If you want to prevent undesirable people from accessing your files or folders, this may be very necessary, either because it contains very important or very sensitive information that you don’t want anyone else to see, or because you want to protect a personal or confidential document. Privacy is always going to be a good reason to keep our computers and what we have on it safe. If you are the only one using the computer, you will have no problem activating this, but if it is shared, you may find this option necessary.
Windows allows its users the power of income, in order to keep the data safe, so that only those who have the access keys can observe and even edit what is being protected. Keep in mind placing a key that is difficult to guess, try to make it one that contains alphanumeric data and signs, so you will be able to create an optimized and secure effect. Remember to keep it in a safe place in case you need to look for it.
In this tutorial we are going to explain step by step how you can put a password on a file or folder in Windows in order to be sure that the information you have stored will not fall into the wrong hands. There are different alternatives that can be applied for these cases, but you can use the one that seems best to you, just pay attention to the procedures you have to perform.
Steps to protect a folder or file with a password on Windows 10, 8 and 7 computers
There are different steps or methods that can be used in all versions of Windows, In this case, information about Windows 7 will be available up to its latest current version Windows 10. Some processes are directly from the functionalities that the operating system has for you, others will depend on the use of third-party programs.
Each of them will work, just keep in mind to use the ones that best suit your needs and the one that is most useful to you when encrypting your files by keys, since every time you want to protect them, you must do them from scratch.
In Windows 10
exist different native windows methods that can be used to protect your files or folders, we will explain the steps from the simplest to the most complex. These can be applied to different versions, so pay close attention to each of them so that you can run them smoothly.
Encrypt files from property set
You can prevent access to your confidential files by creating a login password, You can do this in a simple way without the need for programs or other applications outside the OS.
To do this you just have to do the following:
- Locate the file or folder that you want to password protect.
- Beam right click about him. Choose the option “Properties”.
- in the tab “General” you are going to locate the section “Attributes”, there you go click on “Advanced”.
- A small window will open, in them you will choose the option “Encrypt content to protect data” and press “To accept”.
- You will return to the window “General”in this part you will click on “Apply”.
- At the moment of clicking, a new confirmation window will open, in it you will indicate if you want to make the encryption of only the file or the folder where it is located. This option is variable, if you only want to encrypt a file you will choose “Encrypt file only”, In case you are going to do it with a folder, you will choose “Encrypt the file and its parent folder (recommended)”. then press “To accept”.
In this way, your files will be protected. Please note that such encryption will be linked to your user account. If, for example, you have a computer which has different users, people with other identifications will not be able to enter. It should be noted that the login passwords will be the same ones you use to log in to your computer.
The only fault that this procedure can have It is that without a person gaining access to your user account, they will be able to enter these.
encrypt using commands
You can encrypt your folders by using a series of commands in Windows, it is very useful and safe compared to the previous case, because You can create a password that will always ask you when accessing the folder. It may be a bit difficult to complete the steps at first, but with practice you should get it right.
The first thing you have to do is the following:
- enter the folder that you want to protect
- Right click and place the cursor on the option “New”, you are going to choose “Text document”.
- Now you will open the new file That has been created.
- in the you go add the following information which will serve as folder protection:
Note that the code snippet if NOT %pass%==1234 go to FAIL, It is the password that we have established, you can change the number (1234) for anything you want to be your login password.
- You will proceed to save the file, for this click on the “File” button, then you will click on “Save”. There you will select the option “All the files”. In the section that says “Guy”, you will put the name of the file followed by the extension .bat:
- Once the .bat file is created You will open it by clicking on it and you will see that a new folder has been created with a name, which will depend on the one you have given to the text document.
- In the new folder you will be able to save all the files that you want to be protected. Once they are all saved, you will run the .bat file.
- You will see that a window opens with the command prompt, in it you will get a message which will tell you “Are you sure you want to lock the folder (Y/N)” you are going to press the key “Y”.
- Immediately this will be hidden.
- To unlock it, you just have to rerun the .bat file and place the key you have established.
For Windows 8
Protect your files in Windows 8, you can apply exactly the same specifications that we have previously explained, because they are existing functionalities in the operating system and they will work without any problem in this version.
In Windows 7
windows 7 Like its later versions 8 and 10, it allows its users to encrypt the files through commands or by configuring the privacy of the folders or files. In order to maintain a high level of security for all the documents that the user wants. You just have to perform the steps that we have previously indicated so that you can achieve this task.
Is it possible to put a password on a folder and hide it without using programs?
In fact if possible, you just have to perform several steps and pay close attention to details. Previously you have seen two methods that you can use for without using programs.
But The one you should implement is the second method that we have explained in this guide, it even allows you to hide the folder where you will save your files. To gain access to it and even be able to view it, you have to enter the key you created to protect the file.
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