In our recent article, we reviewed how to encrypt a file or folder in Windows 10 using EFS. Today, we will see how to decrypt your data. This can be done with either the File Explorer app, or with a command line tool, cipher.exe.
For many versions, Windows has included an advanced security feature called Encrypting File System (EFS). It allows the user to store files and folders encrypted, so they will be protected from unwanted access. Today, we will see how to encrypt a file or a folder with Encrypting File System (EFS) in Windows 10. This can be done with either the File Properties dialog, or with a command line tool, cipher.exe.
For many versions, Windows has included an advanced security feature called Encrypting File System (EFS). It allows the user to store files and folders encrypted, so they will be protected from unwanted access. Other user accounts cannot access it, neither can anyone from the network or by booting into another OS and accessing that folder. This is the strongest protection which is available in Windows to protect individual files and folders without encrypting the whole drive. But Microsoft has kept this useful feature pretty well hidden and only in business editions of Windows. It is possible to add Encrypt and Decrypt commands to the right click menu (context menu) in File Explorer to using EFS becomes easier.
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