random technical notes

When you delete a file, Windows removes the index for the file and prevents the operating system from accessing the file’s contents. However, an attacker with direct access to the disk can still recover the file’s contents until it has been overwritten by another file—which might never happen. Similarly, files that have been EFS-encrypted leave behind the unencrypted contents of the file on the disk.

With the SDelete tool, available as a free download, you can overwrite the contents of free space on your disk to prevent deleted or encrypted files from being recovered.

SDelete homepage

Additional information: “Get 7 Free Tools for Managing Disks and File Systems“

Users can share EFS-encrypted files by adding other user certificates to a file. However, auditing the users who have rights to files would be very time-consuming using the Windows Explorer graphical interface. To list users who have access to encrypted files more easily, use EFSDump, which is available as a free download.

EFSDump homepage