Putting a password on a folder using the WinRAR archiving program is one of the easiest ways to hide confidential information. Each of us has some information that is not intended to be known to others. It can be a folder, a file, a document, a photograph, or something similar.

When such an object is placed on a computer, it can become known to other people who do not need to know about it. Especially if several people use the computer.

This situation can be at home and at work. Therefore, you need to protect your data from prying attention.

The Windows operating system does not have a built-in password protection feature for a folder or file. The Windows operating system restricts access to the object only to specific users of the computer. This does not always help, because completely different people can log into the system under the name of this user.

You must put a password on a folder or file so that no one but you can open it. One of the ways is to put a password on a folder or file using an archiver. For this I will use the WinRAR archiver. This is one of the easiest and simplest ways.

But first, let's take a look at the easiest way: just hide the folder using the Windows operating system.

How to hide a folder in Windows

The easiest way to hide a folder or file in Windows is by using an operating system tool. To do this, right-click on a folder or file. In the "Properties" window that appears, in the "General" tab, in the "Attributes" item, check the checkbox opposite the "Hidden" item, and then click on the "OK" button. After that, the folder will disappear from view.

This method is suitable when you need to quickly hide something, and there is no time to move the file somewhere else. But this is certainly not the most reliable way, because it is easy to make this folder or file visible.

How to open a folder in Windows

In order to make a hidden folder or file visible again, in Windows 7 you need to go to the "Start" menu => "Control Panel" => "Appearance and Personalization" => "Folder Options" => "Show hidden files and folders" ...

In the "Folder Options" window, in the "View" tab, uncheck the box next to "Show hidden files, folders and drives ", and then click on the" OK "button.

Now, in the place where the hidden folder used to be, you will see it again. This folder will have a translucent look.

To make the folder open again, right-click on the folder and select Properties from the context menu.

In the "Properties" window, in the "General" tab, in the "Attributes" item, uncheck the checkbox opposite the "Hidden" item. The folder is shared again.

After all these actions, go to the "Start" menu => "Control Panel" => "Appearance and Personalization" => "Folder Options" => "Show Hidden Files and Folders" => "Folder Options" => "View".

Here, check the box next to the item "Do not show hidden files, folders and drives", and then click on the "OK" button.

There is another way to hide a folder, but it is more difficult to use, so I will not cover it in this article.

How to put a password on a folder in WinRAR

When using the archiver, a folder or file will turn into an archive and it will not be possible to open it without knowing the password. For this example, I am using the WinRAR archiver.

There is a folder on the Desktop where you need to put a password. I named this folder "The Secret Folder". Right click on the folder.

In the context menu, select the "Add to archive ..." item.

In this window, click on the "Set password ..." button.

The "Enter password" window opens.

Enter your password in the provided field and then confirm the password for verification. In this example, I have used a simple password. If you have very important information, then the password should be complex.

There are special programs for guessing and decrypting passwords. TO simple password, it will be easy for such a program to guess the password. To create a strong password, it is best to use special program- password manager. With such a program, you can create strong password, the program will remember it, and when needed, you can use it to enter your password again.

If you come up with a password yourself, then use a password that you will not forget (Russian words can be entered in the English keyboard layout). Remember the password, because if you forget it, you will not be able to unpack the archive and open the file.

After that, check the box next to the "Encrypt file names" item, and then click on the "OK" button.

Archiving starts, and after it completes, an encrypted archive will be created. The archive has the same name as the original folder. After that you can delete or move the original folder somewhere.

In order to open the created encrypted archive, right-click on the archive, and in the context menu, click on the "Open" item.

Enter the password in the appropriate field, and then click on the "OK" button.

A window of the WinRAR archiver appears, in this window, click on the "Extract ..." button.

In the "Extraction path and parameters" window, click the "OK" button.

After that, the encrypted archive will be unpacked to the Desktop, and the folder on which the password was previously set will again appear on it.

Conclusion

Using the WinRAR archiver, you can easily put a password on a folder or file. You can quickly close access to a file or folder by archiving the file or folder in WinRAR and then setting a password to create this archive.

How to put a password on a folder using WinRAR

Open the Advanced Archive Password Recovery password-protected archive:

1. You can open a password-protected archive by brute-force passwords, unless of course you remember the password. Depending on the power of your computer and the set password (password complexity), it will take time to complete the selection. If the key is light, for example, consists of three characters, then you can open it in 5 minutes, if the password exceeds 6-8 characters, then you can sort it out and day 4. But at the end you will still be successful and you will open the archive. Personally, I tried 2 times and they all justified the brute-force password cracking.

How to brute force a password?

