Can I Password Protect a Zip file in Windows 10 or 11?

Windows provides built-in encryption features such as EFS and BitLocker. You wonder if it is natively possible to password-protect (encrypt) .zip files in Windows 10 or 11.

Workaround

Unfortunately, Windows doesn’t have an option to password-protect .zip files. However, it can open password-protected .zip files (made with the ZipCrypto encryption) created by third-party utilities.

To password-protect .zip files, use a third-party freeware utility like 7-Zip, WinRAR, or PeaZip.

Select the file(s) or folder(s) you want to .zip (with password protection), and click “Add”.

zip password protect 7-zip

In the “Add to Archive” dialog, you can select the compression method and encryption type and optionally assign a password for the archive.

Note: If you create a .zip file using a different encryption method than ZipCrypto, Windows may be unable to extract it. You may receive the error code 0x80040005. See also Zip File Error 0x80004005 When Extracting or Copying.

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Ramesh Srinivasan is passionate about Microsoft technologies and he has been a consecutive ten-time recipient of the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award in the Windows Shell/Desktop Experience category, from 2003 to 2012. He loves to troubleshoot and write about Windows. Ramesh founded Winhelponline.com in 2005.

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