Four Useful Ways to Password Protect Windows 8 User Accounts

When it comes to the topic on password protection, most Windows 8 users may regard it as a useful means to protect personal privacy in Windows 8 devices. On the other hand, some others don’t use passwords, because they think it is troublesome to recover Windows 8 password when they forget it. In consideration of account security, I want to say, it is necessary to set passwords for your Windows 8 account, especially if many people potentially have physical access to your machine. Windows 8 offers many different ways for you to password protect your account. Let’s take a look at some of them.

How to Password Protect Windows 8 User Account

1.Password Protect Folders in Windows 8

Most Windows users tend to create many folders to store important files. It is therefore necessary to protect these files from peeping Toms, especially when you share the same computer with other users. As an example, let’s see how to password protect a newly created folder.

Step 1: Right click your desktop to create a new folder, and then right click it to go to “Properties”.

Step 2: Click on the “Security” tab, and choose the user you are going to encrypt folder for.

Step 3: Tap on “Edit”, select the same user.

Step 4: Check first “Deny” box in the “Full Control” line and then all the remaining options will be checked automatically. Once you “Apply” these settings, your folder can only be accessible for your account.

2. Lock your active session

If you want to secure your Windows 8 user account, it is also necessary to lock your active session. Once it is locked, others will have to press “Ctrl+ Alt+ Del” and enter a password in order to use the computer. You can lock it by clicking the shortcut key “Windows + L”. It is especially useful for laptops and whenever you want to protect your privacy on your account.

3. Enable screen saver passwords

It is also a recommended method to protect data security in Windows 8 PC. If you enable this setting, all Screen Savers will be password protected. This ensures that no other user, in your absence can access your machine. To enable screen saver passwords:

Step 1: Open metro UI and input “gpedit.msc” in the search box, and then click on icon labeled as “gpedit.msc” in the result.

Step 2: Click “User Configuration” > “Administrative templates” > “Control Panel” > “Personalization” and search for “password protects the screen saver”.

Step 3: Right click the file and click on “Edit” tab from the dropdown menu.

Step 4: In the next page, check the “Enable” box and click “OK”. Now when you will go to your windows screensaver settings, you will see that the automatic access to the desktop won’t be operational any more.

4.Set login password for your Windows 8 account

A login password can serve as the first line to protect your privacy in Windows 8 PC. Unlike in Windows Server 2008, users forget the password and have to reset Windows Server 2008 password on a regular basis. In Windows 8, users can create a PIN code or picture password as a supplement of text password, so that it is less likely to forget password. You can then make the login password in Windows 8 long and complicated, which is helpful to make your account much safer.