Axcrypt Encryption Software

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I started another thread about file encryption in general and appreciate the answers I got there.

I have been working with Axcrypt and it does what I was looking for and has good reviews, what few are out there. Plus it comes in a 64 bit version although I don’t know if that really matters.

However, I have one question that I have yet to find an answer to and I don’t really want to have to uninstall and re-install to find out.

If I choose to get rid of the software I assume that I first decrypt all files/folders and then uninstall the program. Does anyone have experience with that and is that correct?

Jim

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I use Axcrypt also but never un-installed it.

I assume that if you un-install it you would be left with all the files encrypted…

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I use Axcrypt also but never un-installed it.

I assume that if you un-install it you would be left with all the files encrypted…

That would mean once you use the program you have to stick with it and is what I was afraid of. I will have to decrypt the files then uninstall and see what happens. I tried Encrypt On Click before this and found that when it was uninstalled it did not leave the files encrypted. Of course I unencrypted them first.

Jim

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It’s possible you would get a message when un-installing it warning you that you have encrypted files and maybe it will give you an option for what to do with them.
I don’t think it would do any harm to uninstall it and see what happens.
You could always re-install it..

I would suggest before fooling with it you decrypt the files and burn them to a DVD and then re-encrypt them and un-install the program and see what happens..

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Hello,

I am the author of AxCrypt.

AxCrypt and it’s files live independent lives, just like for example zip-files and WinZip or rar-files and WinRar. If you rar a file with WinRar, and then uninstall WinRar, the files remain compressed in their archives, and yes you need to have an un-rar-capable application available or installed whenever you need to inspect the contents.

The applies for most applications. If you for example use Quicken or Microsoft Money and then uninstall the application, the data file is still there but you’ll need to re-install or move the files to a computer with the application installed to have any use of the data files.

AxCrypt works the same. Once a file is encrypted with AxCrypt, the files remain encrypted regardless of the installation status. This is also the only reasonable behavior. There is no way for example for the un-installer to handle files that are off-line at the time of un-installation, and it would also make the un-installer very, very slow as well as complex. Should it refuse to un-install if it can’t decrypt all files encrypted on the disk, perhaps because the person uninstalling only has some of the passphrases used? It obviously can’t decrypt the files without having the passphrase(s) – the security would not be worth much then…

The other consequence/feature of having the files and application live separate lives is that you can archive files to a USB-stick or CD/DVD or whatever and then decrypt them on any computer that has AxCrypt available. You can e-mail them as attachements, store them on DropBox etc etc. They are just files.

So, it’s not a problem that files remain encrypted when/if AxCrypt is un-installed. It’s a feature and an unavoidable consequence of the way applications and files work.

Best regards,

Svante

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Svante,

Thanks for the answer. That answered part of my question but the other was if I decrypt all files then uninstall Axcrypt does will my files still be encrypted? I just did exactly that and found that the files do not remain encrypted which is exactly what I would want should I decide to uninstall the program and go back to no encryption or should I decide to use another type of encryption.

I do like the program however. As I stated earlier it what just the way I want it to.

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…if I decrypt all files then uninstall Axcrypt does will my files still be encrypted?…

No, they will not be encrypted, since you just decrypted them in this scenario.

If the files are decrypted they are decrypted. They remain decrypted just like all other files when/if you uninstall AxCrypt.

Once again – compare with WinRar or any other application that creates more modifies data and document files. Uninstalling the application does not remove or undo any changes to files that has occurred when using the application. Uninstalling Word does not remove all Word documents for example – without Word the files may not be so useful, but the files are still there untouched.

There is nothing magic about AxCrypt – it just transforms a file into a different form. The result is still a file. You need AxCrypt and the passphrase to transform it back again to it’s original form.

There is no ‘connection’ or ‘association’ between the installed program and files possibly encrypted with it. Once the files are encrypted, they are still just files.

No files are encryped or decrypted when you install or un-install AxCrypt. When you use AxCrypt, files are encrypted or decrypted according to what you tell it to do.

When you un-install AxCrypt no documents or data files are touched. If you have encrypted files on your computer, or on a DVD or on a Web Site such as DropBox they remain just as they are regardless of installing or un-installing AxCrypt. If they are encrypted, you’ll need to have AxCrypt available along with the passphrase to be able to decrypt them.

Best regards,

Svante

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Svante, that’s exactly what I figured it would do..
Like you say, a file is a file…

What good would an encryption program be if anyone could decrypt the files simple by un-installing the program

It’s a great program and I have been using it for years…
…

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Has anyone managed to get AxCrypt to play nicely with xplorer2? I get a few error windows, but after that it ‘seems’ to work mostly, although I have had to kill the Axcrypt.exe task on occasion to start it working again.

It seems that Axcrypt may not necessarily completely follow all the rules for shell extensions, and so works transparently only with the vanilla Windows Explorer for which it was written to integrate with…

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Can anyone tell me if there is a way to retrieve your passphrase? Our office administrator encrypted all files w/o backing up first. The administrator is adamant that the passphrase was written down correctly, and it was even used several times to decrypt files after Axcrypt was installed. These files were opened/decrypted the same day Axcrypt was installed. However, now the passphrase does not work. What happened??? Is there any way to retrieve the passphrase or save the files? Thanks in advance for your replies.

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The correct answer should be No! There should be no “back doors” to any proper encryption process…

In fact, read the appropriate FAQ.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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Understandable. But maybe someone can explain how a passphrase worked and now no longer works? It was used multiple times without a problem, now it’s invalid. That just shouldn’t happen either in a “proper encryption process.”

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But maybe someone can explain how a passphrase worked and now no longer works?

One possibility is that the passphrase is read differently by different people at different times (like a CAPTCHA image). I assume by now you have tried all the possible variations?

Edit: I noticed on the AxCrypt website that you can cache the pass phrase for a session. Thus, if you wrote it down wrong, you might not realize that until your next Windows session.

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