Hello, I have a zipped folder with many important documents and I want to protect it with a password. How can I do that?
Zip archives have become popular because they save computer space and are easy to transfer. However, some users still don’t know how to password protect a zip file from unauthorized access. In order to achieve this, we need to take advantage of some third-party programs. In this article, we share 3 methods with you. Importantly, we also tell you how to access an encrypted zip file if you forgot the password.
Reading: How to create a zip file with password windows 7
Method 1: Password protect a zip file with WinZip
WinZip is very popular and professional compressor for Windows 7/8/8.1/10. It can create archives in .zip and .zipx file format. When you create a .zip or .zipx file, you have the option to encrypt the file. It supports 128-bit and 256-bit key AES encryption, which are now used worldwide. Now let’s see how to add a password to a zip file using WinZip.
Step 1: Run WinZip. Enable the “Encrypt” option in the “Action” section. (You can select an encryption method under Options.)
Step 2: Locate the zip file you want to protect in the left pane and drag it onto the File “NewZip .zip” window.
Step 3: A “WinZip Caution” window will appear. Click “OK” to continue.
Step 4: Enter a password to protect your zip file and re-enter it to confirm. You must enter a password of at least 8 characters.
Step 5: From the “Action” section, click on the “Save As” option, once done, your zip file is encrypted successfully.
Method 2: Protect a zip file with a password using 7-Zip
7-Zip is a free file archiver, it has its own archive format with a .7z file extension, but still supports creating a compressed file in other archive formats such as bzip2, gzip, tar, wim, xz, etc and zip. If you want to put a password in a zip file with 7-Zip, you have two encryption methods available, including AES-256 and ZipCrypto. The former offers stronger encryption and is now supported by many popular archivers.
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Now let’s jump straight to how to add a password to a zip file using 7-Zip software.
Step 1: After installing 7-Zip on your computer, you can now browse your computer for the zip file that you want to protect. Right-click on it and select 7-Zip. When you click on the 7-Zip option, you will see “Add to archive” and click on it.
Step 2: After that, a new settings menu will appear. Under Archive Format, choose the output format “zip”.
Step 3: Then go to the “Encryption” option at the bottom right and enter a password of your choice. Confirm the password and choose the encryption method. After that, you can click on the “OK” button.
Congratulations, you have now backed up your zip file. Next time you want to dearchive it, you need to enter the password you provided.
Method 3: Password protect a zip file with WinRAR
WinRAR is a trialware file archiving utility for Windows XP and higher. It can create and access compressed files in RAR and Zip format. According to some official statements, it supports AES encryption. However, if you set a password for the zip file, you only have the option “Zip Legacy Encryption”. This is an older encryption technique known to be relatively weak. You should not rely on it as strong security for your data.
How to create password protected zip file with WinRAR.
Step 1: First you should install the program on your computer. When you’re done, locate the file or folder you want to zip, right click on it and choose “Add to Archive”.
Step 2: Select “ZIP” under “Archive format”. Then click the “Set Password” button in the bottom right corner.
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Step 3: A new screen will appear. Enter your password to protect the archive. You can choose to enable “Legacy Zip Encryption” or not. It’s up to you.
When you’re done, click OK. Now your zip file is password protected.
You can also watch the video tutorial below to try the above 3 methods:
Tip: How to access a locked zip file to if you forgot password
Now that you have added a password to your zip file, chances are you forgot the password. What are you going to do at this time? I bet you will try to enter all possible passwords and you might not be successful. In such a scenario, you also have to rely on a third-party program that can unlock zip files without knowing the password.
One program you can use to unlock encrypted zip files is Passper for ZIP. It is a powerful password recovery tool that can retrieve passwords from Zip files created by WinZip/7-Zip/PKZIP/WinRAR. The program is equipped with 4 smart recovery methods , which greatly reduce the number of passwords and then reduce recovery time.It has the fastest password checking speed, which can check 10,000 passwords every second. No internet connection is required during the recovery process, therefore your file will not be uploaded to its server. Thus, your privacy is 100% secured.
Without further ado, let us now explain how to unlock the encrypted zip files with Passper for ZIP. First, you need to install Passper for ZIP on your computer. Therefore, download and install the Windows version on your computer.
Free Download for Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP
Step 1: Launch the program and then click the “Add” button to download the zip file upload which you want to unlock.
Step 2 After that, choose a recovery method based on your situation. Here’s how to use each method.
Step 3After selecting the attack mode, click the “Recover” button and the program will start recovering your password immediately. Once the password is recovered, the program will notify you that the password has been recovered. From there you can copy the password to access your password protected zip file.
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