How to Lock an App with a Password in Windows 11?

Most of the time, laptops or computers are often shared among family members. Don’t you want anyone to open an application without your permission? Then there is an easy way to restrict other people from accessing the application. This article from MiniTool Partition Wizard shows you how to lock an app with a password in Windows 11.

How to Lock an App with a Password in Windows 11?

Since there is no built-in feature in Windows that allows you to password protect applications, folders, or files, we will have to rely on third-party tools to do this. My Lockbox is a simple tool that can lock the entire folder with the password you set. The following guide will show you how to lock apps with a password in Windows 11.

Step 1: Download and install My Lockbox.

Note: During the installation process, My Lockbox will ask you if you want to add the Protect with My Lockbox option in the Windows Explorer context menu. If enabled, after installation, when you right-click the folder in Windows 11 and select Show more options, you will see the Protect with My Lockbox option in the context menu.

show Shell integration

Step 2: When you open My Lockbox for the first time, the software will ask you to set a password to lock the applications on your PC. You can also add a password reminder and an email ID, which will help you recover your password if you forget it.

set the password

Step 3: In the Folder to protect, click Browse and browse to the folder you want to lock. Then click OK. Windows software is usually installed in C:/Program Files or Program Files (x86), so you can directly find the software you want to lock. You can even select the Program Files folder to lock all applications in it.

click Browse to choose an app you want to lock

Note: If you don’t know the location of the application installation folder, right-click the desktop shortcut of the application you want to lock, and select the Properties option. The Start in field will show where the application was originally located.

Step 4: Once a folder is locked, when you try to open an application (via the desktop shortcut, the Start menu, or anywhere else) located in your locked folder, Windows 11 will display an error message stating “The item referred to by this shortcut cannot be accessed. You may not have the appropriate permissions. ”

show the error message

Tip: The free version of My Lockbox only allows you to lock 1 folder. To lock more folders, you need to pay for a subscription or purchase software. But you can try to put all the apps and files you want to lock in one folder and lock only that specific folder. It can still lock all files and subfolders in the specific folder you choose to lock.

In this way, you can put a lock on an app with a password in Windows 11 to protect your information.

To unlock the application, you can open the My Lockbox Control Panel and click the Unlocked button.

unlock the app

Bottom Line

After reading this post, you may find it is not being very complicated to lock an app with a password in Windows 11. And do you know other methods? Please share with us.

About The Author

Vega Follow Us

Position: Columnist

Vega joined MiniTool as an editor after graduation. She enjoys helping people with computer problems, including disk management, data recovery, and more. She is constantly expanding her knowledge in related fields. And she will continue to bring more easy-to-understand professional articles to help people solve various problems on the PC. In her daily life, Vega enjoys hanging out with friends, shopping online and listening to music. She is someone who knows how to enjoy life.