I tried to encrypt a folder (with one file in it) on a network mapped drive from iDisk. I did this by right clicking the folder, properties, advanced, "Encrypt contents to secure data", and then all subfolders and files. Windows asked me to store a backup copy of the encryption key on the hard drive, which I let it do. After that, the folder on the network drive appeared green. I was able to access it without having to enter a password, but I expected this on the machine from which I encrypted the file. Now enter computer #2: A laptop running Windows Vista Home Basic. On this computer, I logged into the network drive, saw that the folder was green there as well, double clicked it, and successfully downloaded and opened the file that was inside it, all without it ever having asked me for a password (aside from the initial password for iDisk access, which is different from the one I used to generate the key on the Windows 7 machine). Is this broken or is it just wholly incompatible with iDisk? Or am I just doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

EFS will never prompt you for a password on a given file. You will see this same behavior on Windows 2000, XP, or Vista as Win7. It based on the use of certificates tied to a private key, which is itself tied to the user and password you used to logon to the computer in the first place.Now where my confusion comes in is how did your second computer get a copy of the private key, especially when it is home basic and could not be joined to a domain and therefore using a roaming profile or cred roaming in Active Directory.Ned Pyle [MSFT] - MS Enterprise Platforms Support - Beta Team

Now where my confusion comes in is how did your second computer get a copy of the private key, especially when it is home basic and could not be joined to a domain and therefore using a roaming profile or cred roaming in Active Directory. Ned Pyle [MSFT] - MS Enterprise Platforms Support - Beta Team This is mainly what prompted me to post here, aside from the general confusion of how the feature is supposed to work in the first place. I figured the laptop would *have* to ask me for the password in order to regenerate the key because how else is it supposed to have it? (again, my lack of knowledge is no doubt showing, but I do at least know enough to know that it couldn't have had the key) But it didn't, and I am able to access the files without any hint that they're encrypted other than that they appear green in the file manager (windows explorer, not web-based or anything like that - the drive is network mapped). This is why I wondered if it's a compatibility issue with iDisk. Maybe it's not really encrypted, although something is obviously leading the two computers to think that it is. But I don't know how to see if that's really the case. I am willing to try anything that anyone posts here to try to understand what's going on. Aside from the curiousness of this, I actually really want to encrypt the stuff I put on my iDisk space. ;-) Thanks again.

Oh gosh, I think I figured it out. Your explanation of how the keys are generated got me to thinking. Yep, the two computers have the same Windows login info. I had forgotten because the laptop has a fingerprint scanner and I just use that all the time. So, I changed the password on the Windows 7 machine and now the Vista Home Basic machine can't access the encrypted files anymore. One thing, though: The Vista Home Basic machine can still view the encrypted folders (one generated before password change, one generated after); it just can't do anything to the files (including create new ones in the encrypted folders). If this is normal behavior, then move along nothing to see here.

Sorry, I can't replicate this now. I changed the login info back so that both machines are the same again, and have created new encrypted folders and files and nope, can't access them on the Vista Home Basic machine. So I have somehow fixed my issue, but that's annoying. My only guess now is that the unencrypted forms of my files were cached for a really long time and it just took a while for iDisk to clue in and start presenting the encrypted ones (that is one non-professional's guess, lol, but I did see a lot of delays in updates to files showing up so that's my clue). OK, well oddly enough, I'm happy now that I know it works!