There is NO indication that going through all your removal steps can have ANY affect on your problem - only potentially take it longer more difficult to get to your real problem source.: i.e. the XP encryption keys.
Don't disturb the current environment until we figure out issues between encryptions and user attributes needed to remove encryption.
Administrators DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE ENCRYPTION simply because they are Admins either
SUMMARY
This article describes how to decrypt a file that been encrypted by using Encrypting File System (EFS) in Windows XP.
Encryption is converting data into a format that cannot be read by other users. You can use EFS to automatically encrypt your data when it is stored on the hard disk.
Note Only the user who encrypts a file can recover data that has been encrypted, unless the user specifies a recovery agent before they encrypted the files. To make sure that you can decrypt files in the future, you should always export your certificate and private key and keep them in a safe location.
For more information about how to do this, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
241201 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/241201/) How to back up the recovery agent Encrypting File System (EFS) private key in Windows Server 2003, in Windows 2000, and in Windows XP
Advanced methods to decrypt a file or a folder
These methods are intended for advanced computer users. If you are not comfortable with advanced methods, you might want to ask someone for help or contact support. For information about how to contact support, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/ (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/)
To remove encryption from a file or a folder, use the appropriate method later in this section.
Method 1: Remove encryption from a file
Only the following people can decrypt an encrypted file:
- The user who encrypted the file
- Any user who was designated as a recovery agent before the file was encrypted
- Any user who has the public key or private key for the recovery agent or the user who originally encrypted the file
- Any user who has been granted access to the file
Members of the Administrators group cannot decrypt files unless the person who encrypted the files designated them as recovery agents before encrypting the files.
Note You must be the original user who encrypted the file or a designated recovery agent for the file to follow these steps. If you are not authorized to remove encryption, you receive the following error message:
Error Applying Attributes
An error occurred applying attributes to the file:
Path:\Filename
Access is denied
