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Windows XP - Improve the speed when working with encrypted files

November 4, 2013
Updated: December 6, 2021
Quick overview:

If you have installed Windows XP on a NTFS hard disk or converted the hard disk to this file system during setup, the EFS is also available to you. Literally translated, it means encryption file system. It has the task of encrypting data from one user, which is then unreadable for others. You can easily encrypt files via the file properties.

These EFS files then have a kind of cache (Cache). To improve the speed when using EFS, you can increase this cache.

Win XP - Set KeyCacheValidationPeriod value

1. Click one after the other on Start > Execute and type the command regedit to enter. The Registration editor.

2. Double-click to navigate through the keys one after the other HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\EFS. In the right-hand pane, right-click on a free area and select New > DWORD value.

3. They baptize this self-proclaimed value with the name KeyCacheValidationPeriod. Now double-click on it and enter 10800. This is the duration in seconds in which Windows keeps the EFS files in memory in order to be able to access them more quickly if they are used frequently. This value corresponds to 3 hours.

This tuning tip only provides performance if you are constantly working with encrypted files.

Founded Windows Tweaks as a teenager in the 90s. His helpful PC tricks made it Germany's most visited Windows site (at the time Sandro looked like this). He then went on to write elsewhere, for example for PC-Praxis, Computer Bild and PCWorld in the USA. Microsoft also poached him from us. Now Sandro is back, finally sharing his tweaks here again. For a stress-free digital everyday life. You can reach Sandro via e-mail.

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