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Two Windows 7 computers, NON-AD environment. An identical username/password exists on both machines.

If I use EFS to encrypt files on computer 1, then install the EFS certificate on computer 2, computer 2 cannot access the encrypted files over the network... most of the time. That's the weird thing, it works SOME times, but most of the time I get access denied errors. What is going on here???

Jimmy D
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  • I'm surprised this works. What reference do you have that shows you how to set it up. Or did you invent this? Also, anything in the event viewer? – uSlackr Aug 03 '11 at 12:52
  • My only reference was common sense. The idea of being able to backup/restore an EFS certificate is so you can decrypt your files from another computer should you ever need to (dead pc, move a hdd to another computer etc.). So it's not a very big leap to think that this same thing would work over the network. Again though, the odd thing is that it only works some of the time. If I browse via UNC path to an encrypted folder over the network, I can view, copy, decrypt the files maybe 1 out of every 5 attempts. The other 4 get an access denied error. – Jimmy D Aug 03 '11 at 13:12
  • +1 for common sense and I agree in theory. It might help to verify your thinking on your approach. So if you browse the share with different credentials, do you get the same error? I'm trying to understand if this is an encryption issue or something else. – uSlackr Aug 03 '11 at 14:03
  • I can't browse the share with different credentials because I have the permissions configured so that only one specific user can access the folder. I just read a KB article from MS about "how to enable EFS over the network" and all they say is that you have to export the cert used to encrypt the files and import it to the user account on another computer for the user you want to be able to decrypt the files. This should be simple, but there are people all over the internet with the same complaint as mine. – Jimmy D Aug 03 '11 at 15:54

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