How to Restrict User Access to Folders in Windows

It’s not often, but there will be times when you need to block or restrict other users from accessing a specific folder and its contents. This article explains how to do it in simple steps.

Generally, when you create a folder, it is accessible by all users on your computer as long as it is not in the user’s home folder. While this is a good thing and makes accessing the folder easy for all users, it can also be a hindrance if you don’t want others accessing a specific folder. For example, maybe you want to restrict users from accessing your personal photos or financial documents in a specific folder. Whatever the reason, you can easily block users from opening a specific folder using File Explorer’s folder permissions. Once a folder is restricted, other users will see the “Permission Denied” error message when they try to open the files in the target folder.

So, without further ado, let me show you how to restrict user access to a specific folder in Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Before You Start

• The folder you are trying to restrict should be in an NTFS formatted drive. This is because folder permissions are only available on the NTFS file system. If you are not sure about your drive’s file system, right-click on the drive that has the target folder, select “Properties”, and you will see the drive file system under the “General” tab. It should say “NTFS” right next to “File System”.
• The user account you are trying to restrict should already be present.
• You should know the username of the account you want to restrict.
• The steps below are tested to work in Windows 11 and Windows 10.

Restrict User Access to Folders in Windows

1. Open the File Explorer application by pressing “Windows key + R”.
2. Find the folder you want to restrict and right-click on it.
3. Select the “Properties” option.
4. Go to the “Security” tab.
5. Click the “Edit” button.
6. Click “Add“.
7. Enter the username of the user account you want to restrict and click “Check Names“.
8. Click “OK“.
9. Select the user account under “Group or user names”.
10. Select the “Full control” checkbox under the “Deny” column.
11. Click “Apply“.
12. In the warning dialog, click “Yes“.
13. Click “OK“.
14. With that, that specific user is restricted and cannot access the folder and its contents.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, open the File Explorer window. To do that, press the “Windows key + R” shortcut or click the File Explorer icon on your taskbar. Next, find the folder, right-click on it, and select the “Properties” option.

In the “Properties” window, go to the “Security” tab and see if the user account you want to restrict is listed under the “Group or user name” section. If it is not listed, click the “Edit” button. If you see the user name, skip to Step 5.

Since the username is not listed, we need to add it manually. To do that, click the “Add” button under the “Group or user name” section.

In this window, type the username of the target user in the blank field and click the “Check names” button. This action will automatically fill in the proper user object name. For example, my user account name is “windowsloop” so I typed that and clicked on the Check Names button. Click on the “OK” button.

Note: If you don’t know the username, follow this guide to find the username in Windows.

Next, select the newly added user account under “Group and user name”. After that, select the “Full Control” checkbox under the “Deny” column in the “Permissions” section. Click the “Apply” button to save the change.

As soon as you click the “Apply” button, Windows will show a warning message. Click the “Yes” button to continue.

Finally, click the “OK” buttons in both windows to complete the folder permission setup.

That is it. With that, you’ve changed the folder permissions such that the selected user account cannot access the target folder.

If they try to open it, he/she will see the “You don’t currently have permission to access this folder” message.

When they click on the “Continue” button, all they see is the “You’ve been denied permission to access this folder” message.

Wrapping Up — Blocking User Access to a Folder in Windows 11 & 10

As you can see, thanks to the built-in folder permissions, you can easily restrict any user from accessing a specific folder in Windows. Once restricted, the target user will be denied permission whenever they try to access a file in the restricted folder.

Keep in mind that an administrator can easily change the folder permissions. That means, if the target user is an administrator, they can modify the folder permissions and access the contents.

If your target is to make sure no one but you can access the contents in a folder, you need to encrypt the drive with BitLocker or use software such as 7-Zip to create a password-protected archive file (zip).

If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist. Also, did you know that you can create a locked folder in Windows? Click the link to learn how.