How to Encrypt Your Files or Folders on Your Windows PC
You can never be secure enough in the uncertain and constantly changing world of cybersecurity. Things go awry just when you think you’ve got to handle nothing. Even tech companies are not immune to everything; be it the wrath of an activist employee going through the whistleblower phase or even a regular third-party data breach, protecting your data from all sides is, therefore, super essential.
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How to Encrypt Files or Folders on a Windows PC
you may performencryptionon your Windows files or folders in many ways. We’ll start with the most straightforward method: using the Properties section of your Windows file or folders.
How to Encrypt Windows Files or Folders via Properties
The easiest way to encrypt your folder or file on Windows is by using the built-in tools on Windows. One such tool is the Properties section of every file or folder, which hosts the feature for encrypting your files as well. Let’s see how.
Click onOKagain, and the app will then confirm if you want to make these changes just to the folder or also to the subfolders and files inside your main folder. Pick one of the options and click onOK. You might get a new dialog box asking for administration privileges as soon you do this. Click onContinueto go ahead.
That’s it. Your folder or file will be encrypted from now on.
How to Encrypt Files and Folders on Windows With 7-Zip
7-Zip, as its name suggests, is primarily a file compression software that aims to reduce the size of your files or folder without losing any data simultaneously available to both Windows andLinux users.
However, apart from zipping your files for compression like similar tools, the app also lets you encrypt your data. 7-Zip usesAES-256 encryption, the first and only publicly shared cipher created by NSA.
To get started,grab the 7-Zip installer from the downloads sectionfirst. Install the app as soon as the download is finished, and head to the file or folder you’d like to encrypt now.
Once you get to the file or folder, right-click on it and select7-Zip -> Add to archive.
From theAdd to Archivedialog box, set a specific password in theEncryptionsection. Apart from choosing the location for your file after 7-Zip has finished compressing it, you may also fiddle with other settings if you’d like. Finally, when you’ve picked all the settings, click onOK.
Your file or folder will be compressed and protected with a password you can rely on later on.
At a later time, when you’d like to decompress the files, head to the file or folder, right-click on it again, and select7-Zip > Extract Here.
As soon as you do this, you’ll get asked for a password for decryption first. Enter it and click onOKand your data be decrypted.
Download:7-Zip(Free)
Encrypting Your Files or Folders on a Windows PC
Even a couple of decades back, encryption used to be this vast, obscure thing used only by big corporates or research universities. Of course, that’s no longer the case now. For Windows users, encrypting your files and folders is as easy as creating new folders now, and we’d go on to say, even a regular affair for the privacy-obsessed bunch of us.
However, as you probably already know, there’s more besides simply encryption. We’ve covered everything necessary to keep your Windows security and privacy game at the top; make sure you don’t miss out on it.
It’s easy to make a mistake with Windows and leave the front door open for hackers, so here’s how to lock it down once again.
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