The Tip of the Day dialog box is normally displayed when you start FineCrypt«. You can change this behavior so tips are never displayed. If you turn the Tip of the Day off and later want to see the tips, choose Tip of the Day from FineCrypt's Help menu, then check the option "Show Tips on StartUp" at the bottom of the dialog.
If you select several files for encryption you can encrypt them either into a single encrypted archive or into separate encrypted files. To choose between these two options, check or uncheck option "Create archive..." in the "Encryption preferences".
You can encrypt files by several ways. One of them is to select files you want to encrypt and drag them onto the FineCrypt's icon on the desktop.
Before decrypting file from an archive, you should select desired output folder in the combo box on the ArcViewer's toolbar.
If you use encryption wih password, then the fastest way to encrypt files is to define session password, then to check option "Use session key/password" in "Quick Encrypt" preferences, and to encrypt files with command "Quickly encrypt to..." in Windows Explorer context menu.
AES stands for "Advanced Encryption Standard". Algorithm "Rijndael" developed by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen (Belgium) was elected as AES in 2000.
FineCrypt greatly simplifies work with encryption keys. If you will keep option "Hide key" checked in the "Encryption key" dialog box, you may freely work with keys not even seeing any of them.
Self-extracting archives created with FineCrypt can be sent to other people who haven't FineCrypt installed on their computers, and they will be able to decrypt such an archive if they know a correct password.
When you delete files in Windows Explorer by pressing "Delete" button, data which contained in the file is not physically removed from the hard drive and can be easily restored with special methods. With "Wipe" feature you can destroy all the traces of the file on the hard drive, so that it can never be restored.
All encryption algorithms used in FineCrypt are block ciphers. A block cipher is an encryption scheme which breaks up the plaintext data into strings (called blocks) of a fixed length and encrypt one block at a time.
The slowest encryption mode is the CBC. The fastest one is the OFB.
You can automatically wipe original files after encrypting them. To set this option, check "Wipe original files..." in the encryption preferences.
To minimize or maximize toolbars in the File Manager click once on the "gripper" (vertical line on the left side of toolbar).
When you have opened with ArcViewer encrypted archive, you can double click on any file in archive and ArcViewer will perform the same action performed when you double click on a file in Desktop or Windows Explorer.
Self-extracting archives are encrypted with the strong encryption algorithm CAST-128.
Passwords are vulnerable to various kinds of cryptanalytic attacks. Therefore encryption with key is much more secure than encryption with password.
If you used other encryption program, you are able to get a rough notion about quality of its encryption. Just select in FineCrypt File Manager any file encrypted with this program and pressCtrl-Enter.
The main drawback of encryption with password is that even long passwords in most cases contain less than 20% out of all possible byte values (symbols). This fact greatly simplifies the task of breaking encrypted data. Encryption keys generated with FineCrypt do not have this drawback.
Encryption modes with feedback (such as CBC, CFB, OFB) are often much more secure than ECB mode.
FineCrypt performs wiping of files in accordance with Department of Defense standard. During one wiping round data first is overwritten by all 1's, then by all 0's, and in the end data is overwritten with random values. You can perform wiping with up to 99 rounds.
You can speed up your work by defining a session key or password. In this case this session key or password will be used by default when you are encrypting files.
You can encrypt directories either including all the subdirectories they contain, or without subdirectories. To choose between these two options, check or uncheck option "Include subdirectories..." in the "Encryption preferences".
Key Manager greatly simplifies work with encryption keys.
You can compare contents of two folders using FineCrypt File Manager. To do that first toggle both panes of File Manager into Tree View mode, and then select menu item "Tools/Compare folders" and choose desired action.
Quick Encrypt feature does all its work in the background. That is you do not see any dialog boxes or progress indicators and there is no need for you to wait till encryption process will be finished for continuing your work. But you still have control over FineCrypt: you can stop current operation using FineCrypt's icon on the toolbar.
You can select files in File Manager and "Encrypt" dialog box in the different ways holding either "Shift" or "Ctrl" key and clicking with left mouse button on the files.
You can sort files within "Encrypt" dialog box by clicking on the header of any column.
FineCrypt lets you change file time, that is date and time when file was created, modified and accessed. It is highly recommended to never change file time for executable (EXE) and DLL files.
You can quickly encrypt files with one mouse click using session encryption key as well as session password.
When encrypting with key, you can get higly secure new encryption key by pressing "Generate" button. For generating keys FineCrypt uses 17 random values from your computer such as current cursor position or number of milliseconds elapsed since start of Windows.
The best place for encryption keys is a floppy disk or any other removable media.
You can add folders in which you usually store encrypted files to Windows Explorers's context menu. To do that click "Destinations" button in the "Quick Encrypt" preferences and enter desired folders. In this case you will be able to encrypt files with a single mouse click and store them in these folders.
Any file of any size can be used as an encryption key.
The blocksize of encryption algorithm is the size of strings into which algorithm breaks up the plaintext data and encrypts them separately from each other. AES breaks up data that is encrypted into strings with length of 16 bytes (symbols). Blowfish uses strings with length of 8 bytes.
You can define your own icon for self-extracting archive instead of default one.
Floppy disk is a rather fragile media. It is highly recommended to always have backup copy of encryption keys.
When decrypting the file that has been encrypted with key, you can press "Find" button and FineCrypt automatically will find appropriate key in the folder where encryption keys are stored. Note: FineCrypt can automatically find only those keys which have been generated by pressing "Generate" button.
The usual 1.44 MB floppy disk can hold more than 1000 encryption keys.
128-bit encryption algorithms (AES, Serpent, Twofish, etc.) are generally considered as more secure than 64-bit ones (IDEA, TripleDES, Blowfish, etc).
If you have encountered problem or have technical question, please contact our Technical Support: support@finecrypt.net.
