We've just released yet another update to our encryption product USBCrypt. This is a maintenance release that includes several minor fixes and improvements.
If you are already using a previous version of USBCrypt, you don't need to remove it: just download and run the new version, and it should update the previous version while keeping your settings and customizations intact.
Happy encrypting!
A new version 10.8 of our encryption software USBCrypt is available now!
This version includes many improvements and fixes, such as:
The beta test (and the wait) is over: we are happy to announce the official release of USBCrypt version 10.3!
If you have not tried it yet, please feel free to download the fully functional evaluation version from our web site. If you have any questions or encounter a problem, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Happy encrypting!
Can you use a drive encrypted with USBCrypt on other computers that don’t have USBCrypt software installed on them? Like the computers at your local library, or at your friend’s house? Yes, you can: when you encrypt a drive with USBCrypt, it automaticvally puts a portable version of USBCrypt soiftware on the drive as well, to allow you to use the drive with other computers. All you need to do is attach the drive to the computer:
(If you don’t see such a prompt, use the Start – Computer menu to open your drive). Then double-click on USBCrypt (or USBCrypt.exe) to run it off the drive:
OK, there is one catch: if there is no USBCrypt software installed on this computer, then in order to run USBCrypt off the attached encrypted drive the administrator of the computer must give his or her permission for that:
This message is not entirely accurate: USBCrypt does not want to make changes to the computer, all it wants is load the encryption driver. Anyway, come to think of it, this message is a good thing: after all, if it were your computer, you wouldn’t want your friends to run arbitrary software on it without your permission, would you? Go ahead, tell the owner of the computer what USBCrypt is all about, and if you ask nicely, the owner should let you continue.
Note that the admininstrator’s consent must be obtained only once per Windows session: the consent remains in effect even if you detach the drive and insert it again: there should be no second prompt asking for the admininstrator’s password (we don’t want to annoy the administrators with our little questions, do we?) Only if the computer is restarted a new admininstrator’s permission must be obtained again.
After that, you can work with your encrypted drive as usual: you can enter your password and start the Virtual Encrypted Disk, stop it, rename it, etc. Note, however, that one cannot encrypt a new drive by running USBCrypt off another encrypted drive as described above. For that, USBCrypt must be installed on the computer the usual way. Happy encrypting!
We have just released the new beta version 0.9.3 of USBCrypt. It’s still not too late to get a free USBCrypt license just for trying the beta version and telling us the results. If you have not tried it yet, please download and give it a good test it now. Thanks!
If you’ve used USBCrypt to encrypt a removable USB drive and selected to encrypt all available disk space, then you’ve no doubt noticed the “Low Disk Space” balloon in the taskbar:
Low Disk Space balloon
It may not appear immediately, it may take a few minutes after you log in to Windows to become visible. Because it has the USBCrypt icon, the balloon looks like it’s displayed by USBCrypt, but in fact it is displayed by Windows itself (it just grabs the icon from the autorun.inf file of the disk). And it’s not related to the disks encrypted with USBCrypt specifically: the balloon would be displayed for other disks as well, if you fill them up to their capacity.
The designers of Windows have probably had good intentions when they added this balloon to Windows, it probably is nice to get an advance warning before a disk becomes full. However, if this specific case, the warning serves no useful purpose: after all, when you told USBCrypt to use all available space to host the encrypted data, the disk becomes filled up by design, and you should now be concerned (and warned) about the Virtual Encrypted Disk being filled up, instead of the host disk.
After seeing the balloon a few times, you’ve probably wondered if it’s possible to suppress it (even Microsoft itself calls this pop up irritating!). It would be nice if Microsoft would put in a bit extra effort and allowed the user to stop the balloon from appearing for the specific disks, such as the USBCrypt host disks, which are often expected to be filled up by design. Unfortunately, that’s not the case: you cannot suppress the balloon for some disks and leave it for others, it’s all or nothing.
To suppress all Low Disk Space balloons, for all disks, you can follow the steps described in the Microsoft support article. Keep in mind, however, that this article contains an error (at least it did at the time of this writing): it instructs you to name the DWORD value “NoLowDiscSpaceChecks”, while the correct name should be “NoLowDiskSpaceChecks” (without the quotes).
Or, you can download and import this registry script: NoLowDiskSpace, that would create the required registry value for you.
To use this script, save the file onto your hard disk (by right-clicking on the link and choosing Save Link As or Save Target As or a similar command). Change the extension of the saved file from .txt to .reg (that is, rename it to NoLowDiskSpace.reg. We made it a text file because some anti-virus programs block attempts to download .reg files). Then double-click on NoLowDiskSpace.reg file that you have saved to your hard disk, confirm that you want to add it into the registry, and when it’s done, restart the computer. You should not see the Low Disk Space balloons after that.
If, however, one day you decide that you miss that balloon, you can use another script to restore it back: YesLowDiskSpace. (Use the same procedure to apply it).
The first public beta version 0.9.1 of USBCrypt is available now!
You can try the pre-release (beta) version to see how well it works for you. If you encounter a problem, please report it directly to the USBCrypt development team, to give it a chance to correct the error before officially releasing USBCrypt. In return, as our “thank you”, we are offering a free license to anyone who gives useful* feedback during the beta testing.
Of course, before you decide to try the beta version, consider carefully that it has not been fully tested yet and contains some unfinished pieces of code that may result in various problems (including the system crashes and data loss!). We DO NOT recommend trying the beta version on your main computer. Instead, we’d highly recommend installing it on a spare computer, that has no important files of yours. Only after giving it a good test, if you are confident in the beta version and your troubleshooting skills, you may want to try it on your main computer. In any case, it’s always a good idea to do the regular backup of your hard disk, to avoid losing your files should an unanticipated problem occur.
Want to give it a try? Go to the USBCrypt beta page to to find the download link and other related information.
Note: Due to the US government export restrictions, we can distribute USBCrypt software to the US residents only at this time. We anticipate to open the beta test to other users at a later date, after we have received the necessary export clearance from the US government.
*We reserve the right to decide which feedback is useful and which is not. For example, the general statements like “The application runs well” or “The application does not run” will not be considered useful. To be “useful”, we need much more detailed information about the problem you are experiencing, including the specifics of your computer, the version and edition of Windows that you run, the list of steps that we could execute to reproduce the error, and other relevant information that may help us correct the error.