How to Make a File Read Only

You create a file and put some important things in it; you don't want to lose it by deleting it mistakenly, and for safety reasons want a warning message before deletion (or for any other reason). Making a file Read-only is an easy and efficient way to proceed. If you don't know how to do this, see step 1 below to begin.

Method 1
Method 1 of 2:

GUI Method

  1. Image titled Make a File Read Only Step 1
    1
    Right click on the file, you want to make it Read-only.
  2. Image titled Make a File Read Only Step 2
    2
    Click on the Properties tab from the context menu.
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  3. Image titled Make a File Read Only Step 3
    3
    Click the Read-only check box belong to Attributes from on the General tab from the popped up Properties window.
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    4
    Click on Apply and then click on Okay.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 2:

Command Prompt Method

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    1
    Open command prompt. You can open it by clicking on Start->Run, then type cmd and hit Enter. You can also press Win Key+R.
  2. 2
    Write below codes and hit Enter to make your file Read-only.
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About This Article

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 10 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 117,871 times.
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Co-authors: 10
Updated: October 14, 2017
Views: 117,871
Categories: Basic Computer Skills
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