft's OneDrive or the free Google Drive too.

Create strong passwords

The biggest challenge with potent passwords is remembering them. But you're setting yourself up for potential information theft if you create 1 password to employ across all of your accounts. The common alternative — creating elementary, like shooting fish in a barrel to remember passwords — is merely every bit bad.

Weak and common passwords are easy to hack using programs that cycle through different key combinations at unfathomable speed. These password keen techniques are highly advanced. In 2012, hackers created a figurer cluster that guesses passwords at a rate of 350 billion per second — and things have but evolved since then.

That's why long, unique, and difficult-to-gauge passwords are ane of the best ways to protect your files and devices against hackers.

Keep your new passwords safe and secure

Now that you've encrypted your files with unique and difficult-to-approximate passwords, protect all your passwords and accounts with Avast BreachGuard. With 24/7 dark web monitoring, BreachGuard volition alert you if your passwords or other personal information are ever leaked, helping you to answer ASAP and stay ahead of anyone looking to compromise your accounts.