How to upgrade the Operating System to Windows 10 with File and Removable Media Protection installed
Technical Articles ID:
KB87550
Last Modified: 5/28/2019
Environment
McAfee File and Removable Media Protection (FRP) 5.0.x, 4.3.1
Microsoft Windows 10 (all supported releases)
For details of FRP supported environments, see KB81149. Summary
This article helps customers to upgrade the Operating System (OS) to Windows 10, when FRP is installed. This includes the following kinds of upgrades:
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1 to Windows 10.
- Windows 10 (version 1511) to Windows 10 Anniversary Update or a later release.
IMPORTANT:
- Failure to follow the instructions outlined in this article, will lead to the Windows 10 upgrade failing and rolling back, when FRP is installed, and encrypted files are on the system.
- It is important to follow this process, because the encryption keys will not be available during the upgrade, and so authentication to FRP is not possible. FRP typically blocks open and read operations on encrypted files, which in turn blocks the Windows upgrade. For the Windows upgrade to succeed, the OS must be able to open and read encrypted files, to back up and restore them.
Solution
IMPORTANT:
- Upgrade to a supported version of FRP before upgrading the OS to Windows 10, or from one Windows 10 version to a later version.
- To view the supported FRP versions, look at the FRP supported environments article, included above in the Environment field.
NOTES:
- To permit a file open/read operation to succeed without a key being present, all encrypted files need to be treated as simple binary files that FRP will not intercept/decrypt.
- FRP can be configured to treat all encrypted files as simple binary files, by specifying a sequence of Advanced Debug Options. Specifying these options instructs FRP to treat files on all drives as simple binary files.
- When the options are set, FRP does not decrypt or encrypt any files, and FRP appears to stop working. For general information about Advanced Debug Options, see KB83461.
- FRP must be configured to treat all encrypted files as simple binary files before the upgrade process to Windows 10 starts.
- FRP must then be reconfigured to explicitly remove these options after the upgrade is successful.
- Before the upgrade process:
- Record which Encryption Options policy is assigned to the system (Original Policy); you need to reapply this policy when the upgrade is complete.
- Create an Encryption Options policy, Policy A.
- Enter the following string in the Advanced Debug Options field of the policy:
ESD:1#ENW:1#ENR:1#ENS:1#ENF:1#ERD:1
- Assign Policy A to the system being upgraded, and enforce.
- To apply these options to the driver, restart the system.
- Upgrade to Windows 10, or from one Windows 10 version to a later version.
- After the upgrade process is successful:
- Create an Encryption Options policy, Policy B.
- Edit the string in the Advanced Debug Options field in the policy, as below:
ESD:-#ENW:-#ENR:-#ENS:-#ENF:-#ERD:-
- To remove the exclusions, apply Policy B to the upgraded system.
NOTE: Simply leaving the Advanced Debug Options string empty does not remove these exclusions; they must be explicitly removed as described.
- To apply these settings to the driver, restart the system.
- Reassign the Original Policy to the system and enforce.
IMPORTANT: If you are changing an existing policy, ensure that you note any Advanced Debug Options that are currently defined, and reapply them when you have executed step 2 above.
Solution
Removing the FRP product before an upgrade, and reinstalling when the upgrade is completed, is an alternative method with the same result. Because FRP is not installed on the system during the upgrade process, all encrypted data on the system is preserved. Implement this solution by following these steps:
- Uninstall FRP from the system being upgraded.
- Upgrade to Windows 10, or from one Windows 10 version to a later version.
- Install FRP.
IMPORTANT: Install a version of FRP that is compatible with the Windows 10 version. To view the supported FRP versions, look at the FRP supported environments article, included above in the Environment field.
- Enforce policies.
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