How To Password Protect A Word Document In Windows 7

Once you gear up upwards a Windows password, everything should be safe and secure, but unfortunately that'south not the case. While a Windows login password offers a basic level of protection to keep your files safety from others who share your computer, risks still abound.

If your laptop is stolen, the thief tin boot upwardly your computer from a removable device and access your files. Or, they tin remove the hard disk, install it on another computer, and gain admission to all of your files and personal information.

Apply encryption to password protect a binder or a file

The most straightforward style to encrypt your folders (and all the files in them) is to employ Windows' congenital-in folder encryption. Here's how to encrypt a file or binder in Windows 11, 10, 8, or seven:

1. Navigate to the folder or file you desire to encrypt.

2. Right-click on the item, click Backdrop, then click Advanced.

   

3. Check Encrypt contents to secure data. Click OK, then click Apply.

   

4. Windows then asks if you want to encrypt simply the file or its parent folder and all the files within that equally well. Opt for full-folder encryption to exist rubber.

5. Then, when you navigate to the encrypted folder, you'll see a pocket-sized yellowish lock on the file icon. When you add new content to that folder, it volition automatically exist encrypted as well.

   

Windows file encryption protects your files against anyone who gets their hands on your computer. The encryption is tied to your Windows account, so when y'all're logged in, the operating arrangement automatically decrypts your files. If someone were to log in through another business relationship, they wouldn't be able to access files that were encrypted under your username.

Just since your files are attainable through your business relationship, if someone gets unauthorized admission to your figurer while yous're logged in, this encryption is useless. This is where a stiff login password tin can keep yous safe.

Regular Windows encryption will accept you simply so far, because it'southward easy to go around it by gaining access to your user business relationship. If a cybercriminal manages to hack your account or obtain your password, they'll have full access to your files.

Go on your data safe with Avast BreachGuard. If your passwords or other personal information are always leaked online, BreachGuard will warn you ASAP. That way, you lot can regain control of your accounts before anyone has the gamble to log in with your credentials.

Utilise password protection software

Dissimilar Windows' own file encryption technology, third-party password protection confined admission to files and folders regardless of which user business relationship is logged in. These tools offer more than security than congenital-in Windows security features and are highly recommended for sensitive data.

Countersign protect folders in Windows ten and eleven

Folder Lock is 1 content protection characteristic for Windows worth looking at. Binder Lock makes information technology easy to put a countersign on a folder, and it tin password protect and encrypt files and folders at blazing speeds. The software uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit keys to keep your data condom — the same level of encryption yous'll detect with many powerful VPNs, like Avast SecureLine VPN.

Folder Lock uses a master countersign to control locked content. You can as well create a "Locker," a secured binder on the drive to house specified content. And yous tin assign a unique countersign and configure the maximum disk space for each Locker.

Folder Lock comes with a powerful file shredder and a cloud-based backup solution besides. The demo is complimentary, while the full-version is $39.95.

Password protect folders in Windows vii & 8

My Lockbox is a lightweight utility with an easy-to-use interface that works for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 — it'southward likewise uniform with Windows 10 and 11. Afterward installation, the tool will ask yous to prepare a location for your locked folder.

All locked folders will be hidden on your drive until you unlock them. My Lockbox is free and resource-lite, making it an ideal solution for older computers or operating systems.

Passwords are almost always the weakest link in a security chain. A password force checker can be of great use here. Online resources like The Countersign Meter and my1login are skilful tools.

While strong countersign protection will exist enough for most users, if you have sensitive data, then more advanced methods such every bit third-party encryption tools can exist used to safeguard data.

Use full encryption software to secure files and folders

Beyond regular countersign protection, y'all can too use disk-encryption software that offers more than robust security. Full-encryption tools block even the nearly advanced cold-boot and brute-force attacks, which try to crack passwords and encryption keys using different combinations.

7-Zip

vii-Zip is free, open source software that can exist used on any calculator, and nearly whatever Windows system. It is essentially a file archiver that uses high compression and strong AES-256 encryption.

Your files are compressed and encrypted, then when you go to access them, you just need to decompress the file beginning. Yes, information technology's an extra footstep, merely a modest cost to pay for high security. To secure your data with 7-Zero, follow these steps:

1. Download the latest version of 7-Zip and install it.

2. In your Windows directory, select seven-Naught File Manager.

   

3. From the seven-Zip control panel, select the file or folder you lot'd like to protect and click the Add button.

   

4. Choose your pinch options (see image below).

   1. Enter the name for your encrypted file.

   2. Nether the Encryption section, ready a stiff password for encrypting and decrypting.

   3. We recommend setting your compression level to High and your pinch method to AES-256.

   4. Click OK.

   
   

Your file or folder is now compressed, encrypted, and protected. Decompressing is only as simple:

1. From the 7-Goose egg control panel, select the file or folder you'd like to open.

2. Click the Excerpt button.

   

3. In the dialogue box, enter the password. So click OK.

4. Your file or folder will decompress and open for you.

VeraCrypt

With support for AES, Serpent, and TwoFish keys, VeraCrypt is a costless, cross-platform information security tool that can encrypt files very effectively. VeraCrypt comes with full deejay encryption but can encrypt at the volume (binder) level as well. Users tin can decide whether they want specific folders encrypted or unabridged systems.

