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Go to the General tab and click Advanced. Right-click on the Desktop folder and select Properties.
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Method 2: Disable EFS Using Another Admin AccountĪnother solution is to log in to Windows with another administrative account.
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Now, any new files dropped or created in the desktop should not encrypt automatically. That will turn off EFS encryption for your desktop immediately. Just right-click it and select File ownership -> Personal. You should see gold padlock icon over the desktop item. Open File Explorer and browse to your user profile folder C:\Users\user_name. Method 1: Using the File Ownership Context Menu Eventually I found 2 methods to stop EFS from encrypting all new files on the desktop in Windows 10. When I tried to turn off EFS, and it gave the error message “ The specified file could not be decrypted“. Any new files made on the desktop were being automatically encrypted? Unable to disable EFS for the desktop folder? Recently I also ran into this issue and every time I create a new file and save it to my desktop, a gold padlock icon appears on it.
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