/[winpt]/trunk/README.txt
ViewVC logotype

Contents of /trunk/README.txt

Parent Directory Parent Directory | Revision Log Revision Log


Revision 3 - (show annotations)
Mon Jan 31 11:03:40 2005 UTC (20 years, 1 month ago) by twoaday
File MIME type: text/plain
File size: 13617 byte(s)
Add remaining files.


1 The Windows Privacy Tray
2 Version 0.5.5
3
4 Index
5 1. Notice
6 2. Bugs and improvements
7 3. What is WinPT?
8 4. Install
9 4.1 Keyserver config file
10 5. Verify the packet signature
11 6. Native language support
12 7. Other documentation
13 8. Mailing lists
14 9. Hotkeys for common commands
15 10. Current window support
16 11. Word wrapping
17 12. Default key for signing
18 13. Commands
19 13.1 File manager
20 13.2 Key manager
21 13.2.1 Edit
22 13.2.2 UserID
23 13.2.3 Delete
24 13.2.4 Sign
25 13.2.5 Revoke cert
26 13.2.6 Check sigs
27 13.2.7 List trust path
28 13.3 Keyserver
29 13.3.1 Keyserver searching
30 13.3.2 Proxy support
31 14. Debug mode
32 15. Agent support
33 16. Features of the dialogs
34 16. Features of the dialogs
35
36
37 1. Notice
38 ---------
39
40 This is only a quick guide for WinPT. For the moment the program is its own
41 documentation. This is subject to change. Please note, this text needs many
42 improvements, because English isn't my native lanuage ;-(. Please feel free
43 to send me spelling corrections.
44
45
46 2. Bugs and improvements
47 ------------------------
48
49 I have tried to thoroughly debug this program, but if you've found a bug,
50 please send me a message with a full error description!
51
52 Please include as much detail as possible including OS version, WinPT
53 version, and GPG version in use. Please summarize your gpg configuration
54 and describe any special programs or configurations on your machine.
55
56 I try to fix bugs as quickly as possible and will upload all updates to
57 http://www.winpt.org
58
59
60 3. What is WinPT?
61 -----------------
62
63 WinPT is a tool to protect your privacy! Because I'm NOT a crypto expert,
64 I use another program, the GNU Privacy Guard for the cryptographic
65 functionality.
66
67 GnuPG was written by Werner Koch and is GNU Open Source. GnuPG contains all
68 of the functions WinPT uses for data encrypting and e-signatures and
69 key management.
70
71 WinPT is a Windows utility that sits on the taskbar. In the Windows
72 Clipboard, you can encrypt, sign, decrypt and verify data. You can also
73 import and export keys to the Clipboard.
74
75 Practically, WinPT is a taskbar front-end for GnuPG. Without GnuPG, WinPT
76 doesn't work! Currently not all GnuPG functions are supported. Because of
77 all the new features, WinPT is more then just an universal e-mail plugin.
78 Together with the filemanager and the keymanager, it's like a real GUI.
79
80
81 4. Install
82 ----------
83
84 First you should install the GPG binary into C:\GNUPG (Version 1.0.5 or
85 later.) (If you want to use a directory other than C:\GNUPG you must modify
86 the preferences in the WinPT program at Preferences->GPG Prefs.
87
88
89 ** GPG 1.0.5 is needed for WinPT but because of the security problem
90 with this version, it's recommend to use 1.0.6! **
91
92 Next, download the WinPT binary package from the Internet. You can find the
93 latest WinPT version at http://www.winpt.org/download.html. Create a
94 directory and extract all WinPT releated files.
95
96
97 With the 0.5.0 version of WinPT, all modules are now integrated in
98 the main package. So you don't need the wipe-ext.dll or the ldap-ext.dll!
99
100
101 4.1 Keyserver config file
102 -------------------------
103
104 Now the keyserver config is read dynamically. That means there is a file
105 which WinPT reads the keyserver from. The name of this file MUST be
106 "keyserver.conf". I added a sample config file with the most common
107 keyservers. Of course it's possible to add own entries. Take a look
108 at the hints inside the file how to format the entries. If there no file,
109 the format can be described like this: 'DNS-Name=IP-Address'. Each line
110 of the file contains such an entry.
111
112
113 5. Verify the packet signature
114 ------------------------------
115
116 To verify that the source (or the binary) wasn't changed, you should
117 verify the package signature with GnuPG. For the process you will need
118 my OpenPGP public key. If you don't have it, please take a look at
119 http://www.winpt.org/twoaday.asc
120
121 # gpg --verify WinPT-x.x.x-exe.zip.asc
122 # gpg --verify WinPT-x.x.x-src.zip.asc
123
124 gpg should output that the signature was correct and that the signature
125 was created by me.
126
127 My key ID is 0xBF3DF9B4: 'Timo Schulz <[email protected]>'.
128
129
130 6. Native language support
131 --------------------------
132
133 As a new feature WinPT now can handle multiple languages. To activate this
134 do the following:
135
136 - Create a directory where you want to store the locale files
137 (the .mo files)
138
139 - Rename your favourite .mo file to winpt.mo
140
141 - Put all .mo files into this directory
