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Tue Mar 14 11:04:28 2006 UTC (18 years, 11 months ago) by twoaday
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1 twoaday 50 The Windows Privacy Tray
2    
3 twoaday 180
4 twoaday 50 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     13.3 Keyserver
28     13.3.1 Keyserver searching
29     13.3.2 Proxy support
30     14. Debug mode
31     16. Features of the dialogs
32     16. Features of the dialogs
33    
34    
35     1. Notice
36     ---------
37    
38     This is only a quick guide for WinPT. For the moment the program is its own
39 twoaday 180 documentation. This is subject to change.
40 twoaday 50
41    
42     2. Bugs and improvements
43     ------------------------
44    
45     I have tried to thoroughly debug this program, but if you've found a bug,
46 twoaday 180 please send me a message with a full error description or go directly
47     to http://wald.intevation.org and use the WinPT bug tracking system.
48 twoaday 50
49     Please include as much detail as possible including OS version, WinPT
50     version, and GPG version in use. Please summarize your gpg configuration
51     and describe any special programs or configurations on your machine.
52    
53     I try to fix bugs as quickly as possible and will upload all updates to
54     http://www.winpt.org
55    
56    
57     3. What is WinPT?
58     -----------------
59    
60 twoaday 180 WinPT is a front-end for the GNU Privacy Guard. It just provides
61     a convinient interface to GPG while GPG does the actual (cryptographic) work.
62 twoaday 50
63 twoaday 180 GnuPG was written by Werner Koch and is Free Software. GnuPG contains all
64 twoaday 184 of the functions WinPT uses for data encrypting, e-signatures and
65 twoaday 50 key management.
66 twoaday 184
67 twoaday 50 WinPT is a Windows utility that sits on the taskbar. In the Windows
68     Clipboard, you can encrypt, sign, decrypt and verify data. You can also
69     import and export keys to the Clipboard.
70    
71     Practically, WinPT is a taskbar front-end for GnuPG. Without GnuPG, WinPT
72 twoaday 184 wouldn't work! Currently not all GnuPG functions are supported. With
73     all its key edit functions and file operations, WinPT is more than just
74     an universal e-mail plugin. Together with the filemanager and the keymanager,
75     it's like a real graphical GPG user interface.
76 twoaday 50
77    
78     4. Install
79     ----------
80    
81 twoaday 184 First you should install the GPG binary, version 1.4.x or later.
82 twoaday 180 (If you want to use a directory other than the default you must modify
83 twoaday 184 the preferences in the WinPT program at Preferences->GPG Preferences).
84 twoaday 50
85     Next, download the WinPT binary package from the Internet. You can find the
86 twoaday 180 latest WinPT version at http://www.winpt.org. Create a directory and
87 twoaday 184 extract all WinPT files from the archive.
88 twoaday 50
89    
90     4.1 Keyserver config file
91     -------------------------
92    
93     Now the keyserver config is read dynamically. That means there is a file
94     which WinPT reads the keyserver from. The name of this file MUST be
95     "keyserver.conf". I added a sample config file with the most common
96     keyservers. Of course it's possible to add own entries. Take a look
97     at the hints inside the file how to format the entries. If there no file,
98     the format can be described like this: 'DNS-Name=IP-Address'. Each line
99     of the file contains such an entry.
100 twoaday 184 But it is recommend that you modify the file directly with the keyserver
101     dialog in WinPT to keep this file consistent.
102 twoaday 50
103    
104     5. Verify the packet signature
105     ------------------------------
106    
107     To verify that the source (or the binary) wasn't changed, you should
108     verify the package signature with GnuPG. For the process you will need
109     my OpenPGP public key. If you don't have it, please take a look at
110     http://www.winpt.org/twoaday.asc
111    
112 twoaday 180 # gpg --verify winpt-x.x.x-exe.zip.asc
113     # gpg --verify winpt-x.x.x-src.zip.asc
114 twoaday 50
115     gpg should output that the signature was correct and that the signature
116     was created by me.
