Guide | How To Add encrypt/decrypt in rightclick menu Win 10/8/7

  • Thread starter Deleted member 2913
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D

Deleted member 2913

Thread author
Hello,

How to add Encrypt or Decrypt item to right-click context menu in Windows 10/8/7

This tutorial will show to encrypt any file in Windows 10/8/7 with just one click, by adding Encrypt & Decrypt item your right-click context menu. It should be noted that EFS is not available in the Home editions of Windows. It is available in Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise & Education, Windows 7 Pro, Ultimate, Enterprise, and Windows 8 Pro and Enterprise editions.

1. Create a system restore point first and then press Windows Key + R on your keyboard to launch Run prompt. Type regedit.exe and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the below path on the left side pane of Registry Editor.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

3. You’ll need to create a new DWORD for encryption context menu here, in case you are not able to see it on the right side pane. Right-click Advanced and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.

4. Name it as “EncryptionContextMenu” and hit enter.

5. Double-click and open this newly created value and set its value as 1, as shown in the below image. Click OK.

Set-EncryptionContextMenu-Registry-Entry-600x351.png


Now, restart your computer to make the changes effective. Once signed back in, you will notice that your file/folder context menu has a new entry for encrypting the underlying contents.

After you’ve encrypted any file by selecting Encrypt option from context menu, the same file will not be accessible from other user accounts on the same machine.

EncryptContextMenu-In-Action-600x510.png


If you are trying to encrypt an entire folder, you are asked for confirmation on this attribute change operation, as the image given below shows.

Confirm-Attribute-Changes-Dialog.png


Once a file is encrypted, a lock image should appear on the top-right corner of the file icon/image. You can easily decrypt the files as well by choosing the Decrypt option from the context menu, but as obvious, this is only going to work on encrypted files only.

Encryption-Lock-On-File-600x321.png


Note - I haven't tried it.

There is 1 comment on the guide page
"I have followed the instructions and the encrypt option appears in the context menu. When I create a new file or folder however it is encrypted by default. Is there an option to make the default decrypted?"

Anyone tried it?

Thank You
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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Deleted member 2913

Thread author
Ok, I tried on my Win 10 64 Pro.

It seems for user accounts i.e encrypt/decrypt doesn't require password for your account So I guess other users account would require password.
Any file/folder created is encrypted.

When you encrypt first time, it does mention to backup encrypt credentials with options backup, backup later, etc.
 
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