2. There are many programs for brute force on the Internet, there are paid ones and without paid ones, they are limited in brute force in the number of characters in the password. Let's say they won't go through more than 4 characters, paid ones work without restrictions, adding some more useful functions. I tried to brute-force a forgotten password of 12 characters for 4 days, my computer did not turn off. But this does not matter, since the computer is powerful, I could perform other operations I needed. I work with the Advanced Archive program Password recovery which can be downloaded from the official Elcomsoft website and many others useful programs for guessing passwords. Honestly, I performed two brute-force attacks on it, and they all ended in luck.

Advanced Archive Password Recovery Review:

3. Let's take a look at how to work with Advanced Archive Password Recovery. After installing the program, the installation is no different from other program settings. After starting, you will see a window in which there are many settings, but do not be alarmed, I will tell you how to set up the work of brute-force for the password to the archive:
4. In the picture above, I marked with numbers what settings will be needed to brute force the password. 1.) By clicking on the button, you will be prompted to select the archive you want to open. 2.) The line in which the path to the archive is entered, you can either enter it yourself or select the archive as in under number 1. 3.) What method to search for a password (find out) if you want to brute force which is much more efficient, then put brute-force. 4.) Two tabs on which the settings will be made, now we are on one of them. 5.) What characters or numbers may be present in the archive, you can select everything, the search time depends on it. 6.) With what letters or symbols to start searching, you can leave it as it is if you have no idea what the password may contain. Next, go to the second tab under the number 4 labeled Length:
5. On the Length tab, under the number 2, select the smallest value that can be password characters and the most a large number of characters in the password. Click under the number 2 Start, thereby starting the process of guessing the password for the archive.

Download the programs mentioned in the article:

ARCHPR from the official website.

ARCHPR from Yandex disk.

6. Forgotten password from the RAR archive, the Accent RAR Password Recovery program will help you open.

   How to quickly open the password from the rar archive that you forgot:

   1. Archive password can be opened different ways, for example, brute-force passwords are when each digit and letter is substituted in different combinations. In this article, we will decrypt using the resources of your video card, yes, yes, you heard right, it can also perform abacus and do calculations. To do this, we need a program, you can download it from the official website, there are still many programs for opening office documents. But how beautifully it was written, you still have to wait even if you yourself have a super powerful computer.

   How to use the program?

   2. To use it as easy as shelling pears, everyone knows everything in the regular order, clicked and follow the instructions of the installer wizard, where to which disk and all that. After the first launch, you have a few days to use the unactivated version, but do not rejoice, although you will be given a few days to use it, it will be cut. That is, it can only remember passwords that are out of 3 numbers and you need out of 12, well, stuff like that, this is called a trial version. But the program is worth it to buy at least in a pair with someone on the floor!

   So how to use it?

   3. After installation, the program must be run like the others and in the first window you will be prompted to select the file that we will decrypt.
   4. Under the number 1, by clicking on the button, you will be prompted to select a password-protected archive. I had only one archive for the experiment and I did not know the password for it. I could have made the archive myself and password protected it, but I didn’t make the test really fair.
   5. After a little analysis, the program will show that your archive is password protected and the following decryption form will be applied to it:
   6. After clicking on the button further at the end of the window, in the next window you will be offered some options on how to decrypt the password using brute force, using brute force in your dictionary, brute force mask, leave the brute force method as it is, it's like 3x. But it is created by default and if you click on the button at the very bottom, then it is this method that will find out your password.
   7. We have shown how to decrypt and other settings, and now the program will start decrypting. At the very bottom, you will be shown the approximate time to completion and the speed of the scan by brute force or another method of your choice. It only remains to wait:

   View settings and other functions of the program:

   8. If you look at the program settings, you will see that the program does not take the resources of the processor itself, as in other programs, namely the resources of the video card. This can be seen in the picture below:
   9. Next, you can select your dictionary through which the password selection will pass.
   10. Unfortunately, not everything is decided by the program, and a great responsibility falls on your computer, how powerful it is. To be more precise, how powerful a video card is in your pc. In order for passwords to be brute-force in a matter of seconds, you need to do as in the video below:

Users personal computers sometimes they wonder how to put a password on a WinRAR archive. File compression software can reduce file size, making archives easier to store and send. e-mail... If the documents that the user wants to pack contain some valuable confidential information, then it is recommended to encrypt the archive.

This will prevent unauthorized access to the content. WinRAR tool allows you to convert archives with different extensions (eg ZIP) to encrypted RAR files, or create them from scratch.

WinRAR tool and its encryption system

This archiving program was developed by a programmer named Eugene Roshal. It was first released on April 22, 1995. At the moment, the most stable version of the program is 5.40. It was released on August 16, 2016.

The most recent build was named 5.50 Beta 4 and appeared on the download page on June 16, 2017. WinRAR tool is supported operating systems Windows XP and later. There are 2 different versions of the program for x32 and x64 systems.

