Win32 Installation Package for GPG/WinPT (new)

Ed Suominen ed@eepatents.com
Fri, 15 Dec 2000 10:04:23 -0700


After searching in vain for a user-friendly alternative to command-line GPG 
and the increasingly commercialized PGP, I have finally cobbled together 
something that I think will work, at least for communications between me 
and and my clients and colleagues.

Without modifying the source of either GPG or WinPT, I've put together an 
installation package that allows users to install both programs without 
needing to access the command prompt. (Let's face it, most people don't 
even know what the command prompt is nowadays.) It also allows users to 
encrypt and decrypt files with a simple "drag-and-drop" interface and 
allows generation of a key pair by filling out a text template. There is a 
documentation folder with the various documentation in PDF and text, 
including a very basic "how to" overview I've written.

A performance benefit is the integration of command-line ZIP compression 
("copyleft" licensed) with encryption. Compressing data before encryption 
makes cryptanalysis of the ciphertext much more difficult, and PGP does 
this automatically for that reason.

The installation executable is at ftp://eepatents.com/clients/gpg32.exe. 
The ZIP file with the exe's contents is at 
ftp://eepatents.com/clients/gpg32.zip.

It's somewhat thrown together as none of the source code is modified, and 
it is definitely not a stable release yet, but I think it will achieve the 
ease-of-use objective I've got in mind. While I will continue to wait for 
GPA, I think this will do the job for my purposes.I think it ties Timo's 
work nicely into GPG, with support for "idiot proof" DH/DSS keygen and file 
encryption/decryption.

Suggestions would be most welcome, especially an easy way to allow 
encryption of files to any recipient. If anyone wants to modify the GPG 
source code and/or to use the Windows Scripting Host to make this a clear 
package with less reliance on DOS batch files, that would be great.

P.S. - I highly recommend the "Powerarchiver" compression software for 
Win32. Its freeware license looks a lot like the GPL. See 
http://www.powerarchiver.com. It works better than any  compression utility 
I've used, and it is compatible with just about every compression format.

Ed Suominen
Registered Patent Agent
Web Site: http://eepatents.com
PGP Public Key: http://eepatents.com/key

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