[This topic was moved to beta testing by mod JTH so that it can be tested for inclusion in the PortableApps.com Directory]
Hi!
(This is my first post here - please be gentle!)
I've recently released the latest version of FreeOTFE and FreeOTFE Explorer, and also a repackaged version in portableapps.com format (as well as U3 format)
For those who haven't heard of it, FreeOTFE is a disk encryption system which allows "virtual disks" to be created on your PC - everything stored on one of these disks is automatically encrypted before being stored on your computer's hard drive (or removable storage such as USB flash drive or iPod). Similarly, decryption is carried out automatically when files are read back again, providing a transparent system for securing data.
NOTE: FreeOTFE uses a device driver, which means that in order to start it, either it's portable mode must be started (which requires administrator rights on the local PC), or the driver needs to be installed on the PC before using it. This may not be suitable for all users - which is one of the reasons FreeOTFE Explorer was created, which has no such requirement.
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:
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I've been trying out FreeOTFE and FOTFE Explorer for a while (mind if I abbr. that way?). It's pretty good (I can tell because waggling the mouse annoys me, so it must be secure :P), but I still can't find a way to encrypt my data so that it's easily accessible at school. I'll try it a bit more.
Thanks for the post!
(BTW, you might want to put this in the Beta Testing Forum, where unofficial (to PortableApps.com) software goes ;)).
[Edit]
I don't really like the installer icon. Do you have something bigger, maybe more colorful?
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It's obvious these apps are well intended and well supported but I do hope the logic used in them is written better than the logic describing them on their webpage.
FreeOTFE
Installation requirements: "Installation not required! ....does require Administrator privileges."
Administrator privileges: "Administrator privileges are not required after being installed. ....it uses device drivers which require Administrator privileges to install"
Emphasis mine.
Obviously Admin rights and installation are required, without which you can not use the app. Not for every use but certainly needed to run it the first time which is something that can be said for most apps.
Hopefully the company reworks their webpage.
Ed
I'll agree that it could be better worded, but installation is definitely not required.
It is an either-or situation.
Either an administrator must install the software in advance, in which case no admin rights are needed, or it can be run in a no-installation-needed matter, but only if the user running it has admin rights.
It is all down to the driver that it needed to create a new drive letter. If an administrator installs the driver, anyone can use it, or it can be loaded on the fly by the software, but only if you are an administrator at the time. It is exactly the same stumbling block as is faced by any other transparent encryption software, and is why all such will always effectively need admin rights for portable use.
if you already created a secure drive with admin rights (for example on your stick), then you should be able to access it without Admin rights everywhere you like.
At least thats the way I understand it.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
you don't need admin rights for that
Accessing it is easy, too - using FreeOTFE Explorer.
What you can't do without admin rights is assign it a drive letter so that normal apps can directly access files in it without you having to copy them all out onto a temp area first (with FreeOTFE Explorer).
but installation is definitely not required.
If you are at a pc that is in a library, university, school, work or even at a relatives house where you only have access to a Limited Access account you will NOT be able to download FreeOTFE and use it. The driver MUST BE installed for FreeOTFE to be used. That requires an account with Admin access to "load" (temporarily install?) the driver EACH TIME the app is used or to INSTALL the driver permanently for use with Limited Access accounts.
I'm not saying these are bad things, just that the write up is misleading and confusing. The FreeOTFE Explorer app doesn't have this problem and can be truly portable.
Ed
I thought that was what I said.
You either need to be an admin, or it needs to have already been installed by an admin.
This is exactly why neither OTFE or TrueCrypt have become official in the past.
In essence, for portable use, you need admin rights for them to be fully useful.
Unlike TrueCrypt, an up-to-date, supported file explorer will let you get at your files when you're on a machine without admin rights and without OTFE installed. That makes it a bit more useful portably.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
The driver needs to be able to LOAD.. and THAT requires admin-rights .
"LOAD" is NOT the same as "install" .
Hopefully Ed_P Inc reworks their misleading comment .
Thank you.
(see, that wasn't hard to take!)
I'm thinking this is a logical choice for inclusion in the directory. Everyone please give this a good once-over. I've moved it to the beta forum so folks will test it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I think the only true thing that it's lacking is a nicely sized icon.
(And the source isn't in the source directory, and other than that just rename the launcher.)
I am not really good with compliance though because I haven't been here in a year and it still kind of perplexes me that only the installer is automated now ;).
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I looked on IconsPedia for something similiar to the one that sdean12 has now.
http://www.iconspedia.com/icon/padlocks-1464.html
It's licensed under CC-BY, so there's no problem using it. 8)
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What size icon are you looking for?
The source for the launchers can currently be downloaded from:
http://www.FreeOTFE.org/downloads/release_builder_PortableApps.com.zip
(All they do is launch the .exe held in one of the subdirectories with a number of parameters)
From the "portableapps.com format", storing the source (either to the application or installer) under ...\Other\Source in the .paf.exe is optional?
Including FreeOTFE's source would just increase the installers size by about 7MB, and wouldn't actually give any benefit to the user, as it can all be downloaded separately anyway.
Sarah Dean
I run FreeOTFE as Admin in portable mode and created a volume. Everything orked and i could open it as a restricted user with the Explorer.
It created a whole bunch of registry entried like:
I dont know how if these can be removed/backed up.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
Like HKCU, CurrentControlSet is the one to worry about (it's a window into 001), so it definitely could be handled by a launcher. Were those left after it exited and removed the drivers from memory?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I just run the program, exited it and then did the second shot with regshot. I know they were left because now they are there and I cant delete them.
"What about Love?" - "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate." - Al Pacino in The Devils Advocate
(Sorry for the delay in replying, I've been off for a few days!)
