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I was afraid of that, you confirmed everything else I have been reading. 
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I was afraid of that, you confirmed everything else I have been reading.

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No solution, just confirmed what I already thought
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No solution, just confirmed what I already thought

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I have a client that had to rebuild his PC and went from XP to Windows 7, &nbsp;however he had encrypted files (Windows Encription) on an USB drive I didn't know about. I don't think he has a backup cert. Is there anyway to recover these files? I have the USB drive with me. 
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I have a client that had to rebuild his PC and went from XP to Windows 7,  however he had encrypted files (Windows Encription) on an USB drive I didn't know about. I don't think he has a backup cert. Is there anyway to recover these files? I have the USB drive with me. 

Decrypt Windows XP files without cert

The Microsoft Legacy Operating System topic includes legacy versions of Microsoft operating systems prior to Windows 2000: All versions of MS-DOS and other versions developed for specific manufacturers and Windows 3/3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98, plus any other Windows-related versions, and Windows Mobile.

Microsoft Legacy OS

This topic area includes legacy versions of Windows prior to Windows 2000: Windows 3/3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98, plus any other Windows-related versions including Windows Mobile.

Windows OS

Microsoft Windows XP is the sixth release of the NT series of operating systems, and was the first to be marketed in a variety of editions: XP Home and XP Professional, designed for business and power users. The advanced features in XP Professional are generally disabled in Home Edition, but are there and can be activated. There were two 64-bit editions, an embedded edition and a tablet edition.