Encrypting Files and Directories
You can encrypt files and directories using a password or key file. It produces encrypted archive file. All files are moreover compressed (ZIP compression) to obtain smaller resulting archive.
To encrypt files and directories:
- Select the files and directories which you want to add to an encrypted archive.
- Open the Pack dialog box
for Encrypt packer:
Menu: Plugins/Encrypt & Decrypt/Encrypt... Shortcut key: Ctrl+Shift+E - Enter the name of the encrypted archive.
- If you want to shred (irreversible delete) packed files and directories, check the Delete files from disk after packing to archive box in the Pack dialog box. Shredder will use the algorithm chosen in the Shred Files dialog box.
- Choose the OK button to open the Create Encrypted Archive dialog box.
- Select if you want to use a key file or password for decrypting the archive. See How It Works for details on passwords and key files. You can choose if you want to see the password (if you are sure that no one else can see it on your screen) or if it should be hidden (in this case you need to type the password again to confirm it), see the Hide typing of passwords box.
- If you want to, you can enter a comment to the archive. It is stored as a plain text (it is not encrypted).
- Choose the Change button in Encryption row to set the encryption algorithm, password hash algorithm, level of compression, and cipher mode in the Encryption dialog box. We recommend to use AES-256, SHA-2, Deflate-9, and CBC.
- To create secure archive the plugin needs to collect unpredictable values to seed the random number generator. See the indicator on the bottom of dialog, if it's not yet full, move mouse pointer randomly or press any keys until it's full.
- Choose the OK button to start encrypting.