One need not be explained the importance of password protecting a folder. It is a universally accepted fact. We all have some files or folders that we don’t want to be misplaced, lost or tampered with due to numerous reasons like family pictures, official documents, important PDFs, etc. So, let us simply start by locking/password protecting those important files/folders in your Windows PC.
There are namely two ways to move about it.
Method 1: You can create separate user accounts for different users. This can be achieved via the control panel.
Step 1: Go to control panel, in view by category section you will find “User Account and Family Safety” icon on the top left. Below it, there is a small subscript link termed as “Add or Remove User Account”. Click on it, after that from there you can make any number of user accounts.
With each user having a different passkey, you all can have your own independent space on the same system. While all the users can access some files/folders, other important can be restricted to users possessing the password.
Step 2: However, the issues with creating numerous user accounts on the same system are as follows:
- It wastes drive space.
- A user without Administrator access is unable to install software and smoothly run all the applications.
- You have to switch users every time you need to access files saved in other user accounts.
- However, with administrator password you can do all the above but if you share that password, then you are back to square 1.
Method 2: Windows have an inbuilt feature to password-protect folders. To lock a folder just follow the simple instructions below:
Step 1: Right-click on the folder, you wish to password protect. Then in the pop-up select “Properties”. In properties, select the “Security” tab. Once in click edit as mentioned in the screenshot displayed below.
Step 2: Once you are done, you will observe that a new window pops up. Now in the “Group and User Names” section, you can select the users you want to deny access to the particular folder.
Step 3: In the “Permission for Users” select the “Deny” check-box. Once you do that, all other check-boxes are selected automatically, that are next to “Modify”. Refer to the screenshot below.
Step 4: Once through the above 3 steps, Click “OK”. You will notice a security window pops up. Click “Yes” on it as shown in the screenshot.
Method 3: However, instead of going through all this trouble and creating separate accounts and then locking all the particular folders. Just download third party Software like “Lock folders and files”.
With it you just need to browse the file and select it. It will stop displaying the file at lock it the Kernel level itself, and you don’t need to worry about any damage or theft to your data. Even from the security point of view this software works like a charm. No one can hamper your data even if they are able to get remote access to your system. Even the folders become invisible to all the advance search options making it the best third party software available in the market.