(Posted to "beta" forumn, even though this is an official FreeOTFE release. AIUI this is where John Haller wants these posts?!)
FWIW, FreeOTFE v5.20 and FreeOTFE Explorer v3.50 have now been released, which add support for Linux keyfiles, Greek and Croation language translations, and a few other improvements.
The summary of the main differences between FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer can be found at: http://www.FreeOTFE.org/main_explorer_differences.html
Both can be downloaded from: http://www.FreeOTFE.org/download.html
Visit the Community page
Join our forums
Subscribe to our email newsletter
Subscribe with RSS
Follow us on Facebook
Follow us on LinkedIn
Follow us on Twitter
Follow us on Mastodon
Follow us on BlueSky
Hi
I have access to 2 PCs, one running Windows XP and the other running Windows 7, I have found that the FreeOTFE_Launcher does not work with windows 7 but is fine with Windows XP.
It used to when I used FreeOTFE 5.0 but since upgrading to 5.2 it has stopped.
Regards
Works OK for me, both under Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7
Maybe there's something wrong with your setup?
Thank you for your comment.
Would you have an idea what could be wrong with my setup?
Regards
Just a thought... It might be due to the new Microsoft's policy of forcing the option to use only signed drivers on your system. It was introduced in Vista, and is incorporated into Windows 7. The problem may be in that your system doesn't allow unsigned drivers to be installed (FreeOTFE installs drivers for the short period of time when using it, and then uninstalls them. That's why you need admin privileges to use the program). Thus, you can't use FreeOTFE "hassle free" in Win 7.
If that is the problem, you can easily temporarily (or permanently) turn off that option on your system, by following the directions at
FreeOTFE installation guide, or if it's a simpler matter, check if you need to follow this simple step. (I don't think that the later is the problem, just check for the driver signing problem in the first article first...).
On the other hand, TrueCrypt has an advance in that area since it has signed drivers to start with
And for the "Portable use", I recommend FreeOTFE Explorer over the main FreeOTFE program.
Cheers, and good luck (with solving that problem of yours)
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
Yep, you understand correctly.
All the apps - regardless of how official they are - need to go through a testing run before they can become officially released here. That testing run frequently brings out bugs nobody noticed earlier because they only appear under some weird configuration or because nobody followed the exact steps required to reproduce some hard-to-get bug.
After FreeOTFE's been in the beta forums for at least a month, you can put a post in the release queue and John will take it from there.
Cheers!
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
Since nobody seems to be "beta-testing" this program, then I've got to write this small review.
The program is by far the best one of it's kind that I've tried so far (yes, that includes TrueCrypt as well). It's easy to use, the Portable launcher makes it run in "Portable mode", and it uninstalls all the drivers after use (I'm talking about FreeOTFE.exe, not the FreeOTFEExplorer.exe since the later doesn't install drivers to the system at all). Also, it's great that FreeOTFE Explorer can both create and mount FAT and FAT32 formated drives without the admin rights on a computer it is run on, but the limitation of FAT's 4GB drive size is not that good (it's not a fault of FreeOTFE Explorer).
However, although "Portable", FreeOTFE.exe is not "Invisible" - it leaves data behind in the registry after use! FreeOTFE Explorer doesn't, and it's better that way, but on the other hand the Explorer doesn't support NTFS file systems...
The registry data left behind is connected to the drivers being installed (I can't find the log file I've saved earlier which contains listed reg entries left after FreeOTFE...).
Also, there seems to be a bug in the Portable version. I thought that somebody would have reported it by now, but I guess I was wrong... When FreeOTFEPortable.exe is run on a system it hasn't been installed to (so, a clean system, first run) everything works great. Absolutely great, with no problem. But, and that's a big but, if you Exit the program, and then rerun it (let's say you forgot to copy something to the drive before un-mounting and exiting), there will be a problem and the program will be unable to mount your drive (note that all this is only about FreeOTFE, not the Explorer). The problem is in the programs inability to install (again) the drivers needed for it's proper work. Actually, it's just the main FreeOTFE driver. It can easily be bypassed by manually going to the Options and manually installing that driver, but most users, in my opinion, will not and do not know how to do that easily.
