Removing RMS Protection from Content

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Decide ahead of time which files need to be recovered, by whom and when, so that any important information will be preserved when the decommissioning process has finished. When RMS protection has been removed from all the necessary rights-protected content, the server can be removed from the infrastructure.

The process of removing RMS protection from the content is as follows:

  1. The user should remove all existing use licenses from the computer. This ensures that the RMS client goes to the server to acquire a license to open the content. For Windows 2000 and Windows XP, use licenses are stored in the %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\DRM folder on the client computer. For Windows Vista®, the use licenses are stored in the %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\DRM folder. Every use license an EUL prefix in the file name.

  2. A user with access to the decommissioning server attempts to open a rights-protected file.

  3. The application connects to the decommissioning server and receives the content key.

  4. The content is decrypted and can be edited, saved, forwarded, or printed.

  5. The user saves the content without RMS protection.

  6. All users can now open the content without needing to connect to the RMS server.