Privacy is one of the biggest concerns of today’s generation. Everyone has something private or something which we need to hide from everyone. It is not just about hiding your data online but people also want to protect their data on the system they work on ( Like laptop or desktop). After reading the article “How To Lock A Folder In Windows 10” You can finally protect your data from others who do have access to your computer.
Laptops and computers are not always a very secure place to store your data. We all have our families and some friends from whom we cannot hide data. In this case, We always tend to give our privacy control to the other person and risk our personal data.
What if you know by some simple techniques you can get answers on “How To Lock A Folder In Windows 10” or hide your data on your system or password protect it in 3 easy ways no matter what windows version you are using.
This trick will work on every system from windows XP to Windows 10 Pro.
We will discuss the 3 most easy techniques to secure your data from your family and friends. Without downloading any additional software on your computer or laptop. This will decrease the suspicious level of you and help you gain trust.
Step By Step Guide On How To Lock A Folder In Windows 10
1. To Password protect the folder you need to download the WinRAR application.
It is quite a possibility that this application is already installed on your system, But if it is not installed, You can download it by clicking “WinRAR”.
What is the use of WinRAR?
WinRAR is the Archive Manager and Data Compression Software. It is most widely used to compress the large size folder to save disk space on your computer.
2. Click on “Continue to download WinRAR“. We do not need to Buy WinRAR because our simple trick will not require the premium version of WinRAR. We can lock the folder with the Free version available.
3. Once the download is completed, “WinRAR” will appear in the bottom left side or you can search for it in your “Downloads” folder.
4. Open the downloaded application and Select “Yes”. This will allow WinRAR to make changes to your device. Basically the changes to install itself in the device.
5. Select the “Destination folder” where you want the application to be installed. You can change the location with “Browse…” button.
Once you have selected the Destination folder, You can click on “Install”.
6. Keep the settings to default and click “OK”.
7. Once the WinRAR software is installed. You can see the tagline saying “Thank you for using WinRAR”. Click “Done”.
8. Now, Select the folder you want to password protect from your family, friends, or anyone of your concern.
Right-click on the folder and select the option which says “Add to archive..”
9. Once you select “Add to archive..” WinRAR window will open, Select “Set password” as shown in the image below.
10. Enter your password and don’t forget to tick “Encrypt the names”. If “Encrypt the names” is not ticked, the person trying to open your file will be able to know the names of your files which are password protected.
11. Cross-check your password and check if you have ticked “Encrypt the names” and click the “OK” button.
12. Click “Ok” again to close the WinRAR window.
13. A WinRAR folder of same name is created on the same location.
14. When anyone will try to open the file, WinRAR will ask for the password. I would suggest you to backup your files before making them password protected because there is no way to bypass the security of WinRAR.
15. Once you enter the password, You can view all your files, folder, images, and videos that were available in your folder.
16. Once you created a WinRAR file you can delete the normal folder which contains your private data (Or the data which you want to hide).
17. If you ever want to revert back the changes and remove the password. You can click on the “Extract To” option and select the destination where you want to extract the files.
18. After Extracting the files, A normal folder is created. Please note that the normal folder will not contain the password.
19. You can delete the password protected WinRAR Folder now.
How To Deny Permission To Access Files in 2 Easy Steps
1. Right click and select the folder you want to Hide, Go to “Properties”.
2. In Properties, Go to tab “Security” and select “Administrators (Your PC name)”.
3. Click on “Edit”
4. Under the tab “Permissions for Authenticated Users”, Tick “Deny” for “Full control”.
5. Click on “Apply” to save the changes. A Windows Security pop up window will appear, Select “Yes” and then “OK” so the changes will be saved.
6. Now, Try to make changes to the folder. Try to Open, Delete, Rename, Move. A pop up window will appear and you won’t be able to perform any changes to the folder. The pop window will display a message saying that “You don’t currently have permission to access this folder.”
7. If the user will press “Continue”, User will be informed that the permission is denied to access folder. User will not be able to apply any changes to the file.
Hide Your Files Without Leaving A Mark
1. This is one of the most easiest method to hide the folder from unwanted people. Right click the folder you want to hide. Go to “Properties”.
2. In the “Attributes” section you will see an option which is not ticked i.e., “Hidden” . You need to tick the “Hidden”.
3. To save the changes, Click “Apply” and a pop up window will appear to ask if you want to hide the subfolders and files. As per your choice you can tick or untick the option.
4. Click “OK” to save the changes.
5. You won’t be able to see the file you selected to hide. The computer screen will display a message that “This folder is empty” .
6. On the top menu mar you can see the option “View” Click that and select “Hidden Items”. Once you click the “Hidden Items” option you will be able to see all the files and folder which are hidden in your computer.
7. If you want to Hide the files again, You can similarly go to “View” and untick “Hidden Items” so that the files and folder will get hidden.
We hope you find our article “How To Lock A Folder In Windows 10 : 3 Easy Ways” useful and finally you would be able to password protect or secure the folders which you want to hide from others.
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