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I am sorry if am posting this thread in the wrong section. I am a Windows XP user and just wanted to know a trick about encrypting files or folders on windows XP. Many of my friends who are Windows XP user, secure their files without help of any third party software. Thats really interesting. Could you guys please make me know how can i encrypt files using inbuilt feature of Windows XP ? Thanks in advance.
Windows XP Professional allows you to limit access to a file or folder by a secure method of encryption natively. On an NTFS partition with Windows XP Professional, you can simply encrypt a file or folder that you want to protect. This encryption feature is not available for the Home Edition of Windows XP. Here is how to encrypt a folder on xp:-
- Right click on the folder, select Properties and then Advanced.
- Then check the box Encrypt contents to secure data and click the OK button.
- Finally, click Apply.
- You will get a confirmation Pop-UP for the same.
- Allow the Apply changes to this folder and all subfolders and files selected to also encrypt the contents of the folder and click OK.
Thats it. Note that a file that is copied or moved to this folder will be encrypted in turn.
The process for encrypting a single file is also similar. Right click on the file, select Properties and then Advanced. Then check the box Encrypt contents to secure data and click the OK button. Finally, click Apply. Allow the option Encrypt the file and select the parent folder to also encrypt the folder containing the file and click OK. The names of encrypted files and folders now appear in green in explorer, so they are identifiable with a single glance. Access to these files in your encrypted session will be banned to another user in the same position. The method to decrypt files and folders is as easy: simply turn off the checkbox for encryption Properties dialog box accessible by right clicking on the item.
You can also use the command line to encrypt or and decryption of files or folders. The command we use is cipher. In this example, we encrypt the C: \ Files encrypted. Let's start by opening a command prompt.
- Go to Start, Run ... and enter cmd and click OK.
- Then type the following command:
Code:cipher / e / s "C: \ Encrypted Files"
- Confirm to encrypt the directory. The / e option allows you to encrypt the directory and the files will be copied later. The / s option to when she can apply the operation to all subdirectories.
- To decrypt the file or folder, type the following command:
Code:cipher / d / s "C: \ Encrypted Files"
- Submit to decrypt the folder. The / d can decrypt the folder and files that will eventually be copied.
- For all options the cipher command, type cipher /?.
There is also a way to add Encrypt or Decrypt option to the right click context menu. To simplify operations Encryption / Decryption of files and folders, we'll make a change in the registry to add a new option in the contextual menu (accessed by right clicking). To do so, just follow these steps:-
- Open Regedit (Start, Run ... and type regedit).
- Go to:
Quote:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced
- Create a DWORD value named EncryptionContextMenu and give it to 1.
- After the change, simply right click on a folder or file and choose the option Encrypt.
- Similarly, a new must click on the item will appear encrypted option Deciphering the menu.
- If you want to remove this option from the menu, simply delete key EncryptionContextMenu or shift its value to 0.
The encryption method used natively by Windows XP (and Windows Server 2003) is called EFS (Encrypting File System ). This system uses an encryption key file generated randomly, independent of the pair of public / private key of a user. The encryption algorithm is 40-bit (128 bits in North America). Data encryption is achieved with a single click by generating a pair of public keys and an encryption certificate file. The latter is then created in the first encrypting a file by a user, the certificate will then be reused for subsequent encryption. For added security, each file has a unique encryption key.