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Many people willing to pay for file encryption programs but did you know Windows XP, Vista, and Seven have built in file encryption capabilities? File encryption is more and more important as our data is the coming more mobile by the day. If you were to Lucia laptop, a password may protect your information but if the person who finds your laptop takes out your hard drive and put it into a now the computer all install is a different operating system on your hard drive, they may still have access to your files. In this guide, you will learn how to encrypt your files in Windows XP. See this guide for Vista/Seven .

Encrypt Your Files

To encrypt your files, do the following:

  1. Right-click the file folder you wish to encrypt and select Properties

    Encrpyt Your Files in XP 1

  2. On the Properties dialog, click Advanced…

    Encrpyt Your Files in XP 2

  3. Check Encrypt contents to secure data and click OK

    Encrpyt Your Files in XP 3

  4. If you are encrypting a folder, you will be asked if you want to apply the encryption to subfolders. This is useful if you want to protect the whole tree under the folder you are encrypting

    Encrpyt Your Files in XP 4

  5. Notice the file or folder writing is now green— this provides an easy way to show the data is encrypted

    Encrpyt Your Files in XP 5

Decrypt Your Files

If you want to decrypt your files or folders so they can be accessed on a different computer, simply follow the steps above and uncheck Encrypt contents to secure data.

About Rich

Rich is the owner and creator of Windows Guides; he spends his time breaking things on his PC so he can write how-to guides to fix them.

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Comments

7 thoughts on “Encrypt Files on Your Hard Drive in Windows XP [How To]”

  1. Encrypt Files on Your Hard Dri says:

    […] strange here: Encrypt Files upon Your Hard Drive in Windows XP [How To] | Windows #8230 Share and […]

  2. Pingback: Encrypt Files on Your Hard Drive in Windows XP [How To] | Windows … | www.windows7vista.com
  3. Dian says:

    I can’t understand all those tools that hold data …. There are a few options to secure data and files, but the easy one is to use a secure USB drive that really works great.

  4. Dian says:

    I can’t understand all those tools that hold data …. There are a few options to secure data and files, but the easy one is to use a secure USB drive that really works great.

  5. Dian says:

    I can’t understand all those tools that hold data …. There are a few options to secure data and files, but the easy one is to use a secure USB drive that really works great.

  6. Decrypt Your Encrypted Files i says:

    […] previous guides, I showed you how to encrypt your files in Windows (XP) (Vista/7) In this guide, I#8217ll show you how to decrypt these files. You may need to decrypt […]

  7. Rich says:

    You need to be using the NTFS file system (not FAT32) to use encryption. The file system is listed on the General tab when you right click the drive, in My Computer, and click Properties.

Comments are closed.


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