Hide or Password Protect a Folder in Windows
The best way to ensure no one gain unauthorised access is Password protecting your files and folders in Windows. Windows doesn’t offer any reliable way to add password protection to your folders unfortunately. Though, we know some handy ways to password protect Windows folders. There are four ways to protect folders with password in Windows. In these, each of them is suitable for various situations.
Password Protect a Folder in Windows
1. Use a Built-in Encryption
Windows comes with a built-in encryption to protect a folder. It’s content from other users and content over shared network.
Note: Encryption is only available in Professional or Enterprise versions of Windows. If you’re using Home edition or Standard of Windows.
Right-tap on the folder you would like to encrypt a folder in Windows. Select “Properties” from the context menu. Tap on “Advanced” under the “General” tab.
Now check the checkbox next to “Encrypt contents to secure data” and tap on “OK”. When you will tap on “OK” again a prompt will show up. Confirm it and the folder will be encrypted.
The folder colour will turn “green” confirming that it has been encrypted. You can access this folder while you are logged in to your Windows account only now. Others users have to provide the password to access it.
If some will access your PC while you are logged in unfortunately. They’ll be able to access the folder.
2. Use a Password Protection Software
If you just need to protect your files and folders from family members or peekers and can live without encryption. Then a simple password protection software will work fine for you. These software may not be able to protect your data from professional hackers. But for quick and easy protection they are perfect.
Wise Folder Hider is a simple and free tool that can protect your files with two different folders. Launch the program by installing and you will be asked to create a password that you’ll need to provide to access your hidden files and folders.
Confirm to provide a strong password to ensure people don’t just guess it. In case you forget your password, contact the company with the Paypal transaction ID only works if you are premium users. They’ll recover the password for you. There’s no way to recover password for free users since the software needs no sign ups.
Note: The free version of Wise Folder Hider unfortunately is bloated with other less useful software such as SpyHunder etc. So while installing the software, confirm you carefully decline the bloatware.
You can use the buttons above to hide files, folders and even USB drive content. You’ll have to tap “Open” once hidden. Next to each item to make them accessible in Windows explorer. As soon as you close the Wise Folder Hider window. So the items will be hidden again.
You can tap on the upside down arrow next to an item and select “Set password” additionally to create a secondary password. Other people will have to provide the main password and the secondary password to open such files or folders.
Also confirm you unhide all the files and folder before uninstalling the Wise Folder hider or any folder hiding software or all your files will be lost.
3. Password Protect Windows Folder Using 7-Zip
Archiving tool 7-Zip is used for extracting compressed files. Did you know that it can protect your data with strong encryption password. If you don’t need to access a folder and its content frequently, then you can encrypt and compress it to make it impossible for others to access it without the password.
Right-tap on the folder and select “Add to archive” from the 7-Zip option once 7-Zip is installed.
Enter encryption password in the bottom right corner and then tap on “OK” to encrypt the folder in the compression settings. This creates a new compressed folder in the same location that can only be extracted using the password you created. The unprotected folder can be deleted. So that no one access it.
You’ll have to extract the folder every time you need to access its content unfortunately. It also delete the unprotected folder when you encrypt it again. Nevertheless, you also have the ability to send the encrypted folder to someone online and your data gets protected.
4. Encrypt Data Using an Encryption Software
The best way to protect your data is to encrypt it and protect it with a password. You’ll need to get help from a third-party encryption software for this purpose. There are many encryption software available. On concord most of them encrypts the whole drive content. You can create an encrypted drive where you can save all your sensitive data. VeraCrypt is a great tool that lets you create an encrypted drive in no time for this purpose.
VeraCrypt makes it a snap to create an encrypted volume where you can save your data after installed. Tap on “Create Volume” button in the main interface. Follow instructions provided by VeraCrypt to create an encrypted volume. Just you need to press “Next” on most windows and provide a size of the drive and the password you would like to use.
Tap on “Select File” button in the main interface after creating the encrypted volume. Select the volume you just created. Now tap on “Mount” and provide the password to mount the drive. The new encrypted drive next to your regular drives are visible and you can move content to it to encrypt it.
Note: The encrypted volume may not be accessible but it can still be deleted. So this won’t stop people from deleting the sensitive data.
Wrapping Up
Definitely, the Wise Folder Hider is the easiest way to protect a folder by using a password in Windows. Moreover, if you have sensitive data, then you must encrypt your data using VeraCrypt or 7-Zip.
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