If you share a desktop computer, or use your laptop in airports, hotels and other public places, an unauthorized user might try to read valuable data stored on your computer. Also your portable computer can be stolen. These are just two scenarios where malevolent parties can gain access to sensitive information.

One solution to help reduce the risk for stolen data is to use Windows Encrypting File System (EFS). We’ve already covered before how to use EFS to encrypt a file or folder, and in this simple registry hack, we’ll show you how to make it easier for you to encrypt and decrypt files and folders by adding the Encrypt and Decrypt options on the context menus in Windows Explorer.

To configure Windows to add the Encrypt/Decrypt context menu options, open the Windows registry editor and navigate to HKEYLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, and then create a new DWORD registry value (right click and select new->DWORD value) called EncryptionContextMenu and set its value to 1.

Once this registry modification is made, open Windows Explorer and right-click on any file for folder. You should now see the context menu, which includes the Encrypt and Decrypt (for encrypted files) options. This should make it easier for you to quickly encrypt a valuable file or folder without having to navigate through the Advanced properties. Enjoy!