The size of this archiving application is approximately 2MB (the exact size will depend on the assembly used). The program supports over 40 different languages. WinRAR tool is distributed on a shareware basis.

If the RAR archive is protected by code, then it is safe. This also applies to all other data compression formats. A good password should consist of a variety of letters, numbers, and other symbols.

It is not recommended to use as a cipher a combination that an attacker can theoretically guess (for example, his date of birth). There are many so-called hacking programs out there, but none of them are capable of dealing with trusted code.

How do I encrypt files?

To convert a zipped file to RAR format on Windows 7, follow these steps:

• to run latest version WinRAR applications and click the "Tools" button in the menu bar;
• select "Convert" from the list of options and use the "Add" button;
• select the archive that the person wants to encrypt and click OK;
• use the "Compression" button, then go to the "General" tab;
• click "Set password on WinRAR", then enter the combination in the "Enter password" field;
• re-enter the code in the field for confirmation, after which you can select the "Encrypt file names in the archive" checkbox;
• press the OK button 2 times;
• when prompted, select "Yes" if the user wants to encrypt the converted archive;
• click OK to convert and encrypt the data;
• after completion of the process, you can use the "Close" button.

If a person is interested in how to put a password on WinRAR, which has already been created, you need to follow these steps:

1. run the latest version of the application and use the built-in file browser to find the file on your computer that you want to encrypt;
2. select "File" in the menu bar and click "Set default password";
3. after you set the cipher for the RAR format archive in the “Enter password” field, you need to re-enter it in the “Repeat password for verification” line;
4. select the Encrypt file names check box and click OK.

If the user wants to know how to set a password for the WinRAR archive, follow these steps:

• launch the latest version of the WinRAR application, then use the built-in file browser to navigate to the data that needs to be encrypted;
• while holding down the Ctrl key, left-click on each file that a person wants to add to the archive;
• press the "Add" button at the top of the screen, then type a name for the file in the appropriate input field;
• press the "Set password" button and enter the code in the input field;
• re-enter the cipher in the confirmation line and select the "Encrypt file names" checkbox;
• Press OK 2 times to archive and encrypt the selected files, after which setting the password for the WinRAR archive will be completed.

If adding a password to an existing RAR archive does not work, you need to use the Extract button to open the content and then pack it again with a password, as described in Method 3. Then you can delete original file and save the new encrypted version that was just created.

The user must make sure that he remembers the passwords for his encrypted RAR archives, otherwise he will not be able to access the data contained inside again. All of the above information applies to WinRAR version 5.00.

In other versions of this program, the process for creating encrypted data may differ slightly, but the difference is usually not significant.

Content of the article:

If you are faced with the task of a simple, but at the same time, reliable transfer of confidential information to another person, then think about using a password-protected archive. You can also put a password on the archive for the purpose of protection important information on your computer or laptop. It is quite difficult to crack the password even using paid programs... Often, the whole point of the work of programs designed to crack the archive password comes down to a simple search of numbers, letters and words. That's why good password(from eight characters long, with numbers, letters and symbols like ^ or $) is almost impossible to crack.

In order to set our own password for the archive, we will use two archivers: WinRAR and 7-Zip. These programs are very popular and familiar to a wide range of users. Our detailed manual will not leave you any questions about setting a password for the archive and you will be able to protect any confidential information on your machine.

How to put a password on a WinRAR archive

Most computer owners are accustomed to using the WinRAR program to archive any data. This archiver is paid, but the whole point of its being paid is that after 40 days free use a message will appear prompting you to buy a license. The functional part of the program does not suffer from this. Using the mouse, click on the file that we want to archive and securely protect with a password, and then select the "Add to archive" item.

After these actions, the WinRAR archiver window will appear on the screen. You need to come up with and enter a name for the future archive (if you do not do this, the default name will be used, which is the same as the name of the archived file). Then click on the item "Set password" (on old version it is in the "Advanced" tab).

Then, in the appropriate fields, enter a strong password twice (there can be no question of any 123 or qwerty, since such passwords are cracked very quickly). If you are afraid to forget the password to the archive, then write it down somewhere in a notepad or a text file.

It is also highly recommended to check the box next to “Encrypt file names”. If this checkbox is not checked, then your password-protected archive can be opened and you can see the name of the folders and files that are in it. It will be impossible to download or open them without knowing the password, but the names will be displayed, which is unacceptable in some situations. In order to set a password for the archive, click "Ok".

After that, an archive with a password will appear in the folder where the data that we archived was located. You can easily write it down to a USB flash drive or send it to someone by mail without fear for the safety of information in it. After creating the archive, the original file can be deleted.

To unzip the data, right-click on the archive and select "Extract to current folder". Enter the password and click “OK”.

Now you know how to put a password on a WinRAR archive. Next, let's take a look at the process of setting a password using 7-Zip.