117    
118 twoaday 180 My key ID is 0xBF3DF9B4: 'Timo Schulz <[email protected]>' or
119     0x27F36D14: 'Timo Schulz (Laptop Key) <[email protected]>
120 twoaday 50
121    
122     6. Native language support
123     --------------------------
124    
125     As a new feature WinPT now can handle multiple languages. To activate this
126     do the following:
127    
128     - Create a directory where you want to store the locale files
129     (the .mo files)
130    
131     - Rename your favourite .mo file to winpt.mo
132    
133     - Put all .mo files into this directory
134     (For example the gnupg.mo and the winpt.mo)
135    
136     - Start WinPT and choose the menu entry 'Preferences->GPG Prefs'.
137     Set your locale directory to the directory containing winpt.mo.
138    
139     - Now WinPT runs in the language you have selected.
140    
141     For the moment, WinPT supports these languages:
142    
143     * German winpt-de.mo
144 twoaday 184 * Japanese winpt-jp.mo
145 twoaday 50
146     If you are interested in translating WinPT in your native language, please
147     let me know :-). It's not much work and you do NOT need to be a developer!
148    
149    
150     7. Other documentation
151     ----------------------
152    
153     For those who are inexperienced with GnuPG it makes sense to download the
154     GnuPG guide or a HOWTO. There are many sites for this, but you can start
155     with the GnuPG site. This site is available in many languages. I prefer
156     the GNU Privacy Handbook. It contains background information that makes
157     working with GnuPG more effective.
158    
159     http://www.gnupg.org
160    
161     General questions (look first at the topic point), can be sent to one of the
162     mailing lists. All GnuPG lists are in English.
163    
164 twoaday 184 GPG user list [email protected]
165     GPG developer list [email protected]
166 twoaday 50
167     At the moment the only available documentation for WinPT is this file. In
168     future releases I will include HTML documentation.
169    
170    
171     8. Mailing lists
172     ----------------
173    
174     If you want to get the latest information, reports, or discussions about
175     WinPT you can subscribe to one of the WinPT mailing lists. There is a list
176 twoaday 180 for users and one for developers. All lists are in English! To subscribe
177     visit http://wald.intevation.org and go to the WinPT project site.
178 twoaday 50
179 twoaday 184 Please, before you send a message to the list take a look at the FAQ,
180     the README files and the list archives. It's possible that your question
181     is already answered there!
182 twoaday 50
183    
184     9. Hotkey for common commands
185     -----------------------------
186    
187     WinPT supports shortcuts, or 'Hotkeys', for the main gpg commands. These
188     keys are registered system wide, so you can use them from any window. If you
189     have some problems with this keys, you can change the hotkeys in the
190     preferences dialog.
191    
192     Encrypt Clipboard CTRL+ALT+e
193     Sign & Encrypt CTRL+ALT+b
194     Decrypt/verify Clipboard CTRL+ALT+d
195     Sign Clipboard CTRL+ALT+s
196     Export Clipboard CTRL+ALT+x
197     Import Clipboard CTRL+ALT+i
198    
199 twoaday 180 In case of an error, it's possible that another program already uses
200 twoaday 50 some of the hotkeys. WinPT will tell you which hotkey wasn't installed properly
201     so it's easier to figure out which hotkey caused the problem.
202    
203    
204     10. Current window support
205     --------------------------
206    
207     WinPT allows you to use the main operations (sign and encrypt)
208     within the current window. This only works if the current window contains
209     text. For example, a mailer window with the message, a text editor or a
210 twoaday 184 simple edit field. There are some kind of windows that are NOT
211     supported.
212 twoaday 50
213     The easiest way to access this feature is using the hotkeys. Note: if
214     you use this feature the text will automatically be cut, encrypted
215     and pasted again in the window. You don't need to do anything manually.
216    
217     Encrypt current window ALT+SHIFT+e
218     Decrypt/verify current window ALT+SHIFT+d
219     Sign current window ALT+SHIFT+s
220    
221     Alternately you can use the WinPT menu for the current window support.
222     Please note, that the mode doesn't work very well if you use the menu
223     entry. I recommend to use it with the hotkeys until I fix this problem.
224    
225    
226     11. Word wrapping
227     -----------------
228    
229     As a new feature, WinPT can wrap lines at a specific column. You can set
230     the value for this feature in the preferences dialog. If you don't want
231     to use this feature, you only need to set the value to "0".
232    
233    
234 twoaday 180 12. Default keyid for signing
235 twoaday 50 ----------------------------
236    
237     There are two ways to set the default keyid. The best solution is to
238 twoaday 180 set the "default-key" entry in the GPG options file.