The problem is gone if the system is restarted in the meantime. So my guess is it's because of Windows (?) needing to reboot after the uninstallation of the drivers in order to "unregister" them properly (?). Correct me if I'm wrong with the interpretation, but the review and "bug report" can easily be verified (I checked on several PCs).
Anyway, disregarding that "rerun problem", I see no reason why these programs don't get official?! They have been out here for some time now, and they work great, they are actively maintained by Sarah Dean, they are in PortableApps.com specifications....... I've had more trouble with at that time "supported" and "official" PortableApps.com programs, such as VirtualMagnifyingGlassPortable (giving errors) and StellariumPortable (leaving data in %AppData%), then with these "unofficial" FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer programs...
These were my review and "my 2 cents"
I hope more people see and try out these wonderful programs. Thanks Sarah for making them and providing them free of charge
Regards
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
LOL, small :P.
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Yea, small
he he 
I just had to 
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
Thanks for the feedback!
A couple of things though:
Neither FreeOTFE nor FreeOTFE Explorer are restricted to 4GB volumes, and certainly support much larger ones. Your computer may be limited in what it can store though; this is covered in the FAQ at:
http://www.FreeOTFE.org/docs/Main/FAQ.htm#as
The registry settings I expect you're looking at are created by MS Windows, not FreeOTFE.
FreeOTFE doesn't create any registry entries (unless user configured to store its settings there) - but Windows does in order to use device drivers.
As a result, you may find a handful of entries are left over when exiting FreeOTFE, which Windows hasn't cleaned up after the drivers are removed. This is the normal, and expected, behaviour of the OS; more details are available at:
http://www.FreeOTFE.org/docs/Main/technical_details__registry_entries.htm
That's not something I've had reported before, and I'm having difficulty replicating this (testing under Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7). Please could you email me a copy of your FreeOTFE.ini settings file to see if that helps?
When FreeOTFE is exited, it will remove all drivers running in portable mode; if you've manually installed one or more of the drivers, the next time FreeOTFE is started and portable mode started, FreeOTFE will will give you a warning that it couldn't start the installed drivers; this is understandable, as you've already installed it!
I get the impression it's mainly the software John releases that gets made "portableapps.com official"!
A lot of it doesn't seem to go through same "beta testing" process as software donated by 3rd partys to help support portableapps.com...
Looking at the "ready for portableapps.com official release" thread at https://portableapps.com/node/11772 there's still entries dating back from March 2008, so I wouldn't hold your breath!
Sarah Dean
Hi again.
This is the FreeOTFE.ini file of the FreeOTFE that did the problem on Windows XP SP2 machines.
The problem is as I said, when FreeOTFE is used for first time, it's great. I select the Portable mode when starting the program, and when I exit it uninstalls the drivers. Then, when I start the FreeOTFE again, in Portable mode, it installs the drivers and then it says that the main FreeOTFE driver is missing (all the others are there). Then I have to go to options and manually install that main driver, and it works great as with the first run. It's not much of a drag for me, I got used to it already
I just thought it was a serious problem on FreeOTFE's account, and that other people are having trouble, too.
About FAT limitation problems, you were right... I'm sorry about that.
I couldn't make a larger volume file to put on my USB stick, and I did read the entire guide before using the software 
I guess I misunderstood why, what and how about the 4GB volumes and FAT system.
