How to restrict users access to
certain files

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Windows gives users control over folder permissions, allowing them to alter access to files. This is important when file owners want to keep sensitive files away from unauthorized people with access to their computers.

When restricted from a file, users will get a “Permission Denied” error message if they try to access it. In this quick guide, let me show how you can change the folder permissions to restrict user access to certain files on Windows.

File Permission on Windows Explorer

There are six types of permission that you can use to restrict access to files.

Full control
This gives the user total control and ownership of the file. It is the aggregation of the other file permissions

Modify
This permission will give the user total control of the file without ownership

Read and Execute
This permission will give a user access to the file. However, they can’t delete the files.

List Folder Content
This will allow the user to view the file names

Read
This permission will allow the user to view the names of the files and open them

Write
This permission will allow the user to add and delete the file

How to Restrict User’s Access to Certain Files

The file permissions feature in Windows is only available on an NTFS formatted drive. Also, it can only affect already created User accounts.

You can check whether the file is in an NTFS file system by right-clicking the Drive where the file is and selecting Properties. Under the General tab, the File System should say NTFS.

STEP 1

Open the folder containing the file you want to restrict

Right-click the file and click on Properties

Under the Security tab, find the user account you want to restrict.

If it issues, go to Step 3. If the user account is not there, go to Step 2.

STEP 2

Click on the Edit and then click on Add

Type the username of the account you want to restrict.

STEP 3

Select the newly added user account under Group and user name

Under the Permission Section/Full Control-click on Deny

Click on Apply and press Yes when you see a warning message

Click on OK to authenticate and complete the process.

After completing the procedure, the target user (Hello Reader) won’t be able to access the file.

On trying to, they will see the error message “You don’t currently have permission to access this file.” The same steps are applicable for restricting access to a folder.

Wrapping Up

Restricting users from certain files on Windows is important to individuals and businesses for keeping sensitive files from unauthorized people. It involves denying unauthorized people access using the standard permissions of the files. The above guide introduced the six standard permission types and how you can restrict files using them.