JSI Tip 8192. When you use EFS (Encrypted File Service) to encrypt a file or folder on Windows 2000 Server, you receive 'Error applying attributes. The system cannot find the file specified'?

When you use EFS to encrypt a file system object on Windows 2000 Server, the encryption may not succeed, and you may receive:

Error applying attributes. The system cannot find the file specified.

This behavior will occur if the Appdata Value Name, a REG_EXPAND_SZ data type, at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders, is missing from the server's registry.

To resolve this problem:

1. Copy / Paste the following into Notepad:

REGEDIT4

\[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders\]
"AppData"=hex(2):25,55,53,45,52,50,52,4f,46,49,4c,45,25,5c,41,70,70,6c,69,63,  61,74,69,6f,6e,20,44,61,74,61,00

2. Save the file as Appdata.reg.

3. Double-click the Appdata.reg file, or run regedit /s Appdata.reg.