How can I disable the Encrypting File System (EFS) on a Windows 2000 or later machine?

John Savill

August 11, 2002

1 Min Read
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A. To disable EFS, perform the following steps:

  1. Start a registry editor (e.g., regedit.exe).

  2. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionEFS subkey.

  3. From the Edit menu, select New, DWORD Value.

  4. Enter a name of EfsConfiguration and press Enter.

  5. Double-click the new value, set it to 1 to disable EFS, then click OK.

  6. Close the registry editor.

  7. Reboot the machine.

This change will affect all users: When users try to encrypt a file, they'll receive an error. You can set the registry value to 0 to enable EFS, but this value doesn't exist by default.

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About the Author

John Savill

John Savill

https://savilltech.net

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