How to Lock Folder on Windows 10 with Password

Unless you’re some kind of saint or someone who barely uses a computer, you’ve felt the need to lock your private files behind a password at some point in time. Locking your private files can be really important when you are living with nosy roommates or even family members. These days, doing that on a smartphone is pretty darn easy thanks to a plethora of apps and file locking apps. On a PC, locking an app is still somewhat of a dream. Locking files and folders though has been possible since more than a decade ago. That’s usually through third-party software. Today though we’ll show you how to lock a folder on Windows 10 with a password without any third-party software.

Warning

While this is a tried and tested method we still can’t take any responsibility for lost files or folders. It’d be best to test this out first on a folder that isn’t important. Also, it is possible that someone who understands the process can reverse engineer the process. So this isn’t meant to keep tech-savvy folks out, just nosy family members or friends who you don’t trust.

Useful tip: How to Shutdown Windows 10 without Installing Updates

Locking Folder on Windows 10

1. Right-click inside a drive or folder where you would like to place your locked folder and select New > Text Document from the context menu. You can even do this on the desktop if you want.
2. Name the file anything you want or just hit Enter. The filename doesn’t really matter.
3. Once created, double-click on the text file to open it. Alternatively, you can simply open Notepad from the Start menu and skip directly to step 4. This way you won’t have to delete the newly created text file later.
4. Copy and paste the text below into your newly created text document.

   @ECHO OFFtitle Folder Lockerif EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCKif NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER:CONFIRMecho Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)set/p "cho=>"if %cho%==Y goto LOCKif %cho%==y goto LOCKif %cho%==n goto ENDif %cho%==N goto END
   
   echo Invalid choice.
   
   goto CONFIRM
   
   :LOCK
   
   ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
   
   attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
   
   echo Folder locked
   
   goto End
   
   :UNLOCK
   
   echo Enter password to Unlock folder
   
   set/p "pass=>"
   
   if NOT %pass%==Your-Password-Here goto FAIL
   
   attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
   
   ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker
   
   echo Folder Unlocked successfully
   
   goto End
   
   :FAIL
   
   echo Invalid password
   
   goto end
   
   :MDLOCKER
   
   md Locker
   
   echo Locker created successfully
   
   goto End
   :End

   

5. In the text file, find the text Your-Password-Here. Replace Your-Password-Here with the password you want to set for the locked folder. For instance, if you want the password to be 12345, replace Your-Password-Here with 12345 as shown below. 
6. Click File > Save As… and then in the popup window select All files from the drop-down menu next to the label Save as type. 
7. Now type FolderLock.bat in the File name field and click Save. You can now delete the text file you earlier created. Also, you can name the file FolderLock.bat or anything else you want with the extension .bat. For the sake of this article, we’re going with FolderLock.bat.
8. Now double-click on the FolderLock.bat file and a new folder named Locker will be created. 
9. Drag and drop all the files you want to hide and lock into the folder. When you’re done, double-click the FolderLock.bat file again and this time you’ll be asked if you want to lock the folder. Type ‘Y‘ in the command prompt window and hit Enter.
10. You’ll notice the Locker folder is no more visible. It can’t be seen even if you turn on the option to show hidden files.  Even if you try accessing the folder via the address bar, Windows will return the message that it could not locate the folder.
11. The only way to access the folder again is to double-click on the FolderLock.bat file again. This time, it’ll ask you to enter the password you had earlier set. Type in the password and hit Enter and you’ll notice the folder will appear again.

When you’re done with your folder double-click on the FolderLock.bat file again and re-lock it.  That’s it! You have successfully locked a folder on your Windows 10 and now you have a hidden safe inside your PC. To save more space, you can also compress the folders on your Windows 10 PC.

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