How To Encrypt Files In Windows 10

If you're looking for a simple way to keep files and folders individual on your Windows reckoner, yous have several options right in front of yous.

Thanks to the Microsoft Part Suite, you lot can utilise a congenital-in encryption characteristic to password-protect Office files, such as Word documents or PowerPoint presentations.

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Some Windows operating systems also come with Encrypting File System (EFS), which lets you lot encrypt any kind of file, as well as whole folders and subfolders.

Note, however, that EFS is just bachelor for Windows x Pro, Windows 8 Pro or Windows 8 Enterprise. Users with a Home edition of Windows will need to apply either Office Suite encryption or a third-political party solution, such as VeraCrypt or 7-Zilch.

Nor does either of these methods offer full-disk encryption, which encrypts your unabridged hard bulldoze and its partitions. That can be done with Bitlocker, which again is merely available to Pro and Enterprise accounts.

To prepare your Windows file encryption, you lot'll want to follow these step-by-step instructions.

Before you start

Before you outset altering your files, there are some tips you demand to keep in mind.

Any file can exist decrypted if you're targeted past a savvy enough, or well-financed foe. You might want to notice a paid solution if your files are truly valuable.
Files encrypted using the below methods tin can yet be deleted, so you might want to accept a fill-in on a secondary location.
If you lose your encryption passwords, you've lost your encrypted files forever. And so, over again, keep an unencrypted backup of the file on a physical drive somewhere safe where information technology won't exist found.

How to encrypt files using Microsoft Office

This procedure encrypts individual files compatible with Microsoft Office applications such as Word, PowerPoint or Excel. In one case you encrypt a file this manner, you lot'll need to reopen it in Microsoft Office. You won't be able to open information technology in Google Docs, Adobe Reader or LibreOffice.

These steps work for all up-to-engagement versions of Office, across Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

1. Open a Microsoft Office program and click Open

2. Click Browse

3. Select a file you desire to encrypt and click Open up

4. Click the File tab at the elevation of the page, then roll down and click 'Info'

v. Click 'Protect Document' on the left side

vii. Enter a password for the file

Y'all'll be prompted to re-enter the same password once again, so click OK. After you exit this file, you'll have to enter the aforementioned password to reopen it. Be sure to store this password in a separate, prophylactic identify.

How to delete temporary files

Yous're not quite done yet, though. 1 of the flaws with Microsoft Office's encryption is that unencrypted versions of recently opened files might notwithstanding be stored in your figurer's temporary retention. You'll want to go clear that out later on you've encrypted a file.

i. Click the Outset button

2. Type 'Disk Cleanup' into the text field and select Disk Cleanup and click OK

iii. Wait for the loading bar to consummate

Information technology'south calculating how many files it will be able to delete.

five. A new popular-up window will appear request you to ostend the deletion

Click Delete Files.

vi. You'll encounter a new pop-up window (pictured below) with a loading bar running every bit your files are deleted

One time it's finished, the window will disappear and the temporary files are gone.

How to Encrypt Files on Windows using Encrypting File System (EFS)

EFS works by letting you utilize encryption to already-existing files or folders in your file system. Y'all can still edit or modify these files or folders following the encryption process.

Again, this is bachelor only to Enterprise and Pro versions of Windows viii.1 and Windows x. Users of the Abode versions of those platforms won't be able to employ EFS.

With EFS you won't notice whatsoever change in the manner you admission your files; all you lot take to do is log in to your Windows account at startup and the files will be accessible.

However, this means that you demand to option a stiff, difficult-to-guess password for your Windows user account.

Note: Step 8 is time-sensitive, then make sure to click the "Support your file encryption key" prompt after confirming attribute changes in footstep 7. Missing that prompt means you'll need to start over again.

i. Correct-click on the file or binder y'all wish to encrypt

3. Click Avant-garde nether the General tab

This will bring up a second pop-upwards window entitled Advanced Attributes.

4. Check 'Encrypt contents to secure data'

If the line is grayed out, you lot may be using a Domicile version of Windows that doesn't back up EFS.

5. Click OK

6. Click Apply

7. Choose how extensive you want the encryption to exist

Yous tin cull to encrypt simply that folder, or to encrypt all of the folder'southward subfolders and files. We recommend the latter. Whichever y'all cull, click that pick and then press OK.

eight. Brand sure to click the 'Back up your file encryption key' pop-up bulletin before information technology disappears

If you miss the pop-upwardly message, you lot'll demand to restart your automobile and try once more.

The computer creates an encryption key using an encryption certificate provided by Microsoft. At present that your file or binder is encrypted, yous won't need a password to admission it other than the password y'all employ to sign into your Windows profile when you turn the estimator on.

How to back up your encryption key

Y'all should back up that encryption central to a carve up device, because if that key is ever lost or damaged, yous won't exist able to access your encrypted files. The easiest method is with an external USB bulldoze, and so plug 1 into your PC earlier starting.

ane. Click the option 'Back up now (recommended)'

two. Click Side by side

3. Click Adjacent over again

four. Check the box next to Countersign, enter your password twice and click Next

5. Click Browse

vi. Navigate to a directory, such as a USB drive, name your encryption key and click relieve

7. Click Adjacent

8. Click Finish

ix. Click OK

Now squirt your USB drive (or wherever y'all stored the file) and keep it somewhere safety where you'll remember information technology.

How good are Windows' encryption services?

Windows' congenital-in encryption isn't a perfect solution. If yous encrypt a unmarried file, the computer stores an unencrypted version of that file in its temporary retentiveness, so a savvy snoop can still access information technology.

It'southward fairly like shooting fish in a barrel for an attacker to break Windows encryption using a animate being-force attack, which is when an attacker uses a program that methodically guesses every possible combination of letters and numbers, starting with common passwords.

If you're very serious about security and privacy, y'all might not trust a Microsoft solution. The FBI and NSA tin can crave U.South. companies to hand over data or encryption keys. For those reasons, we advise using a free third-party service such every bit VeraCrypt or WinZip.

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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/us/encrypt-files-windows,news-18314.html

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