Right-click the folder or file and select Properties from the pop-up menu.Ĥ. In Windows Explorer, find and select the folder or file you wish to encrypt.ģ. Open Windows Explorer by selecting Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Explorer.Ģ.

To encrypt a folder or a file, take the following steps.ġ. Instead, they will receive an error message. However, when other users try to access the file, they will not be able to unencrypt the file-even if those users have Full Control NTFS permissions. The encryption is transparent to the user, who has access to the file. It can be difficult and very expensive to obtain decryption software, especially good decryption software that decrypts the most complex encryption types.To use EFS, a user specifies that a folder or file on an NTFS partition should be encrypted. When opening the encrypted file or folder, you need to enter that password or encryption key.Įncrypted files and folders can also be decrypted without the use of a password or encryption key, but it requires the use of high-end, sophisticated decryption software. If a file or folder is encrypted using a third-party software program, a password is used as the encryption key, which decrypts the file.

So, the password needs to be obtained from the person that performed the encryption. The password is set when the file or folder is encrypted. To open the file or folder encrypted through Windows, a password is needed to decrypt the file. In Microsoft Windows, a file or folder can be encrypted, or password protected, using encryption features built into Windows. Below are general guidelines on how to open an encrypted file. When a file or folder is encrypted, opening it requires the file or folder to be decrypted. For general help with opening a file, see: How to open, view, and edit the contents of a file on a computer.įiles and folders are encrypted to protect the data contained in the file or all the files in the folder. This page is for help with opening files that were encrypted using an encryption program.

Windows encrypt file