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Comparing EFS in Win2K and WinXP

Encrypting File System (EFS) allows you to encrypt your files and thus prevent other users from seeing the files' content.

The first version of EFS was built into Windows 2000. Although Windows XP is a minor upgrade from Windows 2000, you should be aware of this important information about EFS:

• EFS is not available in Windows XP Home Edition.
• EFS is available on Windows XP Professional computers that have only NTFS,
  not FAT32, partitions.
• By default, Windows 2000 includes a default Recovery Agent. (Windows XP Professional in a workgroup doesn't, but Windows XP joined to a domain does.)
• In Windows 2000, you can disable EFS by deleting the Recovery Agent. In Windows XP, deleting the RA doesn't disable EFS.
• To disable EFS in Windows XP in a workgroup, you must change a registry entry (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Efs\EFSconfiguration to 1).
• To disable EFS on Windows XP in a domain environment, you have to change the Group Policy setting.
• Windows XP allows you to share encrypted files. Windows 2000 doesn't support
  this feature.

Note: Please remember that editing the registry is potentially dangerous. Be sure you have a verified backup before you begin.