Keep Your Files Private in Windows

How? Encrypt your files, thats how. The Encrypting File System (EFS) is included in most versions of Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 and it scrambles the contents of files and folders, making it very difficult for intruders to gain access to them.

Get ready to encrypt: EFS is in Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate; XP Pro; and Windows 2000. XP Home lacks EFS, and Vista Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium allow only decryption–so you can read encrypted files but not encrypt them. To use EFS on a partition, that partition must be formatted using the NTFS file system. Not using NTFS? The switch is easy. See “Go With the NTFS Flow” (the same steps work in Vista). Also, encryption requires that you use a password-protected account.

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