{"id":13431,"date":"2018-12-07T03:45:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T03:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/?p=13431"},"modified":"2018-12-07T03:45:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T03:45:30","slug":"disable-efs-encrypting-file-system-in-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/disable-efs-encrypting-file-system-in-windows\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Ways to Disable EFS (Encrypting File System) in Windows 10 \/ 8 \/ 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

EFS (Encrypting File System) is a feature built into the NTFS file system in Windows that lets you encrypt folders or files on the fly. Though it’s free, many users would like to use third-party alternatives like TrueCrypt, Lock My Folders<\/a>. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to disable EFS in Windows 10 \/ 8 \/ 7.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Method 1: Disable EFS via Local Group Policy Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor<\/a> and navigate to:
    \nComputer Configuration\\Administrative Templates\\System\\Filesystem\\NTFS<\/code>.<\/p>\n

    \tIn the right pane, double-click on the “Do not allow encryption on all NTFS volumes<\/strong>” policy to edit it.<\/p>\n

    \"\"\n<\/li>\n

  2. Select Enabled<\/strong> and click OK<\/strong>.\n

    \"\"<\/li>\n

  3. Reboot your computer for the policy to take effect. The option “encrypt contents to secure data” should be greyed out and you’re unable to encrypt or decrypt folders\/files with EFS.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You can also use Registry Editor to enable the “Do not allow encryption on all NTFS volumes<\/strong>” policy. Just navigate to the registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Policies<\/em>, create a 32-bit DWORD NtfsDisableEncryption<\/strong> and set its value to 1.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    If you want to enable EFS encryption again, just set NtfsDisableEncryption<\/strong> to 0 and reboot your computer.<\/p>\n

    Method 2: Disable EFS via Command Prompt<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Open the elevated Command Prompt, and run the following command to disable EFS:
    \nfsutil behavior set disableencryption 1<\/code><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    If you ever want to turn on EFS again, execute this command:
    \nfsutil behavior set disableencryption 0<\/code><\/p>\n

    This task could also be done using a registry tweak. Just open Registry Editor and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\FileSystem<\/em>. Look for the 32-bit DWORD NtfsDisableEncryption<\/strong> and modify its value to 1.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Method 3: Disable EFS via Local Security Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Use the Windows key + R to open the Run command. Type secpol.msc<\/strong> and hit Enter to open the Local Security Policy.\n

      \"\"\n<\/li>\n

    2. Navigate to: Security Settings -> Public Key Policies -> Encrypting File System. Right-click on “Encrypting File System<\/strong>” and select Properties<\/strong>.\n

      \"\"\n<\/li>\n

    3. Under the General<\/strong> tab, choose to not allow “File encryption Using Encrypting File System (EFS)”. Click OK<\/strong> and reboot your system.\n

      \"\"\n<\/li>\n

    4. When you try to encrypt a folder\/file, you’ll get the error message “This machine is disabled for file encryption<\/em>“.\n

      \"\"\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Revert the above change and you can get EFS encryption back to work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      EFS (Encrypting File System) is a feature built into the NTFS file system in Windows that lets you encrypt folders or files on the fly. Though it’s free, many users would like to use third-party alternatives like TrueCrypt, Lock My Folders. In this tutorial we’ll show you 3 ways to disable EFS in Windows 10 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10,1894],"tags":[4073,4075,4074],"class_list":["post-13431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-others","category-tips-tricks","category-windows-10","tag-disable-efs-windows-10","tag-disable-encrypt-contents-to-secure-data","tag-encrypt-contents-to-secure-data-grayed-out"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13431"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13455,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13431\/revisions\/13455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.top-password.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}