Using GPG

I have a link to Gnu Privacy Guard on the right side of each page of this blog. This is because it is one of the best tools for protecting your privacy available today. It's also open-source, which I support immensely. Though I've given up on software development as a hobby, I can still appreciate software written by hobbyists. If nothing else, software developed by hobbyists avoids the baggage train of suffocating corporate culture and redundant advertising.

Open-source software does have weaknesses of its own, usually relating to ease-of-use. Unlike most open-source software, however, GPG can be easily installed with simple, click-through installer. This installer can be had by clicking on that link at the right, and then following the link to "GPG4Win." Also unlike most open-source software, it comes with easy-to-understand, straightforward instructions for the average user.

Unfortunately, that documentation is out-of-date. Four years out-of-date, to be exact, and the software has undergone some significant changes in that time. You'll be OK through the installation process and the setup of public (yours and other people's) and private keys, despite the fact that most of the screenshots are in German. However, when you want to actually encrypt or decrypt anything, you'll hit a brick wall. The directions will tell you to use a program called WinPT and in so many words, it ain't there anymore.

Here's what you do: Say you want to send an email with encrypted text in the body of the email. Write that text as a textfile in Notepad, and save it somewhere you can find it. Right click on the file and choose "Sign and Encrypt." This will launch the background program Kleopatra if it's not already running, and open a dialog box with, for some reason, only "Encrypt" selected, rather than "Sign and Encrypt." Either choice will get the job done, but signing can be useful sometimes. Also, since you'll be pasting the text into an email, check the box for "Text Output (ASCII Armor)," and click "Next." Select the public key of the intended recipient, click "Add," then "Encrypt." This will create a file in the same folder as your plaintext file, with the same name, but with a new filename extension, ."asc." Open this in Notepad, copy all of the text you see (including the "begin" and "end" lines), paste it into your email, and send it off.

If, however, you want to send the encrypted file as an attachment, perhaps it's an image or a formatted text document, or you want a secure backup of the same on your own computer, do all of the above, but don't check "Text Output (ASCII Armor)."

To decrypt ASCII armor text that comes to you in an email, paste it into a blank textfile, right click on it, select "More GpgEX Options -> Decrypt," and enter the passphrase you chose for that key when you are prompted to do so. Do more or less the same thing you did to encrypt. For fully encrypted files, skip the Notepad step.