NTFS Encryption options

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Lantash
Posts: 4
Joined: 05 Dec 2006, 12:34

NTFS Encryption options

Post by Lantash »

I'd suggest an option to remove or hide these menu items.

There are already far too many 'no-hoper' techsupport calls from users who've lost large amounts of data to EFS through using it without understanding the need to backup encryption-keys. (or even what encryption keys are, for that matter.)

Better to minimise the risk by not inviting rookies to try it out. (Same could be said to Microsoft, of course, though I doubt they'd listen!)
Jan Rysavy
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Post by Jan Rysavy »

Unfortunately, besides the Files > NTFS Commands submenu there is also Files > Change Attributes command and right-click > Properties (> Advanced) dialog box. The last one is a standard system dialog box which we cannot change.

Btw, do you know about EFS Recovery Agent? Do you use it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encrypting ... ator_login
Lantash
Posts: 4
Joined: 05 Dec 2006, 12:34

Post by Lantash »

Yes I know about recovery agent, but it's only of use in a very limited number of situations. If the user's done anything that replaces the profile folders then it's no help.

By contrast with the likes of Truecrypt that situation doesn't generally arise because the user is well-aware of the need for a key, and the consequences of losing it. It's the transparency and apparent ease of use that's the danger with EFS.
Jan Rysavy
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Post by Jan Rysavy »

What looks weird to me is hide NTFS Commands and keep another two places where option to encrypt file can be reached with two clicks...
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th.
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Joined: 04 Sep 2006, 23:09
Location: Germany

Post by th. »

EFS can be disabled with a Group Policy (see http://searchwindowssecurity.techtarget ... 53,00.html) .
Jan Rysavy
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Post by Jan Rysavy »

How to turn off EFS on Windows 2000 and XP please look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288579

In the Registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\EFS
create a new DWORD value named EfsConfiguration and set value to 1 (EFS turned off). Then restart the computer.

Salamander will display following message box:
Image
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