How to Create a Password-Protected ZIP on Windows

Use an encrypted ZIP when several files must travel together and only the right person should open them.

Email attachments, links to shared cloud folders and USB sticks all leave copies in places you don't control. A single encrypted ZIP keeps documents, photos and spreadsheets together under one password, and the person receiving it can open it on Windows or a Mac.

No. Right-click a file or folder and choose Compress to > ZIP File (on Windows 10, Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder), and you get an ordinary ZIP with no password option. Windows 11 24H2 can also make 7z and TAR archives from the same menu, with format, method and level under Additional options, but still without a password or encryption. PowerShell's Compress-Archive has no password setting either.

EFS, the Encrypt contents to secure data option in a file's advanced properties on Windows Pro, only protects files on your own PC. Microsoft's own help warns that encrypted files added to a zipped folder come out unencrypted when they're unzipped, so EFS can't protect a file you send.

File Acture's Create ZIP packs any mix of files and folders into one ZIP and, with Protect with a password turned on, encrypts every file with AES-256.

Under Archive, type an Archive name and choose a Compression level: Normal, Maximum or None (fastest). Turn on Protect with a password, then type the password in Password and Confirm password.

Folders keep their structure, including empty ones. Symbolic links are skipped rather than followed, and very large files are stored in ZIP64 format. The ZIP is saved to the folder you pick under Save to, and it only appears once it's complete, so you never find a half-written archive.

Normal suits most archives, Maximum squeezes out a little more at the cost of time, and None (fastest) stores the files without compressing them.

Documents, spreadsheets and text shrink well in a ZIP. Photos, videos and PDFs are already compressed, so they barely change, and None (fastest) packs them quickly with exactly the same protection. The password and the AES-256 encryption work the same at every level.

An encrypted ZIP locks the contents of every file, but the file names inside stay readable to anyone who opens the archive, with or without the password.

• Rename sensitive files before zipping if the names themselves give something away.
• Use a long passphrase and send it separately from the ZIP, for example by text message.
• Check the recipient's app. File Explorer can't extract AES-256 ZIPs, so the person receiving it needs File Acture, 7-Zip, WinRAR or WinZip on Windows, or File Acture or Keka on a Mac.
• Clean photos first. Pictures in the ZIP still carry their GPS position, so remove location data before you pack them.
• One PDF? Protect the PDF itself with AES-256, so it opens in any PDF app with the password.

To open an AES-256 ZIP on Windows, add it to File Acture's Extract Archive, type the password and click Extract.

Extract Archive also opens ZIPs protected with the older ZipCrypto scheme, as well as 7z and TAR archives. Each archive is unpacked into a new folder, and entries that try to write outside it are refused.

Online tools that add a password to a ZIP need your unencrypted files first, which defeats the purpose. File Acture encrypts on your PC, so the files never leave it before they're locked. The free version takes up to 5 items per run, with 3 runs on each PC; see pricing for Pro.