How to Encrypt Files with Password on Windows 10/11 – 3 Ways Included

Data privacy is extraordinarily important in the modern world. Although many users set Windows lock screen password, they still want to encrypt some important files separately. And how to encrypt files with password? This article provides you with a total of three reliable methods for:

• Encrypting word documents.
• Encrypting a single file or an entire folder.
• Backing up and encrypting a single file, folder or an entire disk.

3 Ways to Encrypt Files with Password on Windows 10/11

If you want to know how to password protect a file or folder, take a closer look at the three methods below.

#1. Encrypt A Word Document via Office

Microsoft Office allows you to encrypt your files and protect them with a password. You can learn how to encrypt a Word document in Office 2010 or later by this method.

1. Open the document you want to encrypt and select the File tab at the top.
2. Then click the Protect Document button in the Info section and select Encrypt with Password.

3. You will be prompted to enter a password, which you must provide each time you open the document in the future. You can also fully decrypt the document in the future and no longer need the password.

#2. Encrypt Protect a File or Folder via Windows Built-In Tool

The second method is suitable for encrypting and protecting a single file or folder (and all the files in it). Let's see how to encrypt files with password using Windows' built-in folder encryption feature. This method works in Windows 11, 10, 8 or 7.

1. Navigate to the folder or file you want to encrypt. Right-click on the item, select Properties
2. In the Documents Properties window, select the General tab and click the Advanced button.

3. Then check Encrypt contents to secure data in the Advanced Properties window and click OK.

4. In the Properties window press Apply -> OK to save your encryption settings. Windows will then ask you if you want to encrypt the file only or the file and its parent folder in it. Here choose to Encrypt the file only.

5. After saving, you can view the user account and recovery key associated with the folder by right-clicking on the folder and pressing Properties -> General -> Advanced -> Details.

6. When you first use this method to encrypt a file or folder, you will be asked to back up your EFS encryption key and certificate. It is recommended that you choose to Back up now.

💕 Note: You can (and are advised to) save them on an external device, such as a USB flash drive. It is not recommended to press Never back up, as you may not be able to retrieve your files later.

7. In the Certificate Export Wizard, you will be guided to create an encryption certificate and decryption password. Windows will automatically choose an appropriate format for your certificate, so press Next to continue.

8. Check the Password checkbox, then provide an appropriate password in the Password and Confirm Password boxes. In the drop-down menu for encryption, select AES256-SHA256. Press Next to continue.

9. Confirm the name of your file in the next menu and press Next. It is recommended that you save this file away from your computer, so use removable media to save your file. You can confirm the options you have chosen at the final stage. If you are satisfied, press Finish to save the certificate file.

#3. A Simpler File Encryption Solution

You should note that both of the above methods can only simply encrypt your files or folders. If you delete your files or folders by mistake or encounter a serious malfunction, your data will still be lost. To better protect your data, another good and common method is to backup and encrypt your important data.

AOMEI Backupper Professional can not only protects your individual files or folders, but also helps you encrypt your entire disk. It is powerful software that combines backup and encryption into one, which will provide you with double protection.

💫 It supports you to backup file/folder/partition/system or disk, you can choose according to your needs.
💫 It allows you to create backups to various locations such as external hard drives, network shares or cloud drives.
💫 It enables you to encrypt your backups to protect your data. Moreover, it does not have restrictions like EFS.
💫 It works with all versions of Windows (Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP/Visa).
💫 There are many other useful features such as scheduled automatic backups, file filters, backup compression, automatic deletion of old backups, etc.

Let’s take a look at how to encrypt files with password in Windows 10 while creating a backup.

1. Download AOMEI Backupper and open the software. Select a backup type under the Backup tab. Set File Backup as an example.

2. Set the source by clicking Add File or Add Folder and select the destination path respectively.

3. Click Options at the bottom and toggle on the Enable encryption for backups option in General tab. Then type the password and confirm the password.

4. After confirmation, click Start Backup to execute the task.

💥 Tips:
>>> Schedule Backup: Set up auto backup on basis of Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Event triggers/USB plug in.
>>> Backup Scheme: Create a backup scheme to automatically delete old backups and always keep the latest one(s). You can also choose to perform incremental or differential backups to save only changed files.
>>> If you want to backup files to a cloud drive but have a few GB of free space, you may consider using AOMEI Cloud. This is a cloud drive released by AOMEI Tech, which provides you with 1TB of free storage from the time you sign up to 15 days.
>>>  If you want to perform a data backup with all these great features on multiple computers, you can use the Create Portable Version tool (supported by Technician or Technician Plus) to make a portable backup software on a removable device. It can be connected to any target Windows computer to use AOMEI Backupper without installation.

Conclusion

After reading this article, you can master three methods of how to encrypt files with password. By comparison, the third method is more practical.