How to decrypt Windows 7 encrypted files

Question

I have a flash drive and on this flash drive I have a folder. In Windows explorer, I right clicked on the folder and went to properties. I then clicked the advanced button and there is a check box there that says "Encrypt Contents to Secure data". I clicked this box and hit OK. Windows then encrypted the folder for me. I can open the files in that folder just fine on my machine, but not on any other machine.

My question is, I have another computer that I would like to open these files on. What do I need to do to allow this computer access to this folder? I'm thinking I need to some how export a key but I'm not sure which key to export or how to do this. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

You need to backup your file encryption key and restore it on another computer.

Due to the way the system works, you may have to restore it to a user that has exactly the same log-in and password. If this is inconvenient, you have to use other means of encryption.

Answer 2

You will need the RSA private key. It is generally protected by the logon password.

Answer 3

BillC.cn's answer is only partially right. While you can export the private key, you don't need the same password or username. Sort of defeats the definition of public key encryption of that was the case.

Make sure to import the certificate into either the personal store or the Trusted users.

You can even encrypt files with more than one public key, thus you don't have to always give away your private key. But in your case, you want the EFS certificate stored on all your computers.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb457065.aspx