Download of the Week: TrueCrypt

[Jos]

Ever concerned you'll lose the thumb drive where you back up all your important and personal stuff? Or worried someone accidentally finds that embarrassing files collection on your computer? Um, yeah, me neither. The point is we've all got some data that deserves a little extra privacy and protection. While the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 come with BitLocker for securing documents on your system or as they travel with you, those looking for a cost-effective solution can use TrueCrypt to protect sensitive files from prying eyes.

TrueCrypt is a powerful, flexible and highly-effective program that uses "volumes" to contain encrypted data. These volumes are mounted as a system drive to read, change or add encrypted content to them on the fly -- you can encrypt files, folders, external drives or even the entire partition on which Windows itself is installed, requiring pre-boot authorization in order for the operating system to run.

It supports a variety of encryption algorithms, including AES-256, Blowfish (448-bit key), CAST5, Serpent, Triple DES, and Twofish. The latest version adds support for multiple processors, which provides a boost in the encryption/decryption speed equal to the number of processor cores in use, and "backup headers" which provide last-chance recovery for encrypted drives and files that get damaged.

Though its interface may not be very intuitive, the tips in the extensive help manual and volume-creation wizard provide good guidance. TrueCrypt is an open-source, cross-platform (Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux) project and completely free to use, but the author accepts and encourages donations towards further development.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37133-download-of-the-week-truecrypt.html

 

[Nirkon]

Looks pretty good, but I think its too much for me, whatever I need password protected
I just usually use Winrar to do it... but its not like sensitive work data or something like that.

 

[Chazz]

I've been using this for about a year. This program is very reliable and does it's job with little hassle.

 

[jazboy]

Does it work in Window 7 too ?

 

[jazboy]

found the answer... with new release it will work on window 7 too.

 

[Kibaruk]

Good to know, don't have windows 7 ultimate so bitlocker is not an option for me, there are always eye-sensitive documents lying all over the computer, or external drives which are not that secure either.

Will check this out.

 

[ColdPreacher]

Ya i have been using True Crypt for 2 years now. I have a lot of sensitive data that need encryption. WinRar can password protect ur zips or rar's but i trust True Crypt with all its features. You can even install a travel crypt on your usb's as well which will carry true crypt on the usb its self with no installation needed on the pc.

 

[kaonis92]

This a useful app, I'm already using it for some time.

 

[FoReWoRd]

usually gives errors but new verison helps

 

[Deso]

Woot !
I actually use this for my storage drives! It works great ;]
I use the Twofish encryption ^_^
I only got a pentinum 4 which manages to encrypt/decrypt 30mb/s with Twofish which also is the speed my storage drivers operates at so it's all good
I wish my cpu was fast enough to do it faster to I bench around 10 mb/s on the two-way encryptions

 

[PUTALE]

very nice tool. I will have to check it out. thansk for the info.

 

[harby]

TruCrypt is awesome. It might take some time for new users to figure it out completely but imho its invaluable and essential for securing your portable media.

 

[Hyperian]

I thought of getting something like this but i never have anything that i really need to encrypt

 

[Puiu]

It's a really useful tool. I was actually looking for something like this because i have win7 pro which doesn't have BitLocker. It's too good to be free. All i need to do now is wiki the best algorithm to use to encrypt my stuff.

 

[PCIGamer]

fantastic app, well worth the download if you want to protect your stuff

 

[Fada]

windows should have encryption features built into it, good encryption features, i remember when i was a kid on mac os 9 encrypting all my porno files so my mother would not find em, all through the OS

 

[TorturedChaos]

i like the looks of it, but seems a bit much for the few things I want to p/w. I have always just made a passworded .rar file with winrar .

 

[yorro]

I am kind of iffy about these data encryption softwares, because there is a possibility that data can be damaged.

 

[Serag]

fantastic app..been using it for a while now..
@yorro I haven't had such problem using TrueCrypt...so far

 

[sllewe]

I use it on my thumbdrive, really great product.

 

[Boogityboo04]

@yorro How do you mean? I haven't ever had the data corrupted in any way, and it seems like the chance would be the same as any other data on your drive.

 

[Phantasm66]

I've been using this for some time now and its the best software in the world! Now you can take your laptop or USB drive about and know that if its stolen no one will get their hands on those saucy pictures you've been hiding...

 

[ken777]

I tried the previous version (5.x) on my laptop and the disk performance slowed down dramatically. The laptop was dual core and never had high CPU utilization. Never figured out what was wrong. I'm using bitlocker with Windows 7 now and it's been working pretty smoothly.

 

[Richy2k9]

hello ...

i tried it it & liked it. have also the portable version on my pendrive.

it's a neat utility for securing data, i don't have very sensitive one to hide yet it's always good to know that some kind of Safe exists & it's free.

cheers!

 

[Onewill]

Well, this eliminates the need for me to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate. I have friends that like to snoop, and I'd rather they not get into my material.