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Command Prompt is a great tool that helps Use Windows Command Prompt to Encrypt Files problems, fixing different kinds of errors, registering programmes, etc. With command tools, it’s easy to update Windows, look at information about the hardware, and even encrypt files.
Since Windows 2000, all users have access to the Encrypted File System (EFS), which lets them protect their files and folders from people who have physical access to their computer. If someone wants to use your computer but doesn’t have the right certificate, they will see the message “Access Denied.” Here, we’ll show you a useful command tool for using EFS in Windows 10/11 to encrypt and decrypt files and folders.
What is Encryption?
Encryption protects your data by making it hard to read, which makes it useless to people who shouldn’t have it. Using specific algorithms, your data is turned into ciphertext, which keeps your data safe. Encryption makes sure that people who shouldn’t have access to certain data can’t get it. It’s a great way to protect secure communications and stop data breaches. On the other hand, decryption is the process of turning encrypted ciphertext back into plain text that humans can understand.
There are two main kinds of encryption: symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption. Asymmetric encryption uses a public key and a private key to encrypt and decrypt data, while symmetric encryption only needs one key. If your data is encrypted, it will still be safe even if anyone can see it. But if someone with bad intentions gets the decryption keys and figures out how to decode your data, your data will be at risk.
How to Use Windows Command Prompt to Encrypt Files
Using Advanced Properties
- Right-click on the file or folder, and select Properties from the context menu.
- In the Properties dialog, click the Advanced button on the General tab.
- Click to check the option Encrypt contents to secure data.
- If prompted, select either Apply changes to this folder only or Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files according to what you want.
Using Cipher Command
- Press Win+X, hit A to open Command Prompt (Admin).
- Execute one of the following commands as needed.
Using iSumsoft FileCarer
With iSumsoft FileCarer, you can encrypt photos, videos, documents, and other types of files on Windows. This software is reliable and works well. It is also a flexible tool that makes it easy to hide important files and delete sensitive files for good. With this tool, you can lock down a file or folder so that nothing gets out. Now, let’s learn how to use iSumsoft FileCarer to encrypt and decrypt files and folders with just a few clicks.
- Step 1: Install iSumsoft FileCarer and open this software on your Windows 10. Then select Encrypt option on the left pane.
- Step 2: To encrypt a folder, click on the folder icon. To encrypt a file, click on the file icon instead. When the file directory is loaded in iSumsoft FileCarer, check the box for the files needed to encrypt.
- Step 3: Enter a password on both boxes and click the Encrypt button. Then the files will be successfully encrypted in no soon.
FAQs
Enter the following code and press ↵ Enter : attrib +h “Secret Files” . Replace “Secret Files” with the name of the file you want to hide; you only need quotation marks if you have a space in the file name. If you want to hide the folder and everything with the file, use attrib +h /s /d .
Use the dir /a command to list all files (including hidden and system files). Then use the attrib command with -h to remove hidden file attributes, -s to remove system file attributes, or -h -s to remove both hidden and system file attributes.
To show hidden files you must use the -a option. This tells the ls command to list “all” files and folders including hidden ones, i.e. those starting with a dot (.). As you can see, there are several files that start with a dot. If you just run the ls command without the -a option, the output will ignore hidden files.
