Decrypting in Windows is a simple process, once you know the basics steps of what to do.
File and folder decryption on Windows is significantly more complicated without the help of software (and thankfully so, lest it would be rather useless to encrypt a file or folder in the first place). Foremost, one must have administrator privileges. Past that the steps to follow are as follows (for older Windows operating systems, as new operating systems come with BitLocker software, which manages encryption and decryption for the user).
Steps to Decrypting Manually on Older Windows Operating Systems (Pre -Vista)
- Select “Run” from the Start menu and type “cmd,” then press enter
- In the command prompt, type /r:Eagent and press enter
- When the prompt displays, “Please type in the password to protect your .PFX file, type in the administrator password, and then type it in again for confirmation
- The prompt will then display, “Your .CER file was created successfully” and “Your .CER file was created successfully,” as well as the directory in which these files are stored. Select “Run” from the Start menu again and type in “certmgr.msc” and press enter to open the Certificates Manager.
- Navigate to “Personal,” right click the folder, and select “All Tasks/Import.” This opens the Certificate Import Wizard.
- Click next and navigate to the directory indicated in the command prompt. Change the file type at the bottom of the window to “Personal Information Exchange,” open the Eagent.pfx folder, and press enter.
- Ensure that the radio button “Automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certificate” is active and finish the wizard.
- Select “Run” from the Start menu and type “secpol.msc” and press enter.
- Once the Local Security Policy opens, expand the Public Key Policies folder, right click the Encrypted File System subfolder, and select “Add Data Recover Agent.”
- When the wizard opens, select next and click “Browse Folders.”
- Navigate to the same directory that was indicated in the command prompt and open the file called, “Eagent.cer.” Click next, then Finish, and close the Local Security Policy
- If files have not yet been encrypted, the one can simply navigate to the encrypted files and open them as the Administrator. If not, then one can log into the user account through which the files were encrypted (if not the Administrator account), then immediately log out and log into the Administrator account to open them.