Before we start, navigate to the folder you want to encrypt. You can do so without any commands via your familiar File Explorer interface. If you try to encrypt a zip a file that’s already encrypted, it will lose its encryption.Īs an alternative, you can also use Windows 10´s built-in Bitlocker-Tool to encrypt any drive completely so it won´t be accessible via any other OS like Linux or hacking-tools which are used to side-boot your PC.įolder encryption in Windows 10 is actually very simple. As soon as you use EFS on the file, it will be uncompressed.

Regardless of your version, though, you cannot perform. It’s also worth noting that EFS encryption is only available on Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions. Crucially, if the administrator changes the password of a user’s local account, that user will lose access unless the admin restores the encryption key. When you encrypt a folder, all new files saved to it will be encrypted automatically. Instead, users must learn how to encrypt a folder manually. It allows a user to make use of advanced yet standardized encryption algorithms to ensure others can’t access their data without a decryption key.īy default, no files in Windows 10 are EFS encrypted.

The Encrypting File System (EFS) is a Windows file encryption feature of the NTFS filesystem which you can utilize to encrypt a folder or file. What is EFS Windows Encrypting File System?