USB Drive Use

[John Clizbe]

Henry Hertz Hobbit wrote:
<snip>
> [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GNU\GNUPG]
> "HomeDir"="C:\\Documents and Settings\\hhhobbit\\Application Data\\GnuPG"
> "gpgProgram"="C:\\Program Files\\GnuPG\\gpg.exe"
> "OptFile"="C:\\Documents and Settings\\hhhobbit\\Application Data\\GnuPG\\gpg.conf"
<snip>
> 
> and just move the files there on the USB drive (in my case into
> the F:\hhhobbit\GnuPG folder).
> 
> Actually, it sounds like they have already installed GnuPG, so why is
> it a hassle for them to also install WinPT?  In addition to WinPT and
> GnuPG registry entries you may have some Mingw32 registry entries, but
> all of those will probably NOT need to be changed.

The user has installed GnuPG on a flash/USB drive along with keyrings. He's
looking for a GUI GnuPG front end.

OptFile and gpgProgram are not GnuPG entries. They are set by other programs
which use GnuPG, such as GPGrelay.

GnuPG first tries to find gpg.connf and keyrings in its default location:
~/.gnupg on *nix type systems or by looking up the registry value
HKCU\Software\GNU\GNUPG\HomeDir on Win32 systems.

The default location may be overridden by setting the environment variable
GNUPGHOME. The environment variable GNUPGHOME may be overridden by specifying
the --homedir option on the command line. This is documented behavior.

Copying the GnuPG files from the installation directory and keyring files
from one' HomeDir to the USB/Flash device and then setting up an initialization
BAT script that adds the binaries to your PATH and sets GNUPGHOME and you have
GnuPG working on the USB/Flash device. This is the approach used by the GPG2GO
project.

One of the more common applications users want along with GnuPG on a portable
flash device is email. Portable Thunderbird and Enigmail handle this quite well
with no registry involvement. Enigmail also supplies a simple key management GUI
interface.

As far as more full-featured GnuPG front ends for Win32, WinPT and GPGshell both
store user preferences under HKCU\Software. I don't recall if there is a
requirement that these be installed in order to function, but I don't believe
there is. If there is enough interest, I'm sure a version of WinPT could be
knocked together that relied on CONF/INI files instead of the Windows registry
for preference storage.


-- 
John P. Clizbe                      Inet:   John (a) Mozilla-Enigmail.org
You can't spell fiasco without SCO. PGP/GPG KeyID: 0x608D2A10/0x18BB373A
"what's the key to success?"        / "two words: good decisions."
"what's the key to good decisions?" /  "one word: experience."
"how do i get experience?"          / "two words: bad decisions."

"Just how do the residents of Haiku, Hawai'i hold conversations?"

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