How to put a password on a 7-Zip archive

Unfortunately, the 7-Zip archiver is less popular among users, although it is completely free and offers an open source source... To set your password, run 7-Zip and specify the files or folders you want to zip. Select the files and click on the "Add" button.

A window will appear on the screen in which you need to specify the name of the archive, enter the password twice and check the box next to the item “Encrypt file names”. To create an archive, click "Ok".

Unzipping is also easy. Open the archive with a double click and enter the password.

Conclusion

As you can see, absolutely any user can set a password for the archive. It is very comfortable and useful function for safekeeping important files and documents. It can be used in a variety of situations.

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It's no secret that such a simple and small program as an archiver is very popular among modern computer users. Its main purpose is to package files before sending them over the Internet. But few users know how to put a password on a win rar archive.

Each of us has downloaded files from the Internet more than once or received an attached archive by e-mail. And many already understand what this program is for. Win RAR is a file compression and storage program. The program icon looks like this: a stack of books tied with a belt.

Note! To find out if you have WinRAR on your computer, hover your mouse over any file or folder, right-click on it and look at the drop-down menu.

If in the menu you see icons in the form of a “stack of books”, then you have an archiver. If there is no archiver on your computer, you need to go to the official website http://www.win-rar.ru. Select there and download the version you want on 32bit or 64bit, download the corresponding Russification file and install.

What is WinRAR for and how to use it

The main purpose of the program is to compress files and folders. I must say right away that of all formats, the most popular are RAR and ZIP... The difference between them is insignificant, but still there.

ZIP-Archives are created more quickly, but on modern computers it is not so noticeable. Format RAR provides better compression, allows you to create multivolume archives, allows you to process files of almost unlimited size.

How to use the WinRAR archiver program to store files?

It is convenient to store folder archives on your computer because they take up less space. But at the same time, it is necessary to take into account the fact that media files: music, videos and photos are practically not compressed by any archiver. Therefore, you will hardly be able to save disk space.

To archive and store secret information (passwords, codes, personal data), you can put a password on your archive. I'll talk about this at the end of this article.

Now let's see in practice how to create an archive and how to extract files and folders from an archive.

How to add a file to an archive

To do this, you need to follow a few simple steps.

You select the file or folder you need, right-click on it, and in the context menu that appears, select the item "Add to archive ..."

A window will open in front of you, in which you will first have to select the archive format RAR or ZIP (both formats can be sent by e-mail).

And one more item - "Archiving parameters".

If suddenly your friend does not have this program, then you can make a self-extracting archive. That is, you need to check the Create SFX archive box. And then anyone can unpack this archive. It differs in the exe extension and a yellow box.

After all the set values, click the OK button and you get a packed archive. Then you can safely send the archive by e-mail or save it on your computer.

How to unpack an archive

Let's say you received archived photos from your relatives by email. To extract them, you need to do the following:

Move the mouse cursor over the "stack of books" archive icon, double-click on it with the left mouse button (as if you were opening simple folder) a window with the winrar program will open in front of you, and inside you will see the zipped files.

To extract them, you need to click on the "extract" button, in the window that opens, indicate the location on your computer where you are going to store the extracted files. By default (if you do not choose the path) the files will be extracted to the folder where the archive itself is located.

Then press the OK button. The files are being extracted.

Now let's say you have prepared an archive with photos to send to your friends, but remember that you forgot to add a couple of interesting photos to the archive. The winrar archiver provides the function of adding files.

Let's take a look at how this function works.

Open the archive (you already know how to do this). The archiver window opens in front of you. In which you need to click on the "add" icon (stack of books). Then a window will open in which you need to select the files you are interested in.

Click OK and your photos will be added to the archive.

How to put a password on an archive

Immediately I want to draw your attention to the fact that it is possible to put a password on the archive in the winrar program only during its packing and after you have added a file or folder to the archive. That is, if you want to put a password on an already created archive, you must first extract all files from the archive, and then repack it.

You can also use more in a simple way: attach the previously created archive file to the new one and put the password on the new archive.

To set a password for the winrar archive, do the following:

1. Select the folder with files to which you want to put a password.
2. Hover the mouse cursor over the selected folder, right-click, select the "Add to archive" item in the drop-down menu.
3. You should open a window on the "General" tab. This is the very first tab. Next, open the "Advanced" tab and click on the "Set password ..."

You will see a window with a password entry field. We come up with a password, enter in this field, then enter the password again to confirm.

Don't forget to check the box Encrypt in Filenames Click OK, and you're done - you've set a password for the archive.

Now you can check this archive with the file, double-click it, and you will see a window asking you to enter the password, "Enter password"... Enter the password and get access to the archive file.

That's all. I hope you find this article helpful.

Best regards, Ul Sartakov.