Sometimes we have data that we may need to encrypt and keep secure and private, to hide it from others, and in that case, we have to securely encrypt data. Windows lets you encrypt folder data easily and this functionality is enabled by default. So if you need to encrypt data inside a folder, just right-click over the folder, pick Properties. Then in Properties window, click Advanced; in the Advanced Attributes window, the option to encrypt data is there. Just check this option to encrypt data on the go.
Encrypt contents to secure data option is disabled or grayed out
But what if you have the option to encrypt data ie. Encrypt contents to secure data option disabled? Well, this is the problem we recently came around a system running Windows 8. We tried to check this issue for different folders and got the same result. If you too facing this trouble, then try the steps mentioned below to fix your system. This fix works for all Windows Vista and later.
Unable to Encrypt folder data in Windows 11/10
1. Press Windows Key + R combination, type put regedit in Run dialog box and hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem
3. In the right pane of the above-shown window, look for the NtfsDisableEncryption named registry DWORD (REG_DWORD), since you’re facing the issue, you’ll find that this DWORD having its Value data set to 1. Double click on the same DWORD to modify:
4. In the above-shown window, change the Value data to 0. Click OK. You may now close the Registry Editor and reboot to get fixed.
Hope this helps you.
NOTE: It seems that this will work only on Pro and Enterprise editions.
How to open an encrypted file if access is denied in Windows may also interest you.
