The password is for the archive and not the winrar file. How to put a password on a WinRAR archive

Setting a password for the archive is the easiest way to prevent unauthorized access to files and folders on your computer. Even an inexperienced user can protect an archive. It is enough to know a few rules when choosing a password and follow the steps indicated in the instructions below.

Set the password in WinRar. This popular archiver has built-in data encryption technology, so third party programs no need to apply. Select files or folders, right-click and click in the list of commands “Add to archive”. In the top field you will see the default archive name. You can change it to any other name for greater privacy. In the archiving options, it is possible to set the deletion of files as they are added to the archive, so as not to erase them manually later. To do this, check the box “ Delete files after archiving” . The Compression Method allows you to increase free place on the disk due to denser “packing”. Having decided on the nuances, click “ Set password"

to set a password. Enter the archive password in the “Enter Password” field. To see the characters you enter, check the “Show Password” checkbox. Also enable the option “ Encrypt file names"

to hide the contents of the archive. Be sure to write down the password and click OK. Important: A strong password is a set of at least 8 characters, including numbers, upper and lowercase letters, and special signs

(!*+$#…). You can store your password on a flash drive or phone. A text file on a computer with a neutral name and a saved .dll or .sys extension is also suitable - such a file will not arouse interest from outsiders. Wait until all data has been moved to the archive. Depending on their volume and compression method, this may take a few seconds or several hours. After archiving is complete, double-click on the protected file. Enter your password and click OK to see the contents of the archive. If you copy the password from text file , make sure there is no extra spaces – they will be recognized as significant characters , and the password won't work. If you already have ready archive and you need to put a password on it, double-click on it with the mouse, click “

Add" and add the existing archive. In the archive update option, select replacement – “ on the disk due to denser “packing”. Having decided on the nuances, click “ and set a password. Click OK. The archive will change from normal to encrypted, and a password will now be required to enter. We install protection in 7-Zip. Click right key mouse on a file or folder, select from the menu 7-Zip and from the list of commands click “Add to archive”.

Enter the name of the archive. As in WinRar, here you can select the compression level and encrypt file names. Check "Show Password" to see the characters you type. After entering your password, be sure to write it down. Click OK to begin the archiving process.

To open the archive, double-click on it, enter or copy the password and click OK. Encrypting an existing 7-Zip archive

. Right-click on the file and select 7-Zip – “Add to archive” – “Your archive”. In the Modify Mode option, select Update to remove unprotected duplicate files. Set a password and click OK to start the encryption process.

You can add or remove files from the password-protected archive at any time. If you have both of the archivers described above, you can work with any of them, regardless of which archiving program you set the password in.

In the free 7-Zip archiver, you can put a password on a folder, or a password on a file, to protect confidential data from strangers who can gain access to the computer. Using an archiver, an archive is created and a password is assigned to it.

Almost all computers contain data that is not intended for outsiders. Situations in which another person can gain access to a computer are possible at home and at work. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent others from gaining access to confidential information on your computer. There are several ways to hide important information on your computer: hide folders and files using tools operating system , by using special programs

, which hide folders and files using an archiver (a program that packs data into an archive), setting a password on the created archive. In this article I will tell you how to create an archive with a password in 7-Zip. Earlier I already told you how to set a password for an archive in WinRAR program

The method of creating an archive with a password is the fastest and easiest. An archiver is needed on any computer, and setting a password for an archive in 7-Zip is very easy. Another user will not be able to open the archive without knowing the archive password. Important data will be protected.

How to set a password for a folder or file in 7-Zip

The process of setting a password for an archive in 7-Zip is the same for a folder or file. An archive is created from a folder or from a file in the 7-Zip program, for which a password is set.

To hide data using the archiver, click on the folder or file. In the context menu that opens, select “7-Zip”, and then “Add to archive...”.

After this, the “Add to archive” window will open, in which you need to configure the creation of an archive with data that needs to be hidden from outsiders.

The basic program settings can be left as default. Pay attention to the archive name. If the name of the folder or file is of no interest stranger, then leave the default name. If the name reveals the contents of the archive, then change the name of the archive to something that does not reveal its contents.

On in this example, I changed the name for the archive being created: " new folder”, since the folder being archived is called “Secret Folder”, and this name attracts unnecessary attention.

In the “Encryption” section, activate the “Encrypt file names” item, and then in the “Enter password:” field, enter the password for the archive being created. In the “Repeat Password:” field, re-enter your password.

