Unlike many other apps in this category (Adobe Reader or Xodo PDF Reader), PDFEncrypt is a free and open-source tool designed to do one thing: add a password to PDF documents to encrypt their contents. In other words, when you add a password to a document, the contents of the PDF will be unreadable. Only the person with the correct password will be able to decrypt the document to access its content. The app uses the iTextPDF open-source library for encryption and the source code is available on GitHub. This guide will teach you the steps to password protect your PDF files on Windows 11, 10, or older versions.

Add password to PDFs with PDFEncrypt on Windows 11

To protect a PDF document with a password on Windows 11 (or 10), use these steps: Once you complete the steps, the application will create another PDF file with password protection without modifying the original document.

You can then send the document to other people through email, knowing that only the person with the password will be able to see the contents. You don’t need a special application to open the file. You only need to double-click the PDF document, and then you will be prompted to enter the password to access the contents with the default PDF reader (such as Adobe Reader, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, etc.) available on the computer. All content on this site is provided with no warranties, express or implied. Use any information at your own risk. Always backup of your device and files before making any changes. Privacy policy info.