Encryption for Windows XP Home Edition.

My own peronal home computer has ' Windows XP Home Edition ' on it.
When I go to the Properties on any file - click Advanced - the 'Encrypt contents to secure data ' is always greyed out.

Is there any reason for this? Any prerequisite I must action first.

[StinkyMojo]

This feature is only available in Win XP Professional.. unless there is some crack to get around it.

[vee_ess]

I'm pretty sure there is some way to get around it because I've seen it done before. Just about every feature that Pro has, Home has too, but its just not able to be used by conventional means. Another example of this is Remote Desktop which can be used in both Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition.

uh, you may not be using NTFS for your filesystem.

unless the encrypt feature is different than i am thinking then this is probably the case.

[vee_ess]

By default, you cannot encrypt files even on NTFS using Home Edition; they want you to pay for that.

[StinkyMojo]

oh yeah xMerCLorDx, good point about NTFS.. forgot about that one :P

Home Edition has all functions of Xp pro
However to use the EFS to secure your files you need to install it first from the CD if it included or from XP Pro CD.

[Jason425]

no it doesn't..... http://www.microsoft.com/windowsXP/h.../choosing2.asp

[vee_ess]

That's just to sell you on Pro Edition. Of the first six options (too lazy to read past them) that they claim only Pro can do, I can do 5 with Home Edition. Remote Desktop, for example, is completely installed and completely functional in Home Edition, they just don't give you that fancy little shortcut (not worth $45 IMHO) to open it up. It's like QuickLaunch; it's installed, just not used by default.

[Jason425]

Multitasking - allow multiple applications to run simultaneously. both with dots

no way!!! I thought they didn't have that in home!