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How to Turn Off Windows File Encryption (EFS)

How to Turn Off Windows File Encryption (EFS)

By Mitch Bartlett 2 Comments

How to disable the Encrypting File System (EFS) feature in Windows.

Windows 10, 8, 7, and Vista Command

  1. Hold down the Windows Key and press “R” to bring up the Run window.
  2. Type the following then press “Enter“.
    • fsutil behavior set disableencryption 1

EFS is disabled. If you ever wish to enable it again, use the command fsutil behavior set disableencryption 0


Windows 2000 and XP NTFS Volumes

  1. Hold down the Windows Key and press “R“.
  2. Type “regedit” and click “OK“.
  3. Navigate to the following registry location:
    • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
    • SYSTEM
    • CurrentControlSet
    • Control
    • FileSystem
  4. Look for an entry on the right side for “NtfsDisableEncryption“. If it doesn’t exist, you will need to create it. To do so, right-click on “FileSystem” and select “New” > “DWORD Value“. Give the value a name of “NtfsDisableEncryption“. Press the “Enter” key when you are done.
  5. Right-click the “NtfsDisableEncryption” entry and click “Modify“.
  6. To “disable” EFS set the “Value data” to “1“. (To enable EFS again, set the Value data to 0 or delete NftsDisableEncrpytion)
  7. Restart the computer to apply changes.
  8. Now when trying to encrypt a folder, the following error will be produced:

An error occurred applying attributes to the file:
{file path and filename}
Access is denied.

Error Applying Attributes

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Filed Under: Windows Tagged With: win7, Windows 10

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Auspicious B says

    March 10, 2018 at 4:06 pm

    “The Encrypt Contents to Secure Data block has remained grayed out.”

    This is the same on my computer – can someone tell me how to enable my access to encrypt folders / files? I am not a programmer, but can enter simple commands if anyone can provide clear instructions. Thanks!

  2. Brian says

    December 30, 2016 at 1:30 pm

    Doesn’t work for me. Have changed NtfsDisableEncryption DWORD from 0 to 1 and back to 0. The Encrypt Contents to Secure Data block has remained grayed out. I’ve rebooted after changing it each time.

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