1 How to Enable or Remove EFS NTFS File Encryption in the Windows 10 Local Group Policy Editor2 How to Enable or Disable NTFS File Encryption using a REG file3 How to Enable or Disable Windows File Encryption via .REG Download
Though Windows has strong in-built security, it’s very difficult to protect a computer from a physical, in-person attack. One solution, however, is Windows 10 file encryption, also known as the encrypting file system (EFS). Windows 10 EFS allows for easy encryption and decryption of files on your account’s NTSF drives using tried and tested algorithms. Jargon aside, this means that anybody who tries to access your files and doesn’t have the encryption key (password) only sees strings of letters and numbers. Unfortunately, some people find that the encrypt contents to secure data option is grayed out. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to enable EFS on your PC to remedy this, as well as how to remove the EFS encryption option if you need to. We’ll show you two methods to enable or disable EFS NTSF – the group policy editor and a registry file. Let’s get started:
How to Enable or Remove EFS NTFS File Encryption in the Windows 10 Local Group Policy Editor
How to Enable or Disable NTFS File Encryption using a REG file
How to Enable or Disable Windows File Encryption via .REG Download
That wraps up this Windows 10 file encryption tutorial. You can follow our guide to using NTFS encryption to check if “encrypt contents to secure data” is grayed out still and learn more. You may also want to check our BitLocker encryption guide and decide which method is best for you.
Press OK once you’ve made your selection and Restart your PC to apply the changes.
In the main pane, right-click any empty space and choose “New > DWORD (32-bit) Value”. Name the DWORD NtfsDisableEncryption, taking care to copy the capitalization exactly.
