How to set a password for a WinRar archive? How to set a password for the winrar archive: a detailed description How to set a password for the rar archive

Today I will tell you how to set a password for the WinRar archive. Not so long ago I already wrote a similar article, but it was about installing . Not everyone uses 7Zip, many still (since the late 90s) use the WinRar archiver.

I will not write why you should not use WinRar, but the mere fact that this archiver is paid should make you think. Well, it's clear that not everyone pays money for a license, but uses broken versions, but why if there are free analogues?

In general, let's not talk about the bad, if it so happened that you have the WinRar archiver installed and you need to set a password for the archive, this article is for you.

If you still do not have this archiver and want to use it, you can download WinRAR on the official website. After that, install it and proceed directly to password-protecting the archive.

Select the folder or file you need that you want to archive with a password and right-click on it and select "Add to archive ..."

In the options window, specify the type of archive (I left RAR) and click on the “Set password” button

Enter the password twice and check the “Encrypt file names” box, then click “OK”

In the archive parameters window, also click “OK”

Now try to open the archive you created, if everything is done correctly, you will be prompted to enter a password during opening

If the password is entered incorrectly, you will see an error message.

and only if you enter the password correctly, you will see the contents of the archive

I want to give you a little warning. This type of protection is not reliable. Password-protected archives are fairly easy to hack. So I advise you not to store confidential information in this form and not to transfer it to third parties.

There are many cases when the user has an urgent need to protect his personal information from third parties. Of course, one of the best ways to protect your files is to write them to external media and then lock it in a safe deposit box in a Swiss bank.

But, unfortunately, not everyone has such an opportunity and it is not always convenient and expedient. Therefore, other options should be considered, such as protecting the personal archive with a complex password. Below, step by step and with illustrations, all the necessary actions are described, how to put a password on the WinRar archive.

Preparatory activities

Before proceeding directly to the instructions on how to set a password, the user will first be required to complete the following three preliminary steps:

• Firstly, if the WinRar application is not yet available on the PC, then you need to install it from the official resource. Users have the opportunity to immediately purchase it for personal use by paying a small amount, or you can use the demo modification of the utility (this version is valid for more than one month, so the computer owner has enough time to solve his priorities).

Installing the downloaded distribution kit will not cause any difficulties even for beginners, as a special installer will guide you step by step through all the stages of installing the program. The user is only required to agree to the terms or adjust some settings.

• Secondly, it is recommended to come up with a complex access code in advance, which will be set to protect the archive data. Practice shows that this seemingly simple step often takes a significant amount of time, because it is desirable that the password be at least eight characters long and contain various categories of characters, letters and numbers.
• Thirdly, write down your own code on paper, since even the worst and shabby notebook is always better than the best human memory.

This small final stage of preparatory measures should not be neglected, otherwise it is likely that if you lose your password, you will lose important information stored in the archive along with it.

To crack an archive password-protected with a strong code, you need special software (it should be noted that it is paid), as well as very powerful computer hardware. And even if all these conditions are met, the "hacker" will need to spend a considerable amount of time on the procedure of sorting through all possible options.

Instruction

To set a password for the winrar archive, the following steps are required:

Note: in earlier versions of the application, this button is located in the "Advanced" tab.

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

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

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

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 certain computer users. 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 the folder or file so that no one but you can open it. One way: 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 easiest ways.

But first, let's 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 the operating system tool. To do this, right-click on the 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. The folder will then 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 this folder or file is easy to make 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 enter 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 was before, you will see it again. This folder will have a translucent appearance.

In order 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 now public again.

After all these steps, 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 complicated 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, the folder or file will turn into an archive and it will not be possible to open it without knowing the password. In 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 "Secret Folder". Click on the folder with the right mouse button.

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

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

If you choose 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 extract the archive and open the file.

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

Archiving starts, and after its completion, the 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 corresponding field, and then click on the "OK" button.

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

In the Extract Path and Options window, click the OK button.

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

Conclusion

Using the WinRAR archiver, you can easily put a password on a folder or file. You can quickly block access to a file or folder if you archive the file or folder in WinRAR and then set a password for the created archive.

How to put a password on a folder using WinRAR

WinRAR allows you to create both standard zip archives and your own unique format (rar). The archiving and password setting process is almost identical; rar, however, has an additional option available, 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 sealed it. Otherwise, you will not be able to open the archive later):

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

Click OK. The password-protected archive is ready.

Now, when trying 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 can then be safely deleted.

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 button again to password-protect, and you can set the protection.

Conclusion

The only disadvantage of WinRAR is that the program is paid. Therefore, it makes sense to use it only if you need to have an archive of exactly .rar format. In working with other options (zip and others), free analogues like 7Zip are perfect, which also allow you to set a password and securely protect the content.

WinRAR is one of the best file archiving programs. In order for the created archive to be viewed only by you or persons trusted by you, the functionality of this program has the ability to set a password for the archive being created to protect the contents. Below is a detailed guide on how to put a password on a WinRAR archive.

Winrar allows you to set a password before and after archiving, which distinguishes this program from other similar ones.

To password-protect a RAR archive, you first need to run the program itself. After launch, the following dialog box will appear:

In the system file explorer that opens, you need to find the files that we want to archive, and select them with the mouse cursor with the left button pressed right in this window:

Suppose we opened some folder with photos. After selecting the files, it should look like this:

In it, you need to click the sub-item "Add files to the archive" (or press the hot key combination Alt + A). As a result of these actions, the following window will appear:

In this window, you can rename the future archive, select the archiving format, compression method, and also set the size of the archive part when splitting it into several files. Read more lesson" ". Next, we will dwell in more detail on setting a password in Winrar. On the "General" tab or on the "Advanced" tab (depending on the version of the program), click the "Set password" button:

After clicking, another window will appear in which you need to check the option "Display password as you type" (this will allow you to see the password you enter), and then enter the password twice (or once if the previous option was selected) and press the button "OK". You can also check the "Encrypt file names" option, which will hide the real names of files in the archive:

Note! You can open files that will be archived by Winrar without first launching WinRAR itself. Just select the desired files in the folder:

And then, without removing the selection from them, move the cursor over them and press the right mouse button. As a result, the following context menu will pop up:

In this menu, you must select and click the item "Add to archive ...". As a result, exactly the same dialog box as described above will appear:

The next steps will be the same.

And now let's consider the option of how to put a password on an existing WinRAR archive. Let's select the RAR archive we need through the program explorer:

Click "Add Files to Archive". We set the password, as we did above, in the "Compression method" item, select the "No compression" value and click the "OK" button:

As a result, the archive will have a password.