How to decrypt files in win11 that were encrypted in win10

Question

Yesterday I upgraded to win11, but I accidentally forgot to decrypt multiple folders and files (encrypted with EFS, not with bitlocker). When I upgraded I used a different Microsoft account to that I used for win10. I still have access to the Windows.old folder and I was able to get back and paste files in the Crypto and SystemCertificates folders into the new folders in win11, but it seems that the SID in Protect has been deleted in the upgrade process (the only save of the win10 machine is in Windows.old). I still have access to both Microsoft accounts (the one I'm posting with was the win10 account), win11 is on the same SSD where win10 was, I have most of the key files from C:\Windows.old\Users\User\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft ; What can I do?

Answer 1

Hello,

When you delete a file it isn’t actually deleted, the computer simply says it’s not there any more, so when a new files come in it will simply overwrite where the “deleted” file originally was, as long as it hasn’t been too long since deletion and you haven’t moved too many files around there’s a chance you can still recover files from the previous installation by using a recovery app.

You can try recuva on the Microsoft store.

Recuva - Download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Hope this helps,

JC