Set Read Only Attributes Of Files And Folders

When working with text files stored on the hard disk of your Windows 10 computer, you'll find that some will contain vital Information that you'd want to remain as Is. Be It Important work-related material, or simply a recipe for your favorite meal, It's Imperative for It's contents to stay Intact. As such, In this tutorial, I will show you how to set read-only attributes of files and folders with Incredible ease.


So what exactly does setting a read-only attribute to a file do? Well, In very simple terms and as It's name Implies, It modifies the file's permissions, thereby content cannot be written to It, only viewed (hence read only).

Whether It's by accident that you've changed your file's contents, or If a given user who's sharing your PC has done It Intentionally, unless you have a backup, you will lose It's details. In such cases, It's good practice to set files that're of Importance to you, to read-only.

I will demonstrate how to do this, natively within Windows without using third-party tools. You will be very surprised as to just how easy It Is, yet completely overlooked by many users. Do note, that this only applies to files, and not folders. So without further delay, let's rip Into this tutorial.

Step One:

Firstly, right-click the file that you wish to set the read-only attribute, and select Properties as shown below. In my case, my file Is named Windows 10 Tips.

Step Two:

Now check the Read-only checkbox, and then simply hit Apply and OK to finalize  the process.

Step Three:

I've opened my Windows 10 Tips file (that's been set with the read-only attribute), and to make sure that data cannot be written to It nor the original contents be changed, I'll try adding some text. Let's see what happens when I click on File > Save.

Step Four:

As you can see, an alert box has been executed, confirming that the file Is set to read-only, hence changes cannot be applied.

Step Five:

If you have multiple files In the same folder and wish to set each one to read-only, you can do so without having to access every file. Begin by right-clicking the folder, and then click Properties.

Last Step:

Now select everything as highlighted In red, and then hit OK to finalize the process. From this point forward, every file contained In the folder will be set to read-only.

Final Thoughts:

Although the process to set files to read-only may seem a little lengthy, you'd probably be surprised that It only takes around 30 seconds or so to make the change. Given that tweaks of this nature can be applied In the Windows Registry and the Group Policy Editor, the good thing about this Implementation, Is that users sharing your computer who're not tech-savvy, will never know for sure as to how the read-only attribute was set.