142 (For example the gnupg.mo and the winpt.mo)
143
144 - Start WinPT and choose the menu entry 'Preferences->GPG Prefs'.
145 Set your locale directory to the directory containing winpt.mo.
146
147 - Now WinPT runs in the language you have selected.
148
149 For the moment, WinPT supports these languages:
150
151 * Italian winpt-it.mo
152 * French winpt-fr.mo
153 * German winpt-de.mo
154 * Spanish winpt-es.mo
155 * Russian winpt-ru.mo
156 * Portuguese (Brazilian) winpt-pt_BR.mo
157 * Portuguese winpt-pt_PT.mo
158 * Hungarian winpt-hu.mo
159 * Chinese winpt-zh_CN.mo
160 * Czech winpt-ch.mo
161
162 If you are interested in translating WinPT in your native language, please
163 let me know :-). It's not much work and you do NOT need to be a developer!
164
165
166 7. Other documentation
167 ----------------------
168
169 For those who are inexperienced with GnuPG it makes sense to download the
170 GnuPG guide or a HOWTO. There are many sites for this, but you can start
171 with the GnuPG site. This site is available in many languages. I prefer
172 the GNU Privacy Handbook. It contains background information that makes
173 working with GnuPG more effective.
174
175 http://www.gnupg.org
176
177 General questions (look first at the topic point), can be sent to one of the
178 mailing lists. All GnuPG lists are in English.
179
180 PGP User list (German) [email protected]
181 GPG User list (English) [email protected]
182 GPG Developer list (English) [email protected]
183
184 At the moment the only available documentation for WinPT is this file. In
185 future releases I will include HTML documentation.
186
187
188 8. Mailing lists
189 ----------------
190
191 If you want to get the latest information, reports, or discussions about
192 WinPT you can subscribe to one of the WinPT mailing lists. There is a list
193 for users and one for developers. Both lists are in English! To subscribe
194 send a message to '[email protected]' with "subscribe listname" in the
195 body.
196
197 Example: subscribe winpt-name_of_thelist
198
199 [email protected] - The developer list
200 [email protected] - The users list
201
202 Please, before you send a message to the list take a look at the FAQ
203 or the README files. It's possible that your question is already answered
204 there!
205
206
207 9. Hotkey for common commands
208 -----------------------------
209
210 WinPT supports shortcuts, or 'Hotkeys', for the main gpg commands. These
211 keys are registered system wide, so you can use them from any window. If you
212 have some problems with this keys, you can change the hotkeys in the
213 preferences dialog.
214
215 Encrypt Clipboard CTRL+ALT+e
216 Sign & Encrypt CTRL+ALT+b
217 Decrypt/verify Clipboard CTRL+ALT+d
218 Sign Clipboard CTRL+ALT+s
219 Export Clipboard CTRL+ALT+x
220 Import Clipboard CTRL+ALT+i
221
222 In the event of an error, it's possible that another program already uses
223 some of the hotkeys. WinPT will tell you which hotkey wasn't installed properly
224 so it's easier to figure out which hotkey caused the problem.
225
226
227 10. Current window support
228 --------------------------
229
230 WinPT allows you to use the main operations (sign and encrypt)
231 within the current window. This only works if the current window contains
232 text. For example, a mailer window with the message, a text editor or a
233 simple edit field. There are some kind of windows that are NOT supported
234 yet!
235
236 The easiest way to access this feature is using the hotkeys. Note: if
237 you use this feature the text will automatically be cut, encrypted
238 and pasted again in the window. You don't need to do anything manually.
239
240 Encrypt current window ALT+SHIFT+e
241 Decrypt/verify current window ALT+SHIFT+d
242 Sign current window ALT+SHIFT+s
243
244 Alternately you can use the WinPT menu for the current window support.
245 Please note, that the mode doesn't work very well if you use the menu
246 entry. I recommend to use it with the hotkeys until I fix this problem.
247
248
249 11. Word wrapping
250 -----------------
251
252 As a new feature, WinPT can wrap lines at a specific column. You can set
253 the value for this feature in the preferences dialog. If you don't want
254 to use this feature, you only need to set the value to "0".
255
256
257 12.Default keyid for signing
258 ----------------------------
259
260 There are two ways to set the default keyid. The best solution is to
261 set the "default-key" entry in the GPG options file. Alternative you can
262 also use "encrypt-to" for the default keyid.
263 The second solution is to let WinPT figure out it from the secret key cache,
264 the first key in this cache is the default keyid. Warning, with this method
265 it's possible that another keyid is chosen (because of the order in which the keyring
266 was read!).
267
268
269 13. Commands
270 ------------
271
272
273 13.1 Filemanager
274 ----------------
275
276 The filemanager is used to perform GPG operations on files. In further releases