Please note that if you forget the archive password, you will not be able to open the archive on your computer. You will lose access to encrypted data. Therefore, come up with a complex password, but at the same time one that you will never forget.

After completing the settings, click on the “OK” button.

After this, delete the folder or file that was encrypted using the archiver. Your hidden data is stored in the archive; you will not be able to access the contents of the archive without knowing the password.

How to remove the password from a folder or file in 7-Zip

To gain access to a password-protected folder or file using the 7-Zip archiver, click on the appropriate archive. In the window that opens, enter the archive password. If the password is complex, activate the “Show password” item to check whether the password is entered correctly. Next, click on the “OK” button.

In the 7-Zip archiver window, you will see the file or folder on which the password was set. To gain access, extract hidden data from the archive. To do this, click on the “Extract” button.

You can now use the file or folder again after extracting it from a password-protected archive.

Conclusions of the article

By using free archiver 7-Zip can set a password for a folder, set a password for a file. The archive created in 7-Zip will have a password set to prevent unauthorized persons from accessing confidential data.

How to put a password on a folder in 7 Zip (video)

Zip is a popular data archiving format that supports data compression without any loss. Archiving a file actually reduces its size and thus makes it easier to transfer data over the network. If the files you transfer are stored confidential information, then enabling password protection on the ZIP file makes it more secure and reliable. So ZIP file is basically a well-known tool that is often used for compression large files and documents with a ZIP file extension. It's not limited to just folders and separate files(such as photos), but can also compress software files.

It is for this reason that most software products available in ZIP file extension. The widespread use of this tool requires serious protection, otherwise, much of the information compressed in the ZIP archive may fall into the wrong hands.

For security purposes, people always store sensitive data in encrypted archived files before sending it to other users.

So how do you pack files or folders into an archive? Which software Is it best to use for compression?

The following three simple methods will help solve this problem:

Option 1. Create an encrypted Zip file using WinZip.
Option 2. Create a password protected Zip file using WinRAR.
Option 3. Create a password protected Zip file with 7-Zip.

Option 1: Create an encrypted Zip file using WinZip

If you have WinZip installed on your computer, you need to do the following to encrypt zip files:

Step 1. Create an encrypted zip file. To do this, run the WinZip program.

Step 2. Click the Encrypt radio button in the Actions panel. Click the Options button that now appears in the Actions panel to set the encryption level.

Step 3. In the "File" panel, select and add files to Zip by clicking "Add to Zip".

Step 4. When the Encrypt dialog box opens, you must enter a password.

Step 5. In the Action panel, click Save as.

How to Add a Password to an Existing Zip File

Even if the file is already compressed (it can be zipped with built-in compressed tools Windows folders 10 or other tools), using WinZip programs you can still encrypt the data in an existing Zip file. To do this you need to do the following:

Step 1. Using the right mouse button, click on the Zip file in the folder window.

Step 2. Select "WinZip" > "Add to Zip file...".

Select the “WinZip” tab, then “Add to Zip file...”

Step 3. Enable Encrypt. Enter your password when WinZip asks for it.

Step 4. Then click "OK" and save this setting.

Option 2: Create a Password Protected Zip File Using WinRAR

Make sure WinRAR is installed on your computer. If you don't have it, install it by going to the official website. Then use it to password protect the zip file in two ways as shown below.

Method 1: Setting a password when writing a file

Step 1. Using the right mouse button, click on the file/folder that you want to archive along with the password and select “Add to archive” from context menu.

Step 2. In the "Archive name and parameters" dialog box, select the "General" tab, enter a name for the archive or use the default name, select "ZIP" in the "Archive format" section and click the "Set password" button.

Step 3. Enter your password, then enter it again to verify, and then click OK. Click OK again. A password-protected ZIP archive will then be created in the location where original file/folder. The password will extract or open the files in the ZIP archive.

Method 2: Password to protect an existing ZIP file

Step 1. Using the right mouse button, click on the existing ZIP file that you want to password protect and select “Open with WinRAR” from the context menu.

Step 2. In the WinRAR menu, go to “Tools” and click “Convert archives”.

Step 3. In the “Convert archives” dialog box, in the “Archive types” section, specify the location where the archive will be saved, and then click “Compression”.

Step 4. In the Set default compression options dialog box, select the General tab, select the ZIP format, and click Set password.

