How to encrypt and decrypt your Windows Vista folders ?

Gili | May 04, 2007 | Comments 9

In a previous post, i outlined the procedure you should follow when wanting to increase your Windows based PC security by encrypting a file in Windows XP.

But what if you want to secure your work by encrypting an entire folder?

Here’s how you can do the same trick in Windows Vista:

Note: This procedure is applicable only to NTFS volumes only

Open Windows Explorer
Right click the folder you would like to encrypt and click Properties.
In the General tab, click Advanced. Check the Encrypt Contents to secure data box.
Click OK
If the folder contains subfolders, Vista will display a dialog asking whether you would like to encrypt also those subfolders.

Decrypting a folder is also quite easy:

Open Windows Explorer

Right click the folder you would like to encrypt and click Properties.

In the General tab, click Advanced. Uncheck the Encrypt Contents to secure data box.

Click OK

Just FYI, Vista ships with a bice command line utility named Cipher (accessible via Start>>run>>cmd>> Type cipher /? for the entire list of switches) that allows administrators to manage all encryption activites in the system. Be warned that the tool is for advanced users only.

Important Note

When you encrypt your first file or folder in a PC, a key pair is generated. The key pair consist of a public and private key. If the key pair is lost or damaged you won’t be able to access your encrypted data.

Thus it’s extremely important that you follow the procedure specified in section How to back up your certificate in the Microsoft Best Practices for encrypting files.

[tags] Windows Vista, Vista, Encryption, PC Security [/tags]

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Filed Under: Windows Tweaks

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How to encrypt and decrypt your Windows Vista folders ?

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