Password protecting .zip files can be useful. This can allow you to password protect your files using a very common format. The methods of password protecting also uses encryption which scrambles the data to protect against third party software being able to read the data.
This is good for when you want to take important documents on a USB stick, then if you lose it your files are encrypted and password protected.
Password Protecting .zip Files In Windows
In Windows XP password protecting zip files is built in. All you need to do is:
- Right click on the compressed folder and select Explore.
- In File, select Add a Password. Enter the password and confirm the password.
This is not recommended as the quality of the encryption is very poor and there are a number of third party software tools that can crack it.
The recommended way is to use some software that uses a strong encryption system. There are both free and paid software that can do this.
We will look at 7Zip File Manager to manage the encryption and password protection of the zip files. This software is free and open source, 7Zip is available from the 7Zip Project website.
To use 7Zip to encrypt your zip files:
- Download and install 7Zip with the default options
- Select and right click on the files you want to password protect
- Select 7Zip -> Add to Archive
- A window will open asking for settings for the archive
- Under encryption select 3AES-256
- Under archive format select “ZIP“
- Hit OK
- Thats it now your files are password protected and encrypted
