Empathy

Empathy is a straightforward software solution whose sole purpose is to help you assign passwords to executable files (EXE). It can be seamlessly handled, even by less experienced users.
This is a portable tool, so installing Empathy is not necessary. It means that you can save the utility to a USB flash drive or any other external device, store it on any computer and directly run its executable file.
More importantly, there are no new entries added to the Windows Registry and no leftover files can be found on the hard drive after program removal.
The interface of the app is based on a standard window where you can import an EXE file by using either the file browser or 'drag and drop' function. Unfortunately, you cannot work with multiple items at the same time.
So, all you have to do is type in a password, confirm it and press the 'Protect' button to encrypt the respective file. Additionally, you can remove the protection status, test the file before applying changes, and make Empathy automatically create a backup before processing the item.
The simple-to-use program requires a massive amount of system resources, considering its limited abilities. It has a good response time and quickly finishes a task without freezing, crashing or displaying error dialogs. First-time users can easily get familiarized with Empathy's features, thanks to its intuitive layout. No recent updates have been made.