Using AxCrypt to Encrypt Individual Files

In today’s digital age, computer security is more important than ever. In addition to people storing more and more personal data on their computers, they are also sending personal data back and forth through email and other online transfer methods. In addition to this, if you send personal files burned on a cd/dvd through the mail, what happens if a postal worker gets curious or your package gets lost?

Here’s the question: How do you keep people from spying on your data while in transit, either physical or digital?

Normally I would say TrueCrypt, hands down. The biggets problem? It’s got a bit of a learning curve and is probably overkill for most people.

Enter AxCrypt.

Axcrypt is a simple Windows tool that installs a very handy right-click option that allows you to encrypt files simply and easily. In addition to encrypting the file by itself, you can create a self-extracting, encrypted file so whoever you send it to can simply decrypt the file and won’t have to install AxCrypt on their system. I’ll be detailing each choice through out this article.

So let’s get started:)

Installing AxCrypt

1. Go and download AxCrypt
2. Install AxCrypt (all the defaults should work fine)
3. You should now be able to right click any file and see an option for AxCrypt



4. Everything we do from here on out will be from this menu

Encrypting a File

For this example, I’m going to be encrypting a text file called text.txt. It’s going to be basic encryption so whoever needs to decrypt the file will have to have AxCrypt installed on their computer.

1. Right click the file you want to encrypt
2. Highlight ‘AxCrypt‘
3. Choose ‘Encrypt‘ or ‘Encrypt a Copy‘
   
   1. If you choose Encrypt, the file itself will be encrypted
   2. If you choose Encrypt a Copy, AxCrypt will create an encrypted copy of the file, leaving the original intact
4. No matter which option you chose, you will be presented with a screen like the one below
   
5. Type in your passphrase for the file, and click ‘OK’
6. Your file will now end in .axx and the icon will look like the one in the picture below
   
7. You can now send this file to anyone you need to and they will be able to decrypt it as long as you give them the passphrase and they have AxCrypt installed on their system

Decrypting the File

1. Once you have the encrypted file and want to decrypt it, right click the .axx file
2. Go to ‘AxCrypt‘ and choose ‘Decrypt‘
   
3. You will now be presented with a dialoge box asking for the passphrase
   
4. Enter your passphrase and click ‘OK’
5. Your file is now decrypted and ready to be edited

Note: You will need to redo the encryption process each time you are done with the file and want to encrypt it again

Encryption a Stand Alone File

The above method is nice if you are the only person editing the file, or you know the person you are sending the file has AxCrypt installed on their machine. What about if you need to send an encrypted file to your boss who sometimes has difficulty figuring out how to open ‘the internet’?

AxCrypt has an option called ‘Encrypt Copy to .Exe’ that fits this need perfectly. Here’s how to do it.

1. Right click the file you want to encrypt
2. Choose ‘Encrypt Copy to .Exe‘
   
3. You will once again be presented with a dialog box asking for a passphrase
   
4. Enter your passphrase and click ‘OK‘
5. You will now see a newly created file with a .exe extension
   
6. This file can now be given to anyone on a Windows machine

Decrypting a Stand Alone Encrypted File

1. Double click the .exe encrypted file
2. You will now see a window asking for the passphrase
   
3. If you entered the correct passphrase, you will now see a window like the one below
   
4. The unencrypted file should now be available to edit

Shred and Delete

One handy feature that you may want to use is the ‘Shred and Delete’ option. If you aren’t sure how a computer handles your deleted files, you can read up on how to erase a hard drive correctly here. Needless to say, when you ‘delete’ a file, the file really isn’t gone.

If you want to get rid of a file for good, you can use the ‘Shred and Delete’ option in AxCrypt.

1. Simply right click on the file you want to get rid of
2. Go to ‘AxCrypt‘ and choose ‘Shred and Delete‘
   
3. You will now see a box that will make sure you want to overwrite your file with random bits of data
   
4. Click ‘Yes’

Final Thoughts

There are a few other options in AxCrypt than what I’ve gone into in this post, but this should give you a good start and fill most of your needs.

If you’re looking for ways to create large partitions of encrypted data or encrypt entire drives, I’ll be working on a tutorial for TrueCrypt. Until then, you can play with AxCrypt or get a head start on using TrueCrypt.

 Link to this page

 Link to this page

Related posts:

1. Rename Multiple Files With a Few Clicks Have you ever needed to rename a ton of files?...
2. Creating a One-Time Use Credit Card With PayPal If you do a fair amount of shopping online,...
3. Using Pandora’s Windows Vista Gadget I recently bought a new computer that is running Windows...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.