Password Protect Folders in Windows

Password protecting folders in Windows has always be a dubious task, as there was never a exact way to do it, but several work arounds to accomplish the chore. Windows should have a built-in program specifically for encrypting and password protecting files and folders. until that happens, the best way to give your files some degree of privacy is to save them in a compressed folder and password-protect the compressed folder. Seems like a lot of extra work, but it's actually pretty straight-forward.

First Create a Compressed Folder. Right-click on the desktop and select New-Compressed (Zipped) Folder. You can put this folder anywhere you want and name it whatever want. You will then need to put the documents, pictures or other files you want into the folder and then open the compressed folder. In the file menu, select File > Add a Password. Once you add the password, close the folder and open it again. You can clearly see the files that are there but will need to enter the password to open them. So be careful what you're naming these files, as the filename will still be visible.

Lastly, you may need to remove the password and add a new password each time you add a new document, so this technique is best for long-term password protection of files rather than everyday use.



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