277 I'll add more commands. Currently, encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify
278 is available. To add a file to the list element, you can use drag & drop
279 or use the 'Open' menu entry, like Windows Explorer.
280
281 Please note that this code is under heavy development, but is should be
282 fairly stable. It possible that some parts don't work as expected, but
283 feel free to mail me about any bugs!
284
285
286 13.2 Keymanager
287 ---------------
288
289 13.2.1 Edit
290 -----------
291
292 Here you access some of the "edit-key" command from the GPG command
293 line.
294
295
296 13.2.2 UserID
297 -------------
298
299 Gives you an overview about all user id's from a public key. The validity
300 of each is also listed.
301
302
303 13.2.3 Delete
304 -------------
305
306 With it you can delete public keys and/or key pairs.
307
308
309 13.2.4 Sign
310 -----------
311
312 This is an interface to sign a public key.
313
314
315 13.2.5 Revoke cert
316 ------------------
317
318 Generate a revocation certificate for the chosen key.
319
320
321 13.2.6 List trust path
322 ----------------------
323
324 TODO.
325
326
327 13.2.7 Check sigs
328 -----------------
329
330 With this command you can check the signatures from a special public key.
331
332
333 13.2.7 Key properties
334 ---------------------
335
336 This dialog is an easy way to get an overview about the given key.
337 To activate this dialog, you've to double click on a key item in the
338 key management dialog. Then a dialog with all related information about
339 the selected key will open.
340
341
342 13.3 Keyserver
343 --------------
344
345 13.3.1 Keyserver searching
346 --------------------------
347
348 This new feature works exactly like the normal keyserver support.
349 You have to enter the pattern, then chose a keyserver. The command
350 is started with the "Search" button. The next dialog contains all
351 found keys from the keyserver. If you want, you can import a key
352 from this list by select the key and press the "Receive" button.
353
354 13.3.2 Proxy support
355 --------------------
356
357 If you are not able to connect directly to the internet, you can
358 use the proxy settings. To enable proxy support, you need to add
359 "use_proxy=xx.xx.xx.xx:port" to your keyserver.conf. Then restart
360 WinPT. Now the keyserver code uses the proxy instead of the direct
361 connection.
362
363 If your proxy needs some kind of authentification, you can use
364 "proxy_user" and "proxy_pass". Then for each request the data
365 is used. The code was tested with some HTTP/WWW proxies but it's
366 also possible that it does *not* work with some proxies! Please tell
367 me if you've problems with your proxy server.
368
369
370 14. Debug mode
371 --------------
372
373 To make the detection of bugs and programming mistakes easier, WinPT
374 contains a built-in debug mode.
375
376 It can be activated with the '--enable-debug'
377 switch on the command line. Then the WinPT output is more verbose and all
378 steps are logged a in a file with the name "gpgme.dbg". This file is stored
379 in the current directory and ONLY contains GPG related information. If you
380 think it is a WinPT problem, you can find a debug file in c:\windows\temp.
381 The name of this file is "winpt.log". It's possible that this file is very
382 large, so do NOT forget to compress it.
383
384 After an error has occured, it would be very useful to send this file to me.
385 Which file you'll send depends on the occured error. Don't use the debug
386 mode for your usual work; it slows down both GPG and WinPT.
387
388
389 15. Agent support
390 -----------------
391
392 To use the Windows GPG Agent, you must start the process BEFORE running
393 WinPT. When there was no error, WinPT runs in a passphrase-less mode. All
394 passphrase requests are send to the client. As a result the sign and
395 sign & encrypt dialogs contain NO passphrase items! To force WinPT to use
396 the internal passphrase routines, you can use the "--no-agent" option on
397 the command line.
398
399
400 16. Features of the dialogs
401 ----------------------------
402
403 This sections contains hints about the special features of some dialogs.
404 Currently this is only valid for dialog with listview controls.
405
406 o Selection of an entry for the GPG main commands
407
408 If you only want to select one recipient, you can also double click
409 the line which the recipient you want to choose. Then the command
410 is automatically invoked and you don't need to click the "OK" button.
411
412 o Context menu for the key manager
413
414 Now the keymanager supports a context menu. To activate it, you should
415 click with the right mouse button on a selected item.
416
417 o Generic keys known from the Explorer
418
419 For example the key manager supports generic keys like:
420 DELETE = secure the selected key.
421
422 o Context menu for the file manager
423
424 This popup menu is similar to the key manager menu.
425

[email protected]
ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC 1.1.26