How to Password Protect a PDF on Windows Lock down your PDF files from unauthorized access! by: Yash Wate - Last updated on: March 12th, 2021 Key Takeaways PDFs let you present documents with text, images, and rich media. But since such documents sometimes contain sensitive information, password-protecting PDFs is necessary. Password-protecting a PDF prevents unauthorized access, unauthorized editing, and unauthorized printing of its contents. On Windows, you can password-protect PDFs using Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat. But if you need more control over encryption, there are third-party PDF encryption software. PDF (Portable Document Format) is the most widely accepted file format for sharing documents, including images, text, and other information. Not just that, it can also contain rich media elements such as video. One of the best things about the PDF format is that you can create and access a (PDF) file on any device — irrespective of its operating system. This makes sharing documents with others convenient and comes in handy, especially in today’s time, when many people work from home. Since now, they can easily share documents over the internet with other people.