How to Password Protect Folders in Windows
There are many reasons you should password protect folders in Windows, especially if you own a laptop. While I’ve never had a laptop stolen, the day I do, someone will have a great deal of information about me all stored in one place – except they will have to find the data, because I’ve got it locked down in hidden password protected folders. If you keep financial records or personal health data on your computer, you should consider locking down your personal data as well, just in case your computer ever gets lost or stolen.
There are a bunch of folder encryption and password protection solutions for Windows, but one of the easiest to use is Protected Folder from IObit. In addition to password protection, Protected Folder also hides protected files and folders from view. To start password protecting folders in Windows, download and install Protected Folder, then follow the steps included here to password protect any folder on your computer.
Protected Folder makes password protecting folders on your computer incredibly simple. Start by creating a master password for the Protected Folder, then you simply need to drag and drop anything you want to password protect and/or hide into the Protected Folder vault. These folders can be anywhere on your hard drive, including your Desktop, Documnets folder, a folder of photos inside your Pictures folder, or anywhere else you want to lock down personal data.
When the Protected Folder vault is locked, no one will have access to your protected folders, including you. To access your files and folders, simply enter your master password in Protected Folder and you will be able to browse all the important files you’ve locked safely away.
If you have kids using a shared computer Protected Folder comes in handy to keep kids from accidentally deleting any important files. While you can give them their own Windows account and lock down some of the features of Windows, this added layer of protection makes sure the kids are going to accidentally delete the data file for your personal finance program or wipe out the first 100-pages of that novel you started writing.
Just be sure you make note of your master password for Protected Folder. If you lose that, accessing your password protected folders will be impossible.
