How to put a password to a folder to prevent unauthorized access

Posted On: April 8, 2019
Posted By: Jhonney
Comments: 0

The security in our equipment is very important and that is why you must learn how to put a password to a folder. It will help you to prevent unauthorized persons from viewing your files. Obviously, the goal and the main reason to learn how to put a password to a folder is to protect its content and we must not forget that we live in a fully connected information society, so that our equipment and devices remain for a long time connected and when they do, they are available to users remotely. It will be helpful as long as they can overcome the different elements of protection of our operating system and all the content.

In the same way, access is not only carried out remotely but someone who has direct access to our equipment or device will be able to start it and search the content in which they are interested.

For that reason, being able to put a password to a folder will allow us to improve our security, avoiding in this way that, if someone accesses our device, either remotely or directly through the keyboard, we can prevent it from entering to those places where we store important information.

Alternatives to put a password to a folder

There are different alternatives through which we will be able to add a password to a folder and for this, we have access to different tools that are going to help us to prevent third parties from accessing their content without our consent.

Put password to a folder with WinRAR

One of the tools with which we can easily learn how to put a password to a folder is WinRAR.

The best of all is that it is a program that we have the possibility to download completely free from the official WinRAR website.

While we do not need to use advanced options, we have the tool at our disposal without having to pay a single cent, and besides adding passwords, we also have the possibility to compress and decompress files, so it is useful from different perspectives.

To put a password to the content that we want to protect, the only thing we have to do is the following:

Select the file (s) and folders that we want to protect with a password.
Click with the right mouse button and select “Add to file … “.
In the window that appears, we choose the compression format in the General tab.
Now pass the Advanced tab and click on the “Set passwords ” button.
Write the password and we accept.
This will create a compressed file with all the files and folders that we have selected, and every time we want to open it, we will have to introduce the selected password.

Once we have finished, it is important to remember that the original files will remain in our team, so that, in order to guarantee the security we are looking for, those files must be deleted and if we need to use them again, all we have to do is unzip them and we will have them again uncompressed and without a password.

Put password to a folder with 7-ZIP

7-ZIP is another tool also highly recommended since basically, we are in the same previous case, it is a program to compress files and folders, which in turn offers us the ability to set a password to the file compressed to protect the data it contains as much as possible.

Obviously, the first thing we have to do is install 7-ZIP, for which we can perform the secure download and making sure it is the latest version through the official 7-ZIP page

Likewise, the steps that we will follow to be able to put a password to a folder or a file with 7-ZIP are the following:

Select the folder (s) and the file (s) that we want to protect.
Click with the right button and we will see that the 7-ZIP section appears in the contextual menu.
Put the mouse over it and another menu will appear right with all the options available for this compressor.
Chose the option “Add to file”.
On this occasion, in the window that opens, we will see the section “Encryption “where you have an area where you can type the password.
Once this is done, we have no choice but to accept the changes and have our folder or files protected.

Remember that, in this case, it is also important to delete the files that are outside the compressed file, thus preventing access to them.

This means that we are going to stay with only the compressed file in 7-ZIP so that the content will be saved and protected by a password, but of course, we can access it or even decompress and remove the password with great ease.

Put password to a folder with SecretFolder

In this case, it is already a more specific tool, that is, it is not a compressor as we had in the previous two cases, but basically it is a program designed to establish passwords in our content.

In order to take advantage of this tool, we have to go to the official SecretFolder website and download the latest version available.

Once this is done, we can start with the steps to carry out the protection of the folders and files that we want to keep safe and out of sight of third parties.

One of the main reasons why we recommend using this software is precisely because it is one of the safest, since dealing with programs to decrypt passwords, in addition to also protecting files from malware attacks, is not going to present problems regarding the weight of the file, that is, independently of the size we will be able to protect it and also allows us to make the folder completely invisible.

It is also a free program, but it is a small detail since in fact, it is so simple that we will not have any inconveniences in this regard.

Now we are going to indicate the steps that we must follow to put a password to a folder with SecretFolder:

Run the SecretFolder program.
Enter the password that we want to use to access the program, as well as our email to retrieve the password if we forget it.
Now we click on the “Add” button.
In the window that appears we select the folder directory that we want to protect.
Click on the “Lock” button.
At that moment, the folder will disappear completely, so that it will remain invisible until we activate it again so that it will not be possible to see it or how to hide Windows.
With this we will have finished, so that when we want to access again, all we have to do is enter and select the specific folder in the list, then click on “Unlock” and we will have it again available in the folder to be able to make all the changes that we want.

Put password to a folder with Lockdir

We finish our list with applications, programs and tools through which we can put a folder or group of folders or even a file or groups of files and this time we present Lockdir, which offers us the main advantage which is the fact that it is not only free but also portable.

This means that you do not have to install it on your computer, but you just have to execute the file, which we will place on all those computers and devices that you want to protect and check out files.

We can download the file from the official website of Lockdir, where we will have at our disposal the latest version and of course, we will make a safe download and free of viruses.

These are the steps we are going to carry out to use Lockdir:

We execute Lockdir.
Click on the folder-shaped button on the top right.
Choose the directory that we want to protect.
Enter the password we want to use and repeat it to verify that we have not made a mistake.
Click on the “Protect ” button.
When we want to access the directory by double-clicking, at that moment we will ask for the password to access.

Protect your files and folders in Windows 10 by encryption

In addition to using the above tools, it is very important to know that, if you have installed the Windows 10 operating system and want to protect the content, you can also do it without the need to use a third-party application.

Therefore, below we will explain how to encrypt files or folders in Windows 10 without applications or additional programs.

Protect your files and folders in Windows 10 by encryption

It is important to note that this time we will not add a password to this folder or files, but the file information will remain encrypted so when we send it over the Internet, or even if someone accesses our computer remotely, we can avoid in this way that you can know the contents of the file.

It is a very useful protection system especially for computers that are constantly connected to the Internet and wifi, thus preventing third parties from accessing the specific file where we store information that we do not want to be exposed to outside eyes.

In addition, you will be able to observe that the process is carried out very easily and in just a few seconds, so it is really worthwhile that you have it in mind and, in this way, every time you have a file with content that can be compromising or not want to reveal, the best thing you can do is proceed to encrypt it.

How can I encrypt files and encrypt folders in Windows 10

In order to protect the files and folders in Windows 10, what we have to do is follow the steps that we will detail below:

Select the files or the folders that we want to protect.
Click with the right button of the mouse on them.
Then click on “Properties “.
Click on “Advanced options “.
This will open the window of advanced attributes, through which we will be able to carry out the encryption.
Select the box “Encrypt content to protect data “.
Now we just have to accept to apply the changes.

Just follow these steps, our folder or files will be encrypted, but we must take into account a detail, and that is, if we are doing on one or more files that are inside a folder, at the end of the process will ask us if we also want to encrypt the folder, since in this way we will improve the security of all the content in a more efficient way.

Here we can do what we find more interesting, and in the same way, if we create a folder, it will also ask us if we want to encrypt the contents of the subfolders and different files in the folder, or we want to encrypt only the main folder.

Obviously, with these alternatives, the best we can do is encrypt absolutely all the content that is inside, thus getting the guarantee that it will be well protected and cannot be accessed using other means.

As you can see, we have many alternatives at our disposal through which to learn how to put a password to a folder, thus achieving to satisfy whatever your needs and adapt to your pace of life.