Encrypting data with 7-Zip

If you don't have 7-Zip already installed, head over to 7-zip.org and download the version with the correct bittedness for your PC — the 64-bit 7-Zip for 64-bit systems, and the 32-bit 7-Zip for 32-bit systems.

• Select the files/folders you want to include, such as those in your Documents folder. Right-click on the group of selected files/folders; you'll see 7-Zip on the context menu, as shown in Figure 1.
  

  Figure 1. Once installed, 7-Zip is easily accessed by right-clicking selected files and folders.

• Click 7-Zip in the menu, and then select Add to archive as shown in Figure 2.
  

  Figure 2. Clicking Add to archive opens 7-Zip's archive settings.

• When the Add to Archive dialog box opens (see Figure 3), enter a secure — long, complex, and hard-to-guess — password where indicated.

  The rest of the Add to Archive default choices are usually fine. 7-Zip will automatically generate an archive name based on the selected folder(s), a file's name, or the selected files' containing folder. The default archive format will be .7z, which typically offers 2–10 percent better compression than the classic .zip format. I recommend leaving the defaults alone — at least until you're familiar with 7-Zip.

  Click OK when you're ready.

  

  Figure 3. At least to start, use the default archive settings for encrypting your data.

  Note: I recommend using a good password manager to help generate and remember your passwords. For more information, see the Jan. 9 Best Software story, "Why and how to use an open-source password manager," and "Stepping up to a standalone password manager" in the Oct. 17, 2013, Top Story, "Protect yourself from the next big data breach."

• Enter your password and click OK; 7-Zip will then compress and encrypt the selected files. As a safety feature, 7-Zip creates archived copies of your files, leaving the originals intact. In Figure 4, the files are placed in an archive called Documents.7z.
  

  Figure 4. A new 7-Zip archive (in this example, Documents.7z) contains compressed, encrypted copies of the selected files and folders.

Your archive is now complete!

Your next step is to test the archive to make sure that encryption and compression worked properly. If it did — and that's almost always the case — you can then delete the original files, so that only the encrypted archive remains.

• To open an archive, simply double-click it (Documents.7z, in this example). When the password dialog box opens (Figure 5), enter the password you gave that particular archive. You might use different passwords for different archives. (Keep those passwords safe! Obviously, if you lose a password, you've effectively lost the encrypted files and/or folders.)
  

  Figure 5. Entering the correct password opens archived files and folders.

• With the proper password entered, 7-Zip File Manager opens and displays the contents of the archive (Figure 6). Click on any listed file or folder; it should open normally and work just like any nonencrypted file. When you save and close an archived file, it's automatically compressed and encrypted with the archive's original password.
  

  Figure 6. 7-Zip's file manager lets you view, open, edit, and save files.

• Check that the archived files are accessible and saved correctly, then delete the originals so that only the encrypted archive remains, as shown in Figure 7. (For complete security, be sure to empty the Windows trash.)
  

  Figure 7. With the originals deleted, your files and folders are securely encrypted.

The 7-Zip File Manager is the key to easily using your archives. Leave it open as you typically might the standard Windows/File Explorer — then view, access, or edit any files in the archives just as you do nonarchived files. 7-Zip's File Manager also lets you quickly add files to an archive.

That covers the bare-bones basics of using 7-Zip, but there's a lot more to the software, including ways to extract files and folders from the archive and to add files and folders without using the 7-Zip File Manager. For complete information on using 7-Zip, check out its built-in Help file or see these online resources:

• 7-Zip support site
• Video tutorials at ShowMeDo
• Video tutorial at Top Windows Tutorials.com
• Tutorial by expert user Gürdal Ertek (autoloading video)