These registry entries are created by Windows (not FreeOTFE) for FreeOTFE's drivers and can safely be ignored. You get the same effect when using any device driver.
(The launcher doesn't need to back them up, or keep them)
FreeOTFE Explorer doesn't use drivers at all, so these entries aren't created.
Sarah Dean
There is an easy way to delete those registry entries FreeOTFE left behind, since they aren't important either for you, FreeOTFE, or even your OS. The way is to make a registry file which would automatically delete those entries (after a double-click).
First, you must make a new .txt file. Open it with your favorite text editor (notepad.exe for example) and write the following (if working on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7; for Win98 and 2000 put REGEDIT4 instead of the first line)
Now, PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING BEFORE JUST DOING THIS!!!
(1) Every "string" or "entry" (in other words line of text) must be in one line, unbroken. By that I mean no pressing ENTER until the string has finished (it finishes with "]" sign).
(2) When string IS FINISHED, it must be followed by a blank line, because that is telling Windows it is the next "entry" after it, and not a "sub-entry".
(3) Every "entry" starts with "[-", in what the "[" sign means the start of a new string, and the minus sign is telling Windows to completely erase that registry key and all it's sub-keys (that is fine, don't worry about it IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE, WITH THESE PARTICULAR REGISTRY KEYS)
(4) THIS SHOULD NOT BE DONE BY THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE WINDOWS REGISTRY, AND IT'S ALWAYS SMART TO BACKUP YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE CHANGING IT! YOU SHOULD NEVER EXPERIMENT WITH THE REGISTRY!
If you respected all notes, and backed up your registry just to be on the safe side (again, these keys are safe to delete, and you "Simeon" seam to know your way around the registry), then all that follows is to save that .txt file you just made and change the extension from .txt into .reg
After that, just double-click your .reg file, then click on "Yes", then "Ok".
Those "strings" have been deleted.
It is smart to rename that .reg file into something like FreeOTFE.reg and put it somewhere where you can double-click it easily after using FreeOTFE, and do it on every computer before you unplug your drive. I don't know if those are all the keys left behind by FreeOTFE since I don't use it - 7-Zip is a fairly good/fast program for safe encryption and storage of your files, and needs no admin rights. So, if there are more keys you need to remove, just tell me what they are. I use the same thing with Glary Utilities Portable, because otherwise it leaves some important (to me at least) "strings" behind... I think that this is a result of poor programming, and a really good and thoughtful programmer might even make his program remove his own entries from MRU cache (
oh, I'd just love it if everyone did it 
).
Just a thought
If you have any trouble with this or want more info, feel free to leave a comment as a reply, and I'll try to help out.
Cheers
PS: I wrote it the way I did (like you're a newbie) for those less informed about registry and what is what... Don't take it personally Simeon
My posts are old and likely no longer relevant.
Since this item seems to be a good portable possibility. I have to ask this question which does not seem to be answered in this thread.
Can you both create and then mount a volume useing the FreeOTFE Explorer version only. Or do you need to create the volume first useing, FreeOTFE, the full version and then you are able to open it up useing just the FreeOTFE Explorer version.
Frank D. Hubeny
You can use the Explorer to make volumes. It's the same.
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Thank you digitxp
I experimented with the "zip" version of the Explorer last night. I just unziped it into a directory and it worked just fine. I created a volume. Then I could move things into it and dismount the volume. Then I was able to remount the same volume. I have Admin rights so this may not have been a real good test. But according to the information you do not need it. But I did find that the "zip" version can be just unzipped anywhere and works. It would be a fine addition in "paf" format with a launcher if a launcher for the Explorer is needed. Since many people are looking for a way to encrypt more then one file at a time.
I will now try out the "paf" version on my USB and let you all know. If I read the official website correctly there is wwork ongoing to make the Explorer version work on device's partition.
Thinking about that. Some testing should be done to see if you can run things from the mounted volume. Like edting a file or even running a program from it.
Frank D. Hubeny
Hello Group,
I tried to run an "exe" file from a mounted volume. I was unable to do so. But I could extract what I wanted to a directory and then run it. For me that means I could extract my Key Files and then use them. Then I used Eraser Drop Portable to erase them. I did not see if I could work on a file, a text file as an example with out first extracting it.
Frank D. Hubeny
That's what explorer does. To run stuff, you need FreeOTFE to mount as a drive letter (requiring admin rights).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Is there a Linux compatible version?
If not, are the volumes compatible with TrueCrypt (which has a Linux version)?
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http://www.freeotfe.org/features.html
Read their FAQ.
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
I wish I used Linux more now, because I have no idea.
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Hello Group;
After installing the Explorer version to my USB's portableapps menue. The name is so very long.
Can this be shortened a litte. By that I mean can it be shortened to just the Apps name and then portable. Or is this something from the official site that can not be changed.
I know it is just a visuall thing, but it is so very long.
Frank D. Hubeny
You're likely using an old menu. The current menu displays it as FreeOTFE as specified in the appinfo.ini.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
Hello John,
I am still useing the first release PAM. I believe it is "1.1". I am waiting for the latest to become official before I change. This is not meant that I am in a hurry or trying to rush things. I like it so why change. There was an item in the latest offical that I did not like. Do not now remember what it was. I think it was something to do with PAM fonts but really do not remember.
I know I like bold large fonts and can now use a large font size.
Frank D. Hubeny
1.5 is the current official/stable release. 2.0 is currently in test. 1.1 is no longer supported. The size of the menu is the same in 1.5 and 2.0 and dependent on your PC's dpi settings (which is standard/recommended UI practice for Windows apps).
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!