Password Protect a Folder: Nowadays, in the age of the Internet, computer or technology, everyone pays attention to their privacy and security. So in such a situation, it becomes mandatory to put a password in your computer and laptop folder. You also know how important it is to protect or encrypt it by setting a password in the folder and file of a computer or laptop. I do not need to tell you the benefit of it.
So today, in this article, we will know how you can set folder passwords on a computer or laptop. With which you can lock or encrypt any personal folder. There are mainly two methods useful for locking folders, first by using the By Default feature given in Windows and second using third party software, they are explained in detail below.
How to Password Protect a Folder in Windows 11/10
There are many ways to lock a folder on a laptop. For example, one way is that you can close using the By Default feature given in Windows called Encrypt file. First of all right click on the folder file, you want to encrypt. Then click on Advance, tick Encrypt Content to Secure Data, and click Apply.
Later you are asked to take a Security Key Backup for that folder. Then you can back it up in USB / Flash Drive. But it is not available for all versions. If this feature is not provided in your Windows version, then for this, you can do it another way by using third-party software or tools to lock the folder.
Note that while encrypting files and folders in Windows, only essential files or folders are encrypted because only the correct password or decryption key can recover the data. Otherwise, Your data may be lost.
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Third-party free tools provide the facility to lock, hide and encrypt your files & folders. I have given below the names of some good software or tools. You can watch them once. Out of them, WinRAR is a good tool installed on almost everyone’s computer. So let us now know how to use WinRAR to set folder passwords on the computer. For this, you follow all the steps given below.
1. First of all, download and install WinRAR. If you have already installed it, then good.
2. Now open File Explorer or File Manager.
3. Then right-click on the folder where you want to put the password.
4. The option of Add to Archive will appear in front of you. Click on it.
5. Now, you click on Set Password. You can see this in the photo below.
6. Now, you enter the password and then click on Ok.
7. After entering the password, your folder gets compressed and converted into a Zip file. Every time to open this zip, it asks for the password, and it begins entering the correct password.
8. Note that delete the old folder after the new Zip file is created. Because he is no longer needed.
Benefits of Password Protect on a Folder:
We need to lock any folder or file. Because our laptop contains some essential documents which we do not want to share with others, in such a situation, if we’re going to share that folder with others in the future or if we’re going to send it, then we can send it by putting a password in it. So that our valuable documents are safe and the one who does not know the password cannot open it.
There are many benefits to locking or encrypting a folder or file:
- It prevents essential documents from falling into the wrong hands.
- We can only see our data like images, videos, documents, etc. if we know Protected Folders’ password.
- If you want to share any folders with another person, you can send them by telling them the password.
- Even if our computer is stolen or hacked, our data folders remain safe.
- Apart from all these, there can be many benefits as well.
List Of The Top Folder Lock Software
You get a lot of software or tools on the Internet, but you have to pay money to use the best of them. It is difficult to find good tools for free, yet below I have named five suitable means for you, using which we can put a password in the folder of our computer and laptop, it is straightforward and does not pay any money for it.
- WinRAR
- A Free Folder Locker
- SecretFolder
- IObit
- Protect Folder
FAQ:
1. How to Encrypt Files or Folders Using WinRAR?
For this, you first right-click on the folder, click on Add to Archive, and set the password by clicking on Set New Password and then click on Ok. This locks the folder.
2. What is the main difference between Folder Lock and Encrypt?
Folder Lock means that you can secure a particular folder by putting a password in it. If someone does not know the password, he cannot open it. At the same time, Encrypt means that to secure personal data, it has to be converted into a mathematical language, i.e. another language. Due to which the folder is opened but remains readable and not writable. Therefore, to decrypt it back-writable, i.e. unique password or the key has to be used, which we keep at the encryption time.
3. What is EFS? Tell it’s complete form.
This is a tool to encrypt files or folders already available from Windows. The complete form of EFS is Encrypting File System.
4. How to encrypt a file or folder with the help of EFS?
For this, first of all, right-click on the folder file you want to encrypt. Then click on Advance, tick Encrypt Content to Secure Data, and click on Apply. You can back up the file later. So in this way, your data gets encrypted.
5. What is meant by File Encrypt?
If you encrypt files and folders in Windows, your data is unreadable by others. Only someone with the correct password or decryption key can make the data readable again.
6. What are the essential things to keep in mind before Encrypting a File?
Before encrypting the file:
Decide that the most important folder to you, where you keep personal data, only needs to be encrypted.
Do not encrypt other folders that are not very important to you.
Note that Encrypt correctly, Encrypting incorrectly can not recover your data back.
7. In which version of Windows the feature of Encrypt is available?
Currently only available in Professional, Enterprise, and Education Edition versions of Windows.
8. What is BitLocker in Windows?
BitLocker is also a tool to encrypt from the Windows side like EFS, but it does not encrypt any particular file or folder and encrypts the drive, i.e. it encrypts C Drive, E Drive, or G Drive, etc. Learn more about BitLocker
Conclusion
In this article, know how to lock any folder on a computer or laptop. There are two main methods useful for this: the first way is by using the By Default feature provided in Windows, and the second way by using third-party software. We get a lot of limitations in using the By Default feature, and it is not that easy either.
So to meet such shortcomings, we have to use third-party software or tools. In this article, I have told you about a third-party free tool named WinRAR, how you can use it on a computer or laptop. You can lock any folder. I hope you learned something new from this article—comment for any doubt. We will reply to you.
