Gnu's Not UNIX (GNU) Privacy Guard (GnuPG) is a powerful, free security tool that complies with the OpenPGP standard and emulates pretty good privacy (PGP) functionality. You can use GnuPG to create and manage key pairs, encrypt and decrypt data, digitally sign documents, and validate signed data. (For more information about GnuPG's history and functions, see the sidebar "All About GnuPG.") However, GnuPG was developed as a command-line program for use on UNIX machines, and the product's Windows port (which operates on Windows 98 and later) maintains the command-line approach. Most Windows users are unlikely to use command-line tools for an intangible (albeit important) benefit such as increased security.
To counteract this problem, you can install Windows Privacy Tools (WinPT)—a free GnuPG Windows GUI front end. You must install WinPT locally on each user's system. I tested the software on Windows 2000, but you can also run WinPT on Windows NT or Win98 (the software should also work on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP). WinPT is a docked applet that works with Windows Explorer to control GnuPG behind the scenes, letting users create and manage key pairs and encrypt and decrypt files. WinPT also provides clipboard functionality and keyboard shortcuts for signature, verification, encryption, and decryption tasks. The program offers automatically and manually installable plugins for most popular email programs. Another plugin is GnuPG-Relay, software that can automatically sign or encrypt all outgoing email messages. Table 1 lists the supported email programs and plugin download locations. . . .
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