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How to encrypt a USB drive without admin rights?
f0dder:
I have a Man Crush on f0dder because of his knowledge of all things secret. 8)
-tinjaw (February 19, 2010, 08:02 AM)
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I think Safehouse Explorer from Safehouse software works without Admin rights. A bit more limited (you cannot edit files from the container, you have to extract them on the Desktop for instance) but it works. I like their products a lot. Oh, and it's free. The full Safehouse suite is payware.-MerleOne (February 19, 2010, 08:36 AM)
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Which means it'll leave residue behind - might as well go for AxCrypt - free + opensource.
MerleOne:
Which means it'll leave residue behind - might as well go for AxCrypt - free + opensource.
-f0dder (February 19, 2010, 08:43 AM)
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AFAIK, AxCrypt encrypts file by file, while SHE creates a container accessible through the application. If you have admin rights, you may install a driver (that can be removed from Add/Remove Panel) that turns the mounted container into a virtual with a letter.
superboyac:
This is not really a helpful comment, but related:
When I first got my usb drive last year, I looked into making things encrypted on it. All the solutions were such a pain in the butt that I said "F--k it!" Sure, there is stuff on there I'd rather not have people see, but nothing that will kill me. The only stuff I was truly concerned about were my passwords. But I use RoboForm which has pretty strong encryption in the program and is pretty safe.
rjbull:
Thanks for the suggestions. I should have thought out what I wanted a bit better, though your posts are helping me do that. I occasionally use the USB key at college and the public library. I'm not really expecting industrial-strength security. I want to (1) prevent average users accessing payware programs on my USB key, (2) prevent same accessing certain files, and (3) should I lose the key, or forget and leave it behind, plugged into a machine (mine are all on cables, so they're more obvious than usual), then no-one, not even a sysadmin (who hadn't already sniffed the password) could access any secure area. That seems to mean I'd be better off with a TrueCrypt-type secure container to stop (1) and (3) while still making the programs accessible to me. For (2) I could use AxCrypt or equivalent, but even then it would (probably) be a pain while doing things like digital photography evening class where I want to access lots of files, so an encrypted container would still be best. Ideally it would lock itself after a given period of inactivity.
I suppose I should add the obvious - I don't usually have admin rights on the PCs I would in these situations be using.
Like superboyac I use RoboForm, and KeePass, and one of my MemPad files is also encrypted using Windows' built-in system. I could leave those outside the container.
Found two more not mentioned above: Wondershare USB Drive Encryption and WinEncrypt. I don't know anything about them.
I notice that some encryption programs are fairly expensive. The ones that have free and payware versions seem to limit the container size in the free version as an incentive to upgrade. Rohos, for example, is 2GB. But that seems quite a bit on a USB drive which isn't enormous anyway.
superboyac:
Sidenote: I love Roboform2Go (the portable version). Such a great thing. All your passwords are with you and you don't have to worry too much about losing your usb drive. If you do need to keep a few other things secure, you can use Roboform's note capabilities. But if you actually need secure/encrypted files beyond that, it's going to be a pain in the butt.
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