Step 5. Enter your password and return it for verification and click OK. Click OK again, click Yes when asked if you want to encrypt the converted archives and finally click OK.

Step 6. After the conversion is complete, close the dialog and WinRAR. Then the original ZIP file will be converted to a password protected ZIP file and you can delete the original ZIP file.

Option 3: Create a Password Protected Zip File with 7-Zip

7-Zip is the best free utility to compress files with open source code for Windows. Follow these simple steps to easily create a password-protected Zip file.

Step 1. Download the 7-Zip installer and install it. Go to www.7-zip.org, download 7-Zip installer. Launch it and install 7-Zip on your computer.

Step 2. Create a zipped file using 7-Zip (as in the screenshot below). Once installation is complete, locate a file, multiple files, or separate folder, which you want to archive. Select one or more items, click right click mouse and select: “7-Zip” > “Add to archive”.

Step 3. Set a password for the archived file. In the "Archive format" option, select zip. In the Encryption section, enter the password in the first field, followed by the same password in the second password field. Then select the appropriate encryption method.

Step 4. Click "OK" to create compressed archive. Now you will have new file with a zip file extension in the same folder as the file, files or folder you chose to compress in step three.

Add a file or folder to an existing ZIP file

Attention! If you have forgotten your password, you may not be able to access these files. To recover your password, you can use ZIP Password Refixer to recover the encrypted zip file.

How to Choose the Right Encryption Methods in 7-Zip

ZipCrypto is known to be relatively weak and cannot be expected to protect against access to specialized password recovery tools.

AES-256 is stronger encryption and is now only supported by 7-Zip, WinZip and some other ZIP archivers. If you have important security requirements for important files, you must use AES encryption.

Video - How to put a password on an RAR, 7z, ZIP archive

WinRAR allows you to create both standard zip archives and your own unique format (rar). The process for archiving and setting a password is almost identical; rar, however, has it available additional option, which will be discussed below.

Setting a password for a new archive

Open WinRAR and click the "Add" button.

Select the archive format, then click the “Set Password” button:

Enter it twice (I advise you to activate the “Show password” item, because before clicking “OK” it is better to check if you have made a typo. Otherwise, you will not be able to open the archive yourself):

If desired, you can enable the “Encrypt file names” option: if such an archive is opened, then no one will even be able to read the names of folders and documents without entering a password. However, this option is only available for .rar archives.

Click OK. The password-protected archive is ready.

Now, when you try to extract its contents, the following window will appear:

If the archive has already been created and needs to be protected

In such a situation, you need to add any file to it, which you can then safely delete.

The procedure is the same: open the archive, click “Add”, selecting a file to add, and at this moment a window similar to creating a new archive will appear again. Press the password button again and you can set the protection.

Conclusion

The only drawback of WinRAR is that the program is paid. Therefore, it makes sense to use it only if you need to have an archive in .rar format. Works great with other options (zip and others) free analogues like 7Zip, which also allow you to set a password and reliably protect your content.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. For some reason, there are no built-in tools in Windows that would allow you to block access to a folder for those who do not know the password to access it.

At the same time, this is exactly what comes to mind for any user of this operating system. the simplest way save some of your data in confidential form - just put a password on the folder where the “hidden” documents (files or other directories) will be stored.

Well, really, what could be more logical than to password-protect access to a certain directory and put there everything that you would like to protect from prying eyes (spouse, children, hackers, competent authorities, etc.). There may be many goals, but the solution seems obvious - make a kind of safe out of any folder, the code for which only you will know (and how to come up with it, read the article).

How to set a password for a folder after archiving it

However simple options solutions to this problem (built into Windows means) still no. More precisely, there are a number of methods that do not guarantee any confidentiality, but only provide “fool protection”. It doesn't make much sense to rely on them. In this same publication I want to focus on a way to make a safe of the highest security category from any catalog, but for this you will have to install an additional program in the OS.

It was originally built on open source and a priori () did not contain bookmarks that would allow developers to access your password-protected data. Unfortunately, the developers have now sold themselves to BitLocker, whose products already come with closed code, which means your password folders, if desired, can be opened using backdoors. However, TrueCrypt can still be found and used for your purposes.

But first, I’ll give you something easier to use, but less reliable way(competent authorities and specialists will be able to hack the directory, but your relatives and friends will not). It lies in the fact that the necessary the folder can be archived with a password, so that a person who does not know it would no longer be able to carry out the unzipping process.

