In today’s post, we will explore a relatively simple way, to search, find and list all your EFS encrypted and as well as compressed files/folders on Windows 11 or Windows 10. You will find this how-to guide essentially useful if you EFS encrypt and/or compress most of your files and folders, which in the course of time builds up significantly and is scattered across various locations on your PC’s HDD/SSD. In this case, you may have the need to run a command, which will crawl your entire PC’s drive or specified locations, to have these files and folders listed and presented to you which you can now easily view all at a glance.
When you encrypt a file or folder with EFS in Windows 11/10, its icon will have a lock overlay at the top right corner to indicate that it’s an EFS encrypted file or folder on NTFS drives and is protected from unwanted access. When you compress files and folders on an NTFS drive, they will have a double blue arrows icon overlay at the top right corner to indicate that they are compressed. NTFS file system compression can save disk space, compressing data can adversely affect performance.
When you execute a command to search, find and list all EFS encrypted and compressed files on Windows 11/10, you can specify if the result will output within the command line interface or be exported to .txt file, which you can read with any text editor, like Notepad.
Find & list EFS Encrypted files & folders on Windows 11/10
1) To find and output list within the command-line interface
Press Windows key + R and type CMD in the dialog box, hit Enter to launch a command prompt.
In the prompt, type the following command and hit Enter:
cipher /u /n /h
Depending on the volume of encrypted files, Windows will now take some time to crawl all NTFS local drives for all encrypted files belonging to the currently logged on user, and will output a list in the command prompt.
If you do not have any encrypted files, the output will be the same as shown above.
2) To find and export list to a .txt file
Open command prompt
In the prompt, type the following command and hit Enter:
cipher /u /n /h > %UserProfile%\Desktop\EncryptedFilesList.txt
When the scan command completes, the list will be exported to your desktop in a file named EncryptedFilesList.txt. You can double-click the file to view the list.
Search & list Compressed files & folders on Windows 11/10
1) To find and output list within the command line interface
Press Windows key + R and type CMD in the dialog box, hit Enter to launch a command prompt.
In the prompt, type the following command and hit Enter:
compact /s:"<Path of directory>"
Replace <Path of directory> place-holder in the command with the full path of the folder and drive that you want to scan for compressed files and folders in it and its subfolders. Eg:
compact /s:"C:\Users\Chidum.Osobalu\Videos"
Depending on the volume of compressed files, the command will take some time to complete, and will then output a list in the command prompt.
2) To find and export list to a .txt file
Use this option if you have a long list of compressed files and folders to review in a text file.
Open command prompt
In the prompt, type the following command and hit Enter:
compact /s:"<Path of directory>" > "%UserProfile%\Desktop\Compressed_Files_Folders_List.txt"
Replace <Path of directory> place-holder in the command with the full path of the folder and drive that you want to scan for compressed files and folders in it and its subfolders. Eg:
compact /s:"C:\Users\Chidum.Osobalu\Documents" > "%UserProfile%\Desktop\Compressed_Files_Folders_List.txt"
When the scan command completes, the list will be exported to your desktop in a file named Compressed_Files_Folders_List.txt.
Trust this help you list and view at a glance all your EFS encrypted and compressed files/folders.
