Encrypting ZIP Files: How to Password Protect Your ZIP Files

Would you like to prevent unauthorized people from accessing sensitive data that you store on data servers and shared computers, or send via email? Then it’s best to use password-protected archive files, like those in ZIP format.

You can password protect ZIP files on both Windows 10 and macOS. However, the range of functions provided by your system’s password-protection tools are limited. For this reason, we recommend using external software.

Contents

Password Protect ZIP Files with Windows System Tools
Encrypting File Folders with macOS Standard Tools
Password Protecting ZIP Files with Third-Party Software

Password Protect ZIP Files with Windows System Tools

Microsoft Windows 10 provides a feature for password protecting files and folders which is integrated in the operating system. Windows password protection can also protect ZIP files from unauthorized access, without having to use third-party software. To activate password protection for your files, follow these steps:

Note

Windows password protection is only available in the editions Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise, not in Windows 10 Home.

Step 1: Using the right mouse button, click on the ZIP file that you would like to password protect.

Step 2: In the shortcut menu, select the “Properties” option to open the file properties.

Windows Explorer: The shortcut menu — The shortcut menu for the Windows 10 file manager

Step 3: In the “General” tab, click on “Advanced” in order to open the “Advanced Attribute” dialog window.

Properties of the file folder: “General” tab — The data file properties

Step 4: In the “Advanced Attributes” dialog window, select the check box next to “Encrypt contents to secure data”.

Dialog window: Advanced file attributes — The file folder’s advanced attributes

Step 5: Close the “Advanced Attributes” dialog window by clicking on “OK” and save the change in file properties by clicking on “OK” or “Apply”.

Dialog window: Confirm file attribute change — You have the choice of activating the file’s password only for the selected folder, or for its subfolders as well.

The file icon now displays a padlock. This indicates that the corresponding file is password protected. But what does this actually mean?

Password-protected ZIP file with the lock symbol — In Windows Explorer, the lock symbol allows you to see if a file is password protected.

After you have activated password protection, you’ll note that you can still open the file without a password prompt. File content can also be displayed and processed without changes. Nevertheless, the file is password protected – with a key generated by Windows that is stored in your user account.

You have access to the file as long as you are logged into your user account. By contrast, other users will be denied access. This can be very practical in many situations. However, only in a few application cases does it serve as a password-protected ZIP file. For instance, this feature is not intended for sending password-protected ZIP files. For this, we recommend using a compression program with an encryption feature.

Encrypting File Folders with macOS Standard Tools

Though it’s true the Apple operating system macOS does not offer any native features for password protecting ZIP files, you can however protect the directories – in which ZIP files are located – as image files. To do so, follow these steps:

Step 1: Create a new folder in Finder – macOS’ standard file manager.

Step 2: Relocate all ZIP files that you’d like to protect into the folder you just created.

Step 3: Open the macOS hard drive service program. You can do this via Spotlight search.

Spotlight – the macOS search function — Spotlight – the macOS desktop search function – allows you to find files, documents, images, music, emails, contacts, and programs.

Step 4: Click on “File” in the menu bar above and choose “Image from Folder” under “New Image”.

Step 5: Choose the folder you created at the beginning that has the files you wish to protect and click on “Open”.

The macOS hard drive service program: Selecting file folder — File folder options

Step 6: Give the image a name and choose a save location.

The macOS hard drive service program: File name and save location — Selecting the save location

Step 7: Choose the type of encryption:

128-Bit-AES encryption (recommended)
256-Bit-AES encryption (more secure, but slower)

Step 8: Enter a password of your choosing and confirm entry by clicking on “Choose”.

The macOS hard drive service program: Password entry — Password entry for image encryption

Step 9: Make sure that the image format is set to “Compressed” and complete the process by clicking on “Save”.

The macOS hard drive service program: Algorithm options for encryption — Algorithm options for encryption

The encrypted image is created in .dmg format in the save location you specified.

The macOS hard drive service program: Progress bar — The progress bar during image creation

Select the image by double-clicking on it and entering your password to access the password-protected file.

Password entry prompt — The password required to open the image file can be stored in the user account’s key ring, if necessary.

An open .dmg file is displayed as an integrated drive in Finder.

Password-protected .dmg file content — An opened .dmg file as an integrated hard drive

Eject the image via Finder if you are no longer using the protected files. Otherwise, they will remain accessible without a password prompt.

Eject disk image (.dmg) — To eject an integrated hard drive, click on the corresponding button in the Finder navigation area (highlighted in red).

Note

To make sure that your data is protected from unauthorized access, you should delete the unencrypted original data.

Password Protecting ZIP Files with Third-Party Software

Since the options for each operating system are limited, we recommend using a third-party program. For example, we have chosen 7-Zip, a free packer application with a high compression rate and reliable encryption. It creates archive files in the 7z, TAR, WIM, and ZIP formats. The program’s encryption feature is available for 7z and ZIP files.

Follow these steps to create a password-protected archive file for any file folder of your choosing:

Step 1: Download the open-source 7-Zip compression program from the provider’s website and install the software on your system.

7-Zip is automatically integrated into the Windows Explorer shortcut menu.

Step 2: Using the right mouse button, click on the file folder that you would like to encrypt.

Step 3: Choose “7-Zip” in the shortcut menu and click on “Add to archives…” in the pop-up menu.

The compression program 7-Zip in the Windows Explorer shortcut menu — The integration of 7-Zip into the file manager’s shortcut menu enables you to work just as comfortably with the highly efficient packer program as you would with your operating system’s standard tools.

Step 4: In the packer program’s configuration mask, you’ll find the required settings for the save location, archive format, compression strength, compression method, and encryption.

Enter a password, then enter it again.

7-Zip: Configuration mask for password protecting archive files — The configuration mask for the 7-Zip packer program

Note

In archive format, 7z is available with AES-256-bit encryption. This can also be used for password protecting ZIP files. What’s more, the latter can be encrypted with the ZipCrypto algorithm.

Opening an archive file that has been password protected with 7-Zip requires you to enter a password.

Password prompt when opening an encrypted 7z file

Tip

Windows users often utilize the WinZip packer program for password protecting ZIP files. The programs WinRAR, Peazip, Bandizip, and Ashampoo Zip Free also offer encryption features. We provide you with a detailed comparison of the range of features in our article on the most popular WinZip alternatives.