The registry files are not stored for the options of my FreeOTFE, I checked the option in the drop down box on the bottom of the Settings screen to "Store settings to ini file" or something like that. I didn't select to store them to the registry. The log file with registry entries left behind is here:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0050] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0051] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0052] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0053] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0054] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0055] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0056] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0057] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0058] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0059] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0060] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0061] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0062] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0063] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERAES_LTC] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERBLOWFISH] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERCAST5] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERCAST6_GLADMAN] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERDES] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERMARS_GLADMAN] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERRC6_LTC] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERSERPENT_GLADMAN] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERTWOFISH_LTC] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHMD] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHRIPEMD] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHSHA] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHTIGER] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHWHIRLPOOL] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Deleted Device IDs] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0050] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0051] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0052] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0053] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0054] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0055] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0056] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0057] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0058] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0059] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0060] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0061] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0062] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{8ECC055D-047F-11D1-A537-0000F8753ED1}\0063] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERAES_LTC] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERBLOWFISH] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERCAST5] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERCAST6_GLADMAN] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERDES] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERMARS_GLADMAN] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERRC6_LTC] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERSERPENT_GLADMAN] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFECYPHERTWOFISH_LTC] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHMD] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHRIPEMD] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHSHA] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHTIGER] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_FREEOTFEHASHWHIRLPOOL] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Deleted Device IDs]Well, I'm sorry again for the 4GB misunderstanding, it was my FAT formatted flash drive that couldn't store a bigger volume file (I hope I understood it right this time
). Thanks for the answers 
Yea, I guess you're right. That especially goes for CanabaltPortable
It's a great game, but I think it made it's way from Development to Releases in like a day 
Cheers
EDIT: Okay. I checked my "bug-report" again. I was able to reproduce it on two Windows XP (SP2) machines just as I described, but on a third one (I'm not sure what SP it is) it worked OK (no bug). There are some differences between all 3 machines, but the first 2 (the ones giving the error) have Kaspersky Anti Virus 7 installed, while that third one (the working one) has NOD32. Could that have caused the problem? Other than that, even though differences do exist, I don't see them to be big enough to be causing problems with FreeOTFE... All machines have administrator privileges of course. These machines are not all mine, so I can't determine and/or bug-test for the possible causes very often...
I just got the chance to do so. 
Bye
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
At the moment, we can't consider this for official release as the drivers are unsigned. As such, it will not function on Windows 7 64-bit (and 64-bit is about 1/2 of Windows 7 installations).
I was going to offer assistance in the form of using our digital key to sign your 64-bit drivers, but it seems you need a special security certificate for drivers to do that. (Note: I am not sure of this, though) Might I suggest a fund-raising drive from your users and here in a test thread to purchase such a driver?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Do you happen to know if the fee is one-time or recurring? Just out of curiousity.
Like all security certificates, it is a yearly fee. There are multi-year discounts and the fee varies from one provider to another.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
That's garbage - FreeOTFE Explorer doesn't need drivers
... it's not the Explorer that is the problem here. Without the base program, the functionality is badly crippled to the point that it does not offer much more than a encrypted 7zip-file. You could open your normally used OTFE-containers with the Explorer, though.
To use it as it is designed you need the driver to mount encrypted volumes...
And for most useful tasks FreeOTFE Explorer is garbage (sorry Sarah, no offense). It's really a "last resort" kind of application that you can use if you absolutely have to get to a file but I certainly wouldn't want to work with an encrypted volume like that day-in, day-out. It's akin to having a compressed volume and having to check out a file every time you want to work with it. Not terribly convenient.
EDIT: What depp jones said.
ReactOS Foundation Wiki: Driver Signing
I was looking at Process Hacker Portable, and went to Process Hackers main site and noticed that at the bottom it says The ReactOS Foundation has very kindly signed the driver, so it works on 64-bit systems. and I thought ☺
☺ This could be the answer for FreeOTFE too‼‼
So please look into it, and hopefully they'll sign your driver too.
(Note: In order for them to sign your driver they will have to be able to build it themselves, and they may still decide not too, but it's worth a try. ☺)
~3D1T0R
Does someone over here stands in direct contact with Sarah ? The email at the contact page of freeotfe gives an 'email box full rejection message'.
I think there must be a solution from ourselves to help to sign a 64bit driver. As far as i can see is the only workable encryption solution the one that Sarah made: combination of partition/container encryption with a file explorer as last resort on strange PC's. But without a working signed 64bit driver is it not really usefull to use on a daily base.
I'm prepared to donate $20: who follows ?