Creating a Data Recovery Agent

Creating a Data Recovery Agent
Designating a data recovery agent—another user who can access your encrypted files—allows you to recover encrypted files if something happens to your private key.

In Windows 2000, the Administrator account is set up as the default data recovery agent. If your computer is a member of a domain, the domain administrator is the default data recovery agent. But if you're using Windows XP and your computer is not in a domain, there is no default data recovery agent.

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In Windows 2000, a data recovery agent is required. If no data recovery agent exists, you can't encrypt files. In Windows XP, however, a data recovery agent is optional (but usually desirable).
To create a data recovery agent, you must create a file recovery certificate and then designate a user to be the data recovery agent.