Add EFS Options to the Shortcut Menu
Published: July 22, 2002
Submitted by Lori Keam, Redmond, Washington.
The Encrypting File System (EFS) in Windows XP lets you encrypt files and folders on an NTFS volume. If you add the option to encrypt or decrypt files to the shortcut menu, when a user right-clicks a file or folder on an NTFS volume, the option to Encrypt or Decrypt appears in the list of options. Note that the EFS feature is not included in Windows XP Home Edition.
To add EFS options to the shortcut menu
1. | In the Run dialog box, type regedit. |
2. | Navigate to the subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Exporer\Advanced |
3. | On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value. |
4. | Enter EncryptionContextMenu for the value name, and 1 for the value data. |
You may need to have an administrator account on your computer to make changes to the registry.
See TechNet's Five-Minute Security Advisor—Using the Encrypting File System for more information on how EFS works.
Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. At the very least, you should back up any valued data on the computer before making changes to the registry.
