Backup the most important documents
Working with many documents always involves some risk, especially if we are not used to making regular backups of our files on an external memory such as a hard disk or directly on the web using a space on the cloud, the so-called digital cloud.
In particular, it may happen that by cleaning up a folder and deleting what is no longer needed, documents that were important for our work or any other personal reason also end up in the trash.
How to protect documents from deletion
Sure, there are various ways to try and recover files that have been deleted by mistake. Still, it is much safer to adopt a procedure that prevents essential documents from being modified, overwritten, or permanently deleted.
The operation is simple and does not require the installation of any program, since the functions offered by the Windows 10 operating system (or later updates) are enough to perform it. All we have to do is go to the Properties menu of a file and change a couple of options to make it inaccessible while still being searchable and able to create copies.
So how do you protect your files from being deleted by mistake or otherwise? The procedure to follow is effortless and has no complications. In File Explorer, we identify the document we want to protect from accidental deletion. Let’s select it and right-click.
From the menu, we choose Properties. The first step to protect the document is to open the General tab and, at the bottom, check the Read-only box. This will make the file searchable but not directly editable.
At this point, let’s move on to the Security tab. We select our name in Users and groups, click on Edit, and check to Write in the Deny column in the new window. We conclude with a click on Apply and close the menu.
Now, trying to open the file, we will receive a warning informing us of how the file can be opened in read-only or as a copy. In this way, even in the case of involuntary cancellations, the most critical documents are protected.
