Gpg4win Light2.3.4

Designed as a minimal edition of Gpg4win, Gpg4win Light is an advanced security application that you can use to encrypt data within files and emails with the help of digital signatures, in order to prevent third parties from getting ahold of your sensitive information.

Configure the installer

Apart from GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG), which represents the core, the full package includes GNU Privacy Assistant (GPA), GnuPG for Outlook (GpgOL), a GnuPG shell extension (GpgEX) and the Claws Mail-User-Agent (Claws-Mail). Any of these modules can be excluded from setup.

Generate new private keys

At the first startup of GNU Privacy Assistant, the tool asks you to generate a private key by inserting a full name and email address used for identifying keys easier. Backup copies can be quickly put together.Once you enter a passphrase and confirm it, the app will generate the new private key and place the entry in a list, along with the key ID, date of creation, associated user name and password, fingerprint, expiration date, owner trust, and key type and validity. This process can be repeated so that you can create as many private keys as you want.

Manage, secure, back up and distribute keys

As far as the interface is concerned, Gpg4win Light is user-friendly, thanks to the clear-cut primary window with neatly organized options. It's possible to copy, paste, delete and sign keys, change the passphrase or expiration date, export them to file and import them later using this application, create backups, as well as distribute the keys to a public server (can be later retrieved using the key ID). The owner trust level can be set to one of five options: unknown, never, marginal, full or ultimate.

Other tools and program settings

Gpg4win Light has a built-in file manager that permits you to sign and compress, encrypt, decrypt, and verify documents, a keyring manager, a Clipboard tool, and a card manager. When it comes to program preferences, you can switch the UI to advanced mode to be able to view signatures and subkeys, modify the default key server, enable the app to write log details to file, deny the use of admin card commands, and more. There are numerous basic, advanced and expert options available.

Evaluation and conclusion

Gpg4win crashed a couple of times when we attempted to switch the interface to advanced mode but, other than that, it worked smoothly. CPU and RAM consumption was minimal, so it didn't hamper system performance. Taking into account its powerful options, Gpg4win proves to be a worthy ally for encrypting files and emails. Too bad that the program configuration settings are not that intuitive for less experienced users.NOTE: For additional features you can check out Gpg4win.