So are you saying I'm screwed? How is it that I was able to work with them before and not now? I just tried to copy them to a USB drive, but I'm not allowed to do that either.

I have a large group of files that I worked on several months back. These files originated on someone else's computer and they were apparently encrypted, so the filenames have always displayed as green, as well as the files that I created that used them as a starting point. I never had any problems working with them -until now. Yesterday I tried to work with them for the first time since I re-installed Windows a couple months ago and I get the message that I don't have permission, and that I need to contact the owner to obtain it. I did everything I could and successfully changed the permissions an ownership to look like every other file on my computer, but I still cannot open them. The one thing I can find that makes them is different from other files on my computer is the encryption settings, which I am unable to change. Here is what I see http://www.yoyographics.com/EncryptProblem.jpg Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Without the key(certificate) from "someone else's computer" efs files cannot be accessed or the certificate from your previous installation. Back those up or removable media and secure it. For your reference: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc700811.aspx and http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd630631(WS.10).aspx

Now that I'm really investigating this, I'm finally noticing that the only certificate that the files seem to care about is one that was issued by my computer under my name (Geoff(Geoff@Scorpion-2)). Is there a way to create a new certificate on this computer that has the same "Certificate Thumbprint" as the one listed? I can go through the steps of adding another, but in the end I am just denied the ability to make changes to the file. This is just so weird. The files came this way when I first unzipped them. I never consciously encrypted them, at least. And I've never dealt with encrypting before in my life.

I believe you are screwed. When you re-installed Windows on your computer and did not back-up and import the security certificate(s) you screwed yourself. Do you have any old data backups from the previous build? Perhaps performing a selective data restore for those files will allow access. Have you contacted the source of the files? Any help there?