D'Arcy from Winnipeg
Musings of a Canadian Developer - Silverlight, ASP.NET, BizTalk, Life, and Technology

Windows 7 – Adding Password to Compressed Folder Missing

Sunday, January 25, 2009 3:50 PM


image  This is my Super Secret Stuff folder. It’s a zip file, and I need to pass on my super secret stuff to some super secret person who will be the only person knowing the super secret password to open it.

So I open the zip file in explorer and…um…where’s my “Add Password” option in the file menu?! It’s GONE!

image

It’s also not under any of the other menu items. I’m going to chalk this up to it being a beta, but still…shouldn’t this have been part of Explorer since its been a mainstay in Windows XP and Vista?

[EDIT]

So, it turns out that I was amiss in saying that this feature has been a main-stay in XP AND Vista…its only actually in XP. In Vista, there is no ‘Add Password’ feature for zip files. I found a blog post from a guy who actually contacted Microsoft on it, and their response. I’m thinking that it was a “We don’t want people thinking that a password will be a fail-safe security measure, have their data compromised, then sue us for not telling them that adding a password to the file isn’t going to make their data safe.” Or something like that.

Anyway, Microsoft, here’s one vote to PUTTING IT BACK. I liked having it built into the OS and not having to install another application to handle something that really should just be handled by the file system.

[/EDIT]

D


Feedback

# re: Windows 7 – Adding Password to Compressed Folder Missing

Yep, there's definitely an File/Add Password entry in Windows XP when you are exploring the zip folder. I don't know about Vista... 1/25/2009 4:58 PM | Peter Ritchie

# re: Windows 7 – Adding Password to Compressed Folder Missing

Welcome to 2008. This has been gone for years. 1/26/2009 5:11 AM | Joe

# re: Windows 7 – Adding Password to Compressed Folder Missing

@Joe Um, you meant 2009 right? ;) But yeah, too bad that its been gone since XP. 1/26/2009 10:11 AM | D'Arcy from Winnipeg

# re: Windows 7 – Adding Password to Compressed Folder Missing

I also use this feature a lot - I have found a workaround. Save zip file to a memory key, then use the XP Virtual Machine mode to open the file and add password.

Works fine - when you import the file back into Win7 folders, password protection is still active. 5/17/2009 1:05 AM | Phil Gray

# re: Windows 7 – Adding Password to Compressed Folder Missing

I also use this feature a lot - I have found a workaround. Save zip file to a memory key, then use the XP Virtual Machine mode to open the file and add password.

Works fine - when you import the file back into Win7 folders, password protection is still active 5/17/2009 1:07 AM | Phil Gray

# re: Windows 7 – Adding Password to Compressed Folder Missing

or buy a small usb pen and use the bitlocker encryption...?? 10/19/2009 5:27 AM | chip

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