

- #How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 install#
- #How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 archive#
- #How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 rar#
- #How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 pro#
On my test file with a short four-character passcode and 256-bit AES encryption, it worked flawlessly and got me the password in just a few minutes.
#How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 archive#
Overall, this is an excellent program and definitely worth the cost if you need to get into a ZIP or other archive file. For example, if you know the password starts with x and is 7 characters long, you would enter x? into the Mask box on the Range tab. This probably won’t be the case most of the time, but if you do happen to have at least one file that you know is inside the archive, you can use the Plain Text attack to decrypt the entire archive.Īlso, if you happen to know the length of the password and anything else about it, you can use the Mask attack. Of course, this won’t work if someone used a complex password, but it’s worth a shot since it’s much faster.Īnother thing to note is that the whole archive can be decrypted if you happen to have one of the files that are inside the archive. The nice thing is that you can download bigger dictionaries online and use them in the program if you want. The program comes with a small, but decent dictionary already built-in. Choose Dictionary from the drop-down and then click on the Dictionary tab. I suggest starting with only letters up to a higher character count and if that doesn’t work, then add All digits and All special symbols one at a time.īefore you start with a brute-force attack, it might be worth trying a dictionary attack first as that will take less time. Obviously, if you have no idea what the password is, checking All Printable and then increasing the length to 10 or higher will guarantee you more success, but it might also take way too long. The trial version only works up to four characters. If you’re not sure how long the password is, click on the Length tab and increase the maximum password length to something higher. The time goes up exponentially as the password gets longer. Again, this is only for a short four-character password. If you choose All Printable characters, the time went up to 2.5 hours in my case. By default, the Type of Attack is set to Brute-force and the options that are checked include all capital and all lowercase letters.īefore you click Start, you should go ahead and click on the Benchmark button, which will check the type of encryption on the file and give you an estimate of how long it will take using the current options.Īs you can see, it will take about 11 minutes to recover a password that was encrypted using AES 256-bit and by only looking at lowercase and uppercase letters with a maximum password length of only 4 characters. To get started, click the Open button and choose your archive file.
#How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 install#
Once you download and install the software, you’ll see the main interface as shown above. In these types of situations, you should start with the faster methods before moving on to attacks that will take much longer.


The toughest situation is when you have a password and you don’t know the length or what kind of characters are included. What I like about this program is the number of different methods you can use to recover the password and the different options you have for each method. In addition, it has an additional method of recovery called Password from keys that can be used in addition to brute-force, dictionary and plain-text attacks.
#How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 pro#
The main difference between the two versions is that the Pro version supports WinZip archives that use enhanced AES encryption and guarantees WinZip recovery with some limitations (must be WinZip 8.0 or earlier and the archive has to have at least 5 files). The Standard version is $49.99 and the Pro version is $99. The software comes in two flavors: Standard and Pro. In my opinion, Elcomsoft Archive Password Recovery is the best choice for recovering a password from an encrypted ZIP, RAR, ACE or ARJ archive.
#How to open password protected zip files on windows 7 rar#
Also, be sure to check out my other posts on opening password protected RAR files, cracking XLS passwords, resetting Windows administrator passwords, and resetting BIOS passwords.
