MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Location: file:///C:/CF8B22B3/HowtoShareEncryptedFileswithOtherUsers.htm Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" How to Share Encrypted Files with Other Users

How to Share Encrypted Files with= Other Users

One of the neat new features that Microsoft introduced in Windows 2000 was EFS, the Encrypting = File System that lets you protect your data files stored on disk. Windows XP made EFS even better -- now you can share encrypted files with other users. To s= hare an encrypted file, you just do the following:

  1. In Windows Explorer, right click the file and sel= ect Properties.
  2. On the General tab, click the Advanced button.
  3. Under "Compress or Encrypt attributes," check the box labeled Encrypt contents to secure data.
  4. Click the Details button.
  5. Click Add to select the user(s) with whom = you want to share the file.
  6. Select the user from the list or click Find Us= er.
  7. Click OK.
  8. Click OK in each dialog box to close it= .

That's fine and dan= dy, but what if the account for the user with whom you want to share doesn't sh= ow up in the list? Even if you search for and find the account, you may get an error message. The problem is that in order to share encrypted files with another user, that user has to have an EFS certificate.

Okay, why doesn't y= our user have an EFS certificate and how does he/she get one? The answer is sim= ple. A user is issued an EFS certificate automatically the first time that user encrypts a file or folder using EFS. That means the solution is simple, too= -- the user needs to encrypt something. Then the certificate will be issued and the user's account name should show up in the list.