Windows 7 and Vista offer a variety of encryption options, but right-click menus are not always the best way to access these options. For example, on Windows 7, you can’t right-click on the “Computer” icon and select “Properties.” Instead, you have to click on the “Control Panel” icon and then click on “Security.” This will open the “Security Options” window. In this window, you can choose to encrypt your computer’s hard drive (by selecting the “Encrypt Hard Drive” option), or to decrypt your computer’s hard drive (by selecting the “Decrypt Hard Drive” option).
Adding this to the menu couldn’t be simpler – there’s only a single registry key to add.
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search box, and then find the following registry key:
In the right-hand pane, create a new 32-bit DWORD value called EncryptionContextMenu and give it a value of 1.
Now when you right-click on a file, you’ll see a new option called Encrypt.
When you choose this option, you’ll receive the following dialog, asking if you want to encrypt just the file, or also the parent folder. You can also choose just the file as the default.
Once the files are encrypted, you’ll notice that the title of the file is now green, indicating that it’s been encrypted. The right-click option will also now change to Decrypt.
Definitely much simpler… makes me wonder why this wasn’t a built-in option.
Download AddEncryptionMenu.zip Registry Hack