VeraCrypt may seem intimidating, but information technology'south actually quite elementary in one case you get the hang of it. The software works similarly to the Daemon tools that tin can create a virtual CD drive on your reckoner.

Download the setup file for Windows and install the software, then follow these instructions:

1. To start, yous need to create a volume, which is essentially an encrypted folder to firm your data. Click on Create Volume.

   

2. Select Create an encrypted file container and click Next.

   

   VeraCrypt lets you create a normal, visible container or an invisible one. For our example, nosotros'll choose Standard VeraCrypt volume, but select whichever option is best for you lot.

   

3. Click Select File and navigate to where yous desire to store your encrypted container. Click Side by side.

   

4. Now cull your preferred encryption method. We recommend AES-256, some of the strongest encryption used today. Then click Side by side.

   

5. Annotation how much space y'all want the encrypted folder to accept. x MB should be enough, but if yous accept multimedia files, you may demand more space.

   

6. Finally, enter the password yous desire to use for your volume (folder) and click Next. Make certain your countersign is stiff.

   

VeraCrypt is now gear up to create your container. Remarkably, the tool tin utilize random mouse movements to create your encryption key and encrypt the folder. Move your mouse around a lot because that makes the encryption central stronger — do this until the bar at the bottom reaches the end. Then click Format.

Your kickoff encrypted volume should now be sitting in its designated folder.

To add together files or folders to your encrypted container, follow these steps:

1. To mount your volume, choose a drive number from any one of the drives available on the VeraCrypt home screen.

2. Click on any of the messages in your highlighted book proper noun, click Select File, and navigate to the binder where you saved your encrypted container.

   

3. Click Open to select the book.

   

4. Next, click Mount to mount the volume to the selected drive. Enter your password and click OK. Your container is prepare.

   

Double-click the mounted drive to open some other window of the container. You should also see the container in This PC along with your other drives.

At present, copy the content to your new encrypted "drive," click dismount to close the folder, and encrypt it again.

The difference between password protection and encryption

Password protection is similar locking something in a safe, like a highly sensitive document. Encryption is like rearranging all the letters in a document and then that they tin only be placed back in the right order if you have a special decoder key.

With password protection, knowing the password is literally the key. That'southward why countersign protection is sometimes referred to every bit a grade of knowledge-based authentication. Once you lot know how to password protect a folder, anyone who wants to access it must know the password also.

If y'all need a concrete key, like an actual key or a special USB drive, to access a secret document, this would be a form of possession-based authentication. If the key were your fingerprint or face, you would be using inherence-based authentication, because yous're using something that is inherent to you and y'all lonely. These factors are important in two-factor authentication.

Encryption scrambles a document's information so that it looks like a wall of random characters. To access the document, you demand to have a decryption key. Unencrypted documents are stored commonly in plaintext, and anyone can read them.

In the example of file and folder encryption in Windows, the "key" ways being logged in to your account as the correct user. Even on the same computer, documents encrypted by one user are unreadable on another user account.

Password encryption is a third option that combines password protection and encryption. If someone has the correct password to unlock the file or folder, they still won't exist able to read information technology if they're not logged in every bit the authorized user.

Why password protect files?

Y'all should password protect files because if you share your figurer with others, someone might accidentally delete or modify an of import file, or even share a individual folder. You might even brand the critical mistake yourself, accidentally sending sensitive information to the wrong person.

Sharing a computer is non a problem if you add a password to your most sensitive files. Entering a countersign every time you admission that file may tedious you down a bit, merely the added security is worth it.

Ever use potent passwords. Avast's free random countersign generator will instantly create a unique and difficult-to-crack password whenever yous need one.

And you tin ever apply Windows to encrypt an entire binder, every bit described higher up. Knowing how to password protect a folder and how to encrypt your files is key to making sure your content is locked upwardly tight.

Managing files and passwords

Now that you know how to countersign protect and encrypt your files and folders in Windows, all that'south left is keeping your passwords condom and following proficient security practices.

Support your information

Consider what might happen if y'all lost your master password, if your encryption software got corrupted, or if the files themselves got lost. Backing up your data regularly and using a password director tin can help ensure that never happens. You tin even clone your entire difficult drive to an external storage device.

Some of the tools mentioned higher up, like Folder Lock, come with their own deject-based data backup solutions. Just yous tin use Microsoft'due south OneDrive or the costless Google Drive as well.

Create strong passwords

The biggest challenge with strong passwords is remembering them. Only yous're setting yourself up for potential data theft if yous create one password to use across all of your accounts. The common alternative — creating simple, easy to remember passwords — is but as bad.

Weak and common passwords are piece of cake to hack using programs that bicycle through dissimilar cardinal combinations at unfathomable speed. These password bully techniques are highly advanced. In 2012, hackers created a figurer cluster that guesses passwords at a rate of 350 billion per 2nd — and things accept but evolved since so.

That'due south why long, unique, and hard-to-guess passwords are one of the best ways to protect your files and devices against hackers.

Keep your new passwords condom and secure

At present that yous've encrypted your files with unique and hard-to-estimate passwords, protect all your passwords and accounts with Avast BreachGuard. With 24/7 dark spider web monitoring, BreachGuard will alert you if your passwords or other personal data are ever leaked, helping you to respond ASAP and stay ahead of anyone looking to compromise your accounts.

Source: https://www.avast.com/c-password-protect-file-folder-windows

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