Windows folder redirection files are not encrypted

Summary: This article provides information about Microsoft Windows Folder Redirection and how it interacts with Dell Encryption (formerly Dell Data Protection | Encryption).

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

Affected Products:

  • Dell Encryption Enterprise
  • Dell Encryption Personal
  • Dell Data Protection | Enterprise Edition
  • Dell Data Protection | Personal Edition

Affected Versions:

  • v8.0 and Later

Folder Redirection allows the System Administrator to redirect the path of a folder to a new location. The location can be a folder on the local computer or a directory on a network file share. Users can work with files on a network drive as if the files were based on their local drive. The files in the folder are available to the user from any computer on the network. Folder Redirection is located under Windows Settings in the console tree when you edit domain-based Group Policy by using the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC). The path is [Group Policy Object Name]\User Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Folder Redirection.

Cause

Not Applicable

Resolution

If a user were to add a file to the local Desktop folder using the local path, the file is encrypted per the Dell Encryption policy. Users may verify that the local Desktop Folders files are encrypted, when viewing the files in each of the Desktop Folder locations, while the network redirected Desktop Folder's files are not encrypted.

Note: The example above the Desktop folder was being redirected to a network location, so the files that are viewed from that folder are not visible from the physical path for the local Desktop Folder, the %USERPROFILE%\Desktop folder.

If the computer's, Group Policy Object (GPO) is set to redirect the Desktop folder for example to a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) Network path, the files that are seen in the Desktop folder are not shown as encrypted. The reason the files are not encrypted is because the physical location for the files is a UNC path and by design Dell Encryption software does not encrypt files that are stored on a network share.

Dell Encryption is working as designed, files that are stored on a network share are not encrypted.

To contact support, reference Dell Data Security International Support Phone Numbers.
Go to TechDirect to generate a technical support request online.
For additional insights and resources, join the Dell Security Community Forum.

Affected Products

Dell Encryption
Article Properties
Article Number: 000142864
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 05 Mar 2024
Version:  8
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