Windows Server 2003 Security: A Technical Reference

Effect of Normal Operations on Encrypted Files

Encrypted files are still files. They can be deleted, copied, and moved. What happens to them then depends on the format of the file system, the encryption properties of the parent folder, and whether or not the user performing the option has the ability to decrypt the file. To know what to expect, remember that only NTFS on Windows 2000 and above supports file encryption and that file decryption may be transparent to the person who can decrypt it. Also remember that EFS-encrypted files still follow NTFS permissions.

Enabling Silent Decryption for Remote Storage By default, encrypted files cannot be stored to a remote location that has not been properly set up to store them. A user can, of course, ...