How to Protect Files With Cryptography in Windows

How do I Protect my files and folders in Windows?

Because most versions of Windows don't embrace a way of password protective your files and folders, this page provides steps on encrypting files and folders instead. To password shield your files and folders in Windows, you would like to use a third-party program.

Tip: Before password protective any document, you will need to make a backup of the non-password protected files and folder just in case you forget the password in the future.

Microsoft Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10 users

Unfortunately, Windows vista, Windows 7,  Windows 8 and windows 10 don't offer any options for password protective files or folders. you would like to use a third-party software package program to accomplish this.

If you would like to encode a file or folder, this may be done by following these steps:

1. choose the file or folder you would like to encode.

2. Right-click the file or folder and choose Properties.

3. On the general tab, click the Advanced button.

4. Check the box for the "Encrypt contents to secure data" choice.

5. Click Apply then OK.

Note: If the "Encrypt contents to secure data" choice isn't selectable and greyed out otherwise you don't see the choice in any respect, you have got a version of Windows that doesn't support this feature. it's additionally possible that the disc drive wherever the files are placed isn't formatted as NTFS, as this is often a demand for the secret writing feature.

Microsoft Windows XP Professional users

The steps below for encrypting the files on Windows XP professional apply to users who are using a laptop that has 2 or a lot of accounts. If you're using a single account, see the opposite security solutions section.

1. choose the file or folder you would like to encode.

2. Right-click the file or folder and click on Properties.

3. On the general tab, click the Advanced button.

4. Check "Encrypt contents to secure data" choice.

5. Click Apply then OK.

Note: you may not be prompted to enter a password once encrypting a folder in Windows XP professional. However, different user accounts on your PC won't have access to files contained within the encrypted folder.Encrypt contents to secure information is dulled out.

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Microsoft Windows XP Home users

1.  choose the file or folder you would like to encode.
2.  Right-click the file or folder and click on Properties.
3.  Click the Sharing tab.
4.  Check the box make this folder private
5.  Click Apply then OK.

Note: Make this folder non-public is greyed out

For this feature to figure on Microsoft Windows XP Home edition, you need to meet the below necessities

1. The disk drive should be formatted in NTFS and not FAT32 file system.

2. The folder you're trying to encode is your own personal folder. as an example, if your name is Bob, you need to be encrypting the subsequent folder or a folder that's contained within the subsequent folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\Bob\

Note: You cannot encode any folders outside of this folder.

Other security solutions for protecting your files and folders in Windows

• File and folders not ofttimes used - a straightforward way to password shield files is to form an archive of the files using a compression tool. once the archive is formed, you'll encode the contents by specifying a password.
• Windows me and Windows XP users - Windows me and Windows XP go together with their own compression utility. This utility may also be used to compress and password defends files.
• Windows vista and Windows 7 users - Windows vista and Windows 7 conjointly include a compression utility. However, password protection for the compressed files isn't potential without the utilization of a third-party software system program.

Tip: once a file is compressed, users will still view a list of the files within the compressed file. If you would like each your file names and also the contents to be hidden, move all the files into one folder and password protect that folder.

Things to remember when encrypting or password protecting files and folders

1. There is no such thing as a 100% protected file. There are numerous tools, utilities, and instructions for how to break encryption and passwords on files. However, the protection methods listed above will protect your files from the majority of users who may encounter them. If you are working with really sensitive data, we suggest a commercial product for protecting your files and data.
2. Even though a file or folder may be password protected, it still can be deleted (unless the program supports the ability to protect files from being deleted). Always remember to backup all your files, even those protected by passwords.
3. If you forget the password, unless you're willing to spend the time attempting to break it or pay someone else to break the password, all the data in the file or folder will be lost. Thus, it is important to backup a copy of the non-password protected files or folders, just in case.