EFS problems... xp pro - vista

Hi, I encrypted some folders\files, on xp pro. But when I tried to decrypt
them the encryption came off, but I still couldnt open files. I dont have
permissions to move, view, copy. I took ownership of the file, gave
permissions to myself but still no good.
Now i've gone to vista without thinkin of this problem. so now i'm an
alltogether new user, I kind of understand EFS, so I know it's very difficult
now to resolve this. I was wondering if anyone could help me with this.. I'm
really upset to have lost all my travel photos.
Tks

"Stoney" <Stoney@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9C5895C0-23CD-47EB-9B29-2288B9559DED@microsoft.com...
> Hi, I encrypted some folders\files, on xp pro. But when I tried to
> decrypt
> them the encryption came off, but I still couldnt open files. I dont have
> permissions to move, view, copy. I took ownership of the file, gave
> permissions to myself but still no good.
> Now i've gone to vista without thinkin of this problem. so now i'm an
> alltogether new user, I kind of understand EFS, so I know it's very
> difficult
> now to resolve this. I was wondering if anyone could help me with this..
> I'm
> really upset to have lost all my travel photos.
> Tks
>


I seem to have the opposite problem to you. I encrypted a test file (text),
saved the key etc and have the file encrypted - my problem is that I can
still open the file by just plain double clicking on it. I wanted, and
expected to be prompted for a password or key before it would open. I needed
to encrypt and have it only open with the password.

In article <u1uKkhSfHHA.4872@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl>,
leshayathome@hotmailREMOVE.com says...
> "Stoney" <Stoney@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:9C5895C0-23CD-47EB-9B29-2288B9559DED@microsoft.com...
> > Hi, I encrypted some folders\files, on xp pro. But when I tried to
> > decrypt
> > them the encryption came off, but I still couldnt open files. I dont have
> > permissions to move, view, copy. I took ownership of the file, gave
> > permissions to myself but still no good.
> > Now i've gone to vista without thinkin of this problem. so now i'm an
> > alltogether new user, I kind of understand EFS, so I know it's very
> > difficult
> > now to resolve this. I was wondering if anyone could help me with this..
> > I'm
> > really upset to have lost all my travel photos.
> > Tks
> >
>
>
> I seem to have the opposite problem to you. I encrypted a test file (text),
> saved the key etc and have the file encrypted - my problem is that I can
> still open the file by just plain double clicking on it. I wanted, and
> expected to be prompted for a password or key before it would open. I needed
> to encrypt and have it only open with the password.
>
>
THis is not how EFS works. EFS is unable to use private
key protection, as EFS does not provide access to the
interface to input a password. It will silently fail if
you were to add a password.

Try opening the file as a different user. Then you will
see the message that occurs when you do not have access.

Sorry, but this is how the product works.
Brian

"Brian Komar [MVP]" <bkomar@nospam.identit.ca> wrote in message
news:MPG.20882f83da53bea39896e5@msnews.microsoft.com...
> In article <u1uKkhSfHHA.4872@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl>,
> leshayathome@hotmailREMOVE.com says...
>> "Stoney" <Stoney@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:9C5895C0-23CD-47EB-9B29-2288B9559DED@microsoft.com...
>> > Hi, I encrypted some folders\files, on xp pro. But when I tried to
>> > decrypt
>> > them the encryption came off, but I still couldnt open files. I dont
>> > have
>> > permissions to move, view, copy. I took ownership of the file, gave
>> > permissions to myself but still no good.
>> > Now i've gone to vista without thinkin of this problem. so now i'm an
>> > alltogether new user, I kind of understand EFS, so I know it's very
>> > difficult
>> > now to resolve this. I was wondering if anyone could help me with
>> > this..
>> > I'm
>> > really upset to have lost all my travel photos.
>> > Tks
>> >
>>
>>
>> I seem to have the opposite problem to you. I encrypted a test file
>> (text),
>> saved the key etc and have the file encrypted - my problem is that I can
>> still open the file by just plain double clicking on it. I wanted, and
>> expected to be prompted for a password or key before it would open. I
>> needed
>> to encrypt and have it only open with the password.
>>
>>
> THis is not how EFS works. EFS is unable to use private
> key protection, as EFS does not provide access to the
> interface to input a password. It will silently fail if
> you were to add a password.
>
> Try opening the file as a different user. Then you will
> see the message that occurs when you do not have access.
>
> Sorry, but this is how the product works.
> Brian


Thank you Brian. I had sort of come to the conclusion that my expectations
were unrealistic. With your first 6 words you have explained more
information pertinent to my needs than all the Help and Support, TechNet
pages, MS web sites and about 4 hours of my time. I found nothing, explained
in simple terms to tell me I was barking up the wrong tree. I can safely put
that idea to bed now.

Is there anything within Vista that achieves the sort of thing I need? I
previously used software called AxCrypt but it is not happy in Vista.

In article <OPu43hTfHHA.1816@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl>,
leshayathome@hotmailREMOVE.com says...
> "Brian Komar [MVP]" <bkomar@nospam.identit.ca> wrote in message
> news:MPG.20882f83da53bea39896e5@msnews.microsoft.com...
> > In article <u1uKkhSfHHA.4872@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl>,
> > leshayathome@hotmailREMOVE.com says...
> >> "Stoney" <Stoney@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> >> news:9C5895C0-23CD-47EB-9B29-2288B9559DED@microsoft.com...
> >> > Hi, I encrypted some folders\files, on xp pro. But when I tried to
> >> > decrypt
> >> > them the encryption came off, but I still couldnt open files. I dont
> >> > have
> >> > permissions to move, view, copy. I took ownership of the file, gave
> >> > permissions to myself but still no good.
> >> > Now i've gone to vista without thinkin of this problem. so now i'm an
> >> > alltogether new user, I kind of understand EFS, so I know it's very
> >> > difficult
> >> > now to resolve this. I was wondering if anyone could help me with
> >> > this..
> >> > I'm
> >> > really upset to have lost all my travel photos.
> >> > Tks
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >> I seem to have the opposite problem to you. I encrypted a test file
> >> (text),
> >> saved the key etc and have the file encrypted - my problem is that I can
> >> still open the file by just plain double clicking on it. I wanted, and
> >> expected to be prompted for a password or key before it would open. I
> >> needed
> >> to encrypt and have it only open with the password.
> >>
> >>
> > THis is not how EFS works. EFS is unable to use private
> > key protection, as EFS does not provide access to the
> > interface to input a password. It will silently fail if
> > you were to add a password.
> >
> > Try opening the file as a different user. Then you will
> > see the message that occurs when you do not have access.
> >
> > Sorry, but this is how the product works.
> > Brian
>
>
> Thank you Brian. I had sort of come to the conclusion that my expectations
> were unrealistic. With your first 6 words you have explained more
> information pertinent to my needs than all the Help and Support, TechNet
> pages, MS web sites and about 4 hours of my time. I found nothing, explained
> in simple terms to tell me I was barking up the wrong tree. I can safely put
> that idea to bed now.
In Vista, you can store the EFS certificate on a smart
card. But even in this case, for performance, the best
practice is to cache a key based on the smart card that
is used to decrypt the FEKs, rather than directly
accessing the smart card. You may get the occaisonal PIN
prompt, but not each and every time

Brian