Adding Recovery Agents for Encrypted files

I was wondering how do I add a certificate to allow a recover agent on
Encrypted files?
I had an encrypted file lock me out today, and after deleting the file and
rewriteing it today, I realized that I would really like to have a recovery
agent just so this won't happen again.
I have no idea how I lost access to my own encrypted file, as an
administrator, but some how, I couldn't add my current certificate to the
users allowed access. I kept getting an error 5, what ever that means.
I speant the whole day today, learning about certificates, and importing and
exporting ones that I currently have on my system, MMC, and a bunch of other
related topics, but nothing telling me what or where I can find a
certificate so that I can make myself a recovery agent.
I use the Add Recovery Agent Wizard, but when it asks for the users, it
looks for .cer files, so I exported my encryption certificate, that didn't
work, then the Microsoft Root Authority certificate, but it said neither one
were for recovery agents.
I then speant a good portion of my day looking on the internet for
information on making a user (me, being the only active account on my
computer until my girlfriend moves in) a recovery agent, with no luck at
all.
Any help on this would be greatly apreciated.
Thanks
Luke

If you're the only user on the computer, do you really need something as
secure as encryption? A lot of people post here after they've had to do a
reinstall and they've lost all their data.

Somebody here will surely point you to even more things you can study, but
for most people, it seems overkill on a home pc. A laptop with critical and
confidential business information, sure, you don't want anyone else to have
that stuff, and it could be lost or stolen.

Maybe making your files private would be enough?

"Luke" wrote in message
igy.com...
I was wondering how do I add a certificate to allow a recover agent on
Encrypted files?
I had an encrypted file lock me out today, and after deleting the file and
rewriteing it today, I realized that I would really like to have a
recovery
agent just so this won't happen again.
I have no idea how I lost access to my own encrypted file, as an
administrator, but some how, I couldn't add my current certificate to the
users allowed access. I kept getting an error 5, what ever that means.
I speant the whole day today, learning about certificates, and importing
and
exporting ones that I currently have on my system, MMC, and a bunch of
other
related topics, but nothing telling me what or where I can find a
certificate so that I can make myself a recovery agent.
I use the Add Recovery Agent Wizard, but when it asks for the users, it
looks for .cer files, so I exported my encryption certificate, that didn't
work, then the Microsoft Root Authority certificate, but it said neither
one
were for recovery agents.
I then speant a good portion of my day looking on the internet for
information on making a user (me, being the only active account on my
computer until my girlfriend moves in) a recovery agent, with no luck at
all.
Any help on this would be greatly apreciated.
Thanks
Luke