Creating an archive with a password, on condition that this password is quite complicated — a very reliable way to protect your files from unauthorized viewing. Despite the abundance of various «Password Recovery» programs it is sufficiently difficult to crack it. This article clearly shows how to set a password for RAR, ZIP and 7z files using WinRAR and 7-Zip.
How to set a password to RAR or ZIP file in WinRAR?
WinRAR — the most common archive in the world. In WinRAR you can create archives in RAR and ZIP, and set passwords on both types of files. However, encryption of file names is available only for RAR (respectively, in ZIP, in order to extract the files you will need to enter a password, but the file names will be visible or not).
The first way to make a password to protect archive in WinRAR — select all the files and folders to be placed in the archives in to Explorer folder or on the desktop, click on it, right-click and select the shortcut menu (if any) «Add to archive …» with icon WinRAR.
Open file creation window, where, in addition to select the file type and location save it, you can click «Set Password», and then double-enter it, turn on the encryption of file names (for RAR only) if needed. Then click OK and OK again in the window to create an archive — the archive will be created with a password.
If the context menu by right-clicking no point to add to the archive of WinRAR, then you can just run the archive, select the files and folders to back up in it, click the «Add» button in the bar at the top, and then follow the same steps to set the password on archive.
Another way to put a password on the file or all files in the future created in WinRAR — click on the image key on the bottom left in the status bar and set the required encryption settings. If necessary, check the box «Use for all archives».
How to set a password to 7-Zip file?
With the free 7-Zip archiver, you can create archives of 7z and ZIP, set the password and select the type of encryption (you can unpack and RAR). Specifically, one can create other files, but can only set a password for the above two types.
Just as with WinRAR, 7-Zip archive creation is possible with the help of «Add to archive» context menu item under the Z-Zip or from the main window via the «Add» button.
How to set a password to 7z file?
In both cases, you will see the same window to add files to the archive in which, when choosing 7z format (default) or ZIP inclusion of encryption will be available at the same time for 7z is also available, and file encryption. Just set the desired password, if desired, including the hidden file name and click OK. As an encryption method recommend AES-256 (also available for ZIP ZipCrypto).