You are all probably very familiar with archivers. Among them there are both paid and free versions. But in addition to its main functionality - creating archives to save disk space and speed up data transfer over the Internet, modern archivers allow you to encrypt archived data and protect it with passwords. It is this opportunity that we will take advantage of.

Let's try to archive a folder and put a password on it, first using the example of a free archiver (7-Zip), and then using the example of a paid one (WinRAR), which, however, is installed on almost all computers. I think that you have at least one of them, and if not, you can always install them by going to the official websites of the developers of these programs ().

How to archive and password protect a directory in 7-Zip

So, if you have it installed in Windows archiver 7-Zip, then in order to archive any folder (or a set of files and directories) in it, it will be enough to right-click on it and select “7-Zip” - “Add to archive” from the drop-down context menu:

As a result, you will see the archiving settings window, where, among other settings, you can set a password to access this archive, or rather, encrypt the entire contents of the folder (while archiving it), and this code will be the key to decryption.

A feature of “archiving with a password” of directories via 7-Zip is that you can enter the created archive (folder) without entering a password, and when you try to open any file you will be required to enter it:

If you want to password-protect access not only to the files in this directory, but also prohibit viewing the contents of this folder without entering a password, then simply check the “Encrypt file names” box in the archiving settings window (second screenshot from here). After this, when you try to view the contents of the archive, a prompt to enter a password will pop up.

How to set a password when archiving a folder in WinRAR

You can also use the capabilities of the second of the archivers mentioned above to simultaneously archive and password protect a folder - WinRAR. As I already mentioned, it’s paid, but for some reason in RuNet they don’t really take it into account.

If WinRAR is in your Windows already installed, then simply right-click on the directory for which you want to set a password and select “Add to archive” from the context menu:

In the window that opens, go to the “Advanced” tab and click on the “Set password” button:

Here you will be asked to create and enter a password, which will become the key to your archived folder, and you can also check the “Encrypt file names” box so that no one can view the contents of the archive without entering the password (we already talked about this a little higher):

After that, click OK twice and try to enter the created archive using the password you created. If everything worked out, then you can delete the original folder, the contents of which you want to hide from prying eyes. And as needed, you will simply log into this archived and password-protected folder. It's a little stressful to have to enter your password all the time, but security requires sacrifice. IMHO ()

How to put a strong password on a folder using TrueCrypt

As I mentioned just above, there is various programs, which make it possible to implement such an obvious Windows users The idea is to block access to the folder using a password. There are quite a lot of such programs (for example, Folder Lock, DirLock, Anvid Lock Folder, File lock, Lim LockFolder etc.), but a user who understands computers will most likely be able to bypass them. Therefore, if you want to hide something from your household or work colleagues on your computer, then they will suit you just fine.

But often something more radical is required, when hacking a password-protected folder will require monstrous efforts And computing power, which will naturally deter most potential burglars. This type of tool includes the TrueCrypt program, which allows you to set a password not only for a directory, but even for the entire computer (to completely encrypt system partition, if you need it).

I have already written in some detail about working with her:

Unfortunately, today the developers no longer release new versions of the program, because they switched to working in BitLocker (Microsoft), but you can download TrueCrypt one of the latest versions via this link. In any case, it works great for me.

Let me explain a little what “put a password on a folder” means in TrueCrypt, because this is somewhat different from the options discussed above. In this program, you create a container from any file that is on your computer and has just been created.

It will be very difficult to discover that it is a container for something, and besides, inside this container (actually a folder with files and other directories) you can create a hidden container, which certainly no one will guess about. Hackers very actively use this program to hide, for example, their correspondence, because it is difficult to even find corrupted (encrypted) information, not to mention hacking it.

So, this very container is encrypted and decrypted on the fly (you won’t even notice it) and you can work with it like a regular directory (even more like a portable hard drive or a flash drive, because this password-protected folder is connected in Windows exactly as new virtual disk).

That. you can copy something there, delete it, move it standard means operating system (via Explorer or, for example, Total Commander).

At the end of the work, you simply unmount the virtual disk, and no one (who does not know the password) will be able to access your data. Wonderful thing.

For all the details of working with TrueCrypt for setting passwords on a flash drive, folder, or even the entire computer, see the links given just above. And remember that absolute protection does not exist (you can provide the password yourself under pressure), but among all other methods of data protection, this program is one of the most optimal options. IMHO.

Good luck to you! See you soon on the pages of the blog site

You can watch more videos by going to

");">