How does Encryption help in Windows 7?

Question

Windows 7 comes with a option to encrypt files to increase the security. This can be done by right-clicking to a folder and setting atttributes to encrypt. When this is first done, you are asked to back up the encryption key file and set a password. I have tried this feature and I set a folder to encrypt. I have noticed tht the colour of the folder name has changed to green. However, when I open I folder, it easily opens without asking for a password. I don't uderstand this. How does encryption help protect my data when all anyone needs to do to access it is to open the file and nothing else is required?

Answer 1

It will always open on YOUR computer. If you put the files on a flash drive and bring it to another computer, for example, you will need to give the password for it to open.



If you want better security than Micro$oft's shitty encryption, then download open source TrueCrypt encryption software (http://www.truecrypt.org/) and encrypt your files using that. It uses extremely powerful encryption algorithms like AES used to store top-secret documents by the government, as well as other encryption algorithms that were AES finalists, but didn't quite make it to the top (such as Serpent and Twofish) and aren't as powerful but still quite secure (you can also cascade them, so the file will be first encrypted with Serpent, then another layer of Twofish, then finally topping it off with a powerful layer of AES). TrueCrypt is a little harder to use, but it does much more and is MUCH more powerful (not to mention more trustworthy. There's no way to tell if Micro$oft has put a back door in BitLocker or whatever that **** they use is, but because TrueCrypt is open source there's no way someone could sneak bad code into it). I highly recommend TrueCrypt for your sensitive files.

Answer 2

You have to encrypt a file at a time, not a folder.

Answer 3

I assume that the data is unencrypted for your user account when you log in. Normally windows doesn't encrypt anything, so if you booted into a liveCD you could navigate to the windows partition and view everything in it's original state. Presumably after you encrypt the folder, if someone using another account on windows tried to look at the folder, then they would be prompted for the password/passphrase, and then if you tried to look at it with the liveCD then it would be garbled so you couldn't use it without identifying the encryption being used and then the password.



If you really need added security and you make the mistake of sharing your account with others you don't trust, then you should really look into a non-proprietary encryption method, or settle for something like TrueCrypt.