239 twoaday 184 The second solution is that you use the Key Manager to set a default
240     key. If no default key was found, WinPT uses the first useable key in
241     the secret key cache.
242 twoaday 50
243    
244     13. Commands
245     ------------
246    
247    
248     13.1 Filemanager
249     ----------------
250    
251     The filemanager is used to perform GPG operations on files. In further releases
252     I'll add more commands. Currently, encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify
253     is available. To add a file to the list element, you can use drag & drop
254     or use the 'Open' menu entry, like Windows Explorer.
255    
256     Please note that this code is under heavy development, but is should be
257     fairly stable. It possible that some parts don't work as expected, but
258     feel free to mail me about any bugs!
259    
260    
261     13.2 Keymanager
262     ---------------
263    
264     13.2.1 Edit
265     -----------
266    
267     Here you access some of the "edit-key" command from the GPG command
268     line.
269    
270    
271     13.2.3 Delete
272     -------------
273    
274     With it you can delete public keys and/or key pairs.
275    
276    
277     13.2.4 Sign
278     -----------
279    
280     This is an interface to sign a public key.
281    
282    
283     13.2.5 Revoke cert
284     ------------------
285    
286     Generate a revocation certificate for the chosen key.
287    
288    
289     13.2.7 Check sigs
290     -----------------
291    
292     With this command you can check the signatures from a special public key.
293    
294    
295     13.2.7 Key properties
296     ---------------------
297    
298     This dialog is an easy way to get an overview about the given key.
299     To activate this dialog, you've to double click on a key item in the
300     key management dialog. Then a dialog with all related information about
301     the selected key will open.
302    
303    
304     13.3 Keyserver
305     --------------
306    
307     13.3.1 Keyserver searching
308     --------------------------
309    
310     This new feature works exactly like the normal keyserver support.
311     You have to enter the pattern, then chose a keyserver. The command
312     is started with the "Search" button. The next dialog contains all
313     found keys from the keyserver. If you want, you can import a key
314     from this list by select the key and press the "Receive" button.
315    
316     13.3.2 Proxy support
317     --------------------
318    
319     If you are not able to connect directly to the internet, you can
320 twoaday 184 use the proxy settings. To enable proxy support, you need to start
321     the keyserver dialog and use the "change" button to set a proxy.
322     Now the keyserver code uses the proxy instead of the direct connection.
323 twoaday 50
324     If your proxy needs some kind of authentification, you can use
325     "proxy_user" and "proxy_pass". Then for each request the data
326     is used. The code was tested with some HTTP/WWW proxies but it's
327     also possible that it does *not* work with some proxies! Please tell
328     me if you've problems with your proxy server.
329    
330    
331     14. Debug mode
332     --------------
333    
334     To make the detection of bugs and programming mistakes easier, WinPT
335     contains a built-in debug mode.
336    
337     It can be activated with the '--enable-debug'
338     switch on the command line. Then the WinPT output is more verbose and all
339     steps are logged a in a file with the name "gpgme.dbg". This file is stored
340     in the current directory and ONLY contains GPG related information. If you
341     think it is a WinPT problem, you can find a debug file in c:\windows\temp.
342     The name of this file is "winpt.log". It's possible that this file is very
343     large, so do NOT forget to compress it.
344    
345     After an error has occured, it would be very useful to send this file to me.
346     Which file you'll send depends on the occured error. Don't use the debug
347     mode for your usual work; it slows down both GPG and WinPT.
348    
349    
350     16. Features of the dialogs
351     ----------------------------
352    
353     This sections contains hints about the special features of some dialogs.
354     Currently this is only valid for dialog with listview controls.
355    
356     o Selection of an entry for the GPG main commands
357    
358     If you only want to select one recipient, you can also double click
359     the line which the recipient you want to choose. Then the command
360     is automatically invoked and you don't need to click the "OK" button.
361    
362     o Context menu for the key manager
363    
364     Now the keymanager supports a context menu. To activate it, you should
365     click with the right mouse button on a selected item.
366    
367     o Generic keys known from the Explorer
368    
369     For example the key manager supports generic keys like:
370     DELETE = secure the selected key.
371    
372     o Context menu for the file manager
373    
374     This popup menu is similar to the key manager menu.
375    

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