I had an employee using my laptop to do her "work", and so I wanted to enhance security with a "simple" password. I went to system preferences and to security for passwords. I assigned a new password and allowed the files to be "encrypted". I have now lost all of my saved settings, and I had to reinstall Microsoft this morning. I have no documents, and all my work is gone. It is as if I have a brand new computer. Yet my password will not allow me to access the existing information. How do I undo file encryption and access my own information?

Thanks for all your help!

Chances are that the "Vault" got corrupted, however you could try a brute force attack, this could take some time. What program did you use to create your encrypted files, this may provide some alternative.