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Wed Aug 16 10:01:30 2006 UTC (18 years, 6 months ago) by twoaday
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1 twoaday 187 WinPT - The Windows Privacy Tray
2 twoaday 256 ================================
3 twoaday 50
4 twoaday 180
5 twoaday 246 Bugs and Improvements
6     ---------------------
7 twoaday 50
8 twoaday 187 I have tried to thoroughly test this program, but if you've found a bug,
9 twoaday 180 please send me a message with a full error description or go directly
10     to http://wald.intevation.org and use the WinPT bug tracking system.
11 twoaday 50
12     Please include as much detail as possible including OS version, WinPT
13     version, and GPG version in use. Please summarize your gpg configuration
14     and describe any special programs or configurations on your machine.
15    
16     I try to fix bugs as quickly as possible and will upload all updates to
17     http://www.winpt.org
18    
19    
20 twoaday 246 Legacy Windows versions
21 twoaday 218
22     I know a lot of people still user old versions of WinPT but it is very
23     hard to test the code on all these platforms and thus I decided to
24     obsolete the support for these OS versions: Win95, WinME/98. The code
25     works on 98/ME without known limitations but if you will encounter
26     a serious problem, I doubt I can fix it without having this OS and
27     this is the major problem!
28    
29    
30 twoaday 246 What is WinPT?
31     --------------
32 twoaday 50
33 twoaday 180 WinPT is a front-end for the GNU Privacy Guard. It just provides
34     a convinient interface to GPG while GPG does the actual (cryptographic) work.
35 twoaday 50
36 twoaday 180 GnuPG was written by Werner Koch and is Free Software. GnuPG contains all
37 twoaday 184 of the functions WinPT uses for data encrypting, e-signatures and
38 twoaday 50 key management.
39 twoaday 184
40 twoaday 50 WinPT is a Windows utility that sits on the taskbar. In the Windows
41     Clipboard, you can encrypt, sign, decrypt and verify data. You can also
42     import and export keys to the Clipboard.
43    
44     Practically, WinPT is a taskbar front-end for GnuPG. Without GnuPG, WinPT
45 twoaday 184 wouldn't work! Currently not all GnuPG functions are supported. With
46     all its key edit functions and file operations, WinPT is more than just
47     an universal e-mail plugin. Together with the filemanager and the keymanager,
48     it's like a real graphical GPG user interface.
49 twoaday 50
50    
51 twoaday 246 Install
52     -------
53 twoaday 50
54 twoaday 184 First you should install the GPG binary, version 1.4.x or later.
55 twoaday 180 (If you want to use a directory other than the default you must modify
56 twoaday 184 the preferences in the WinPT program at Preferences->GPG Preferences).
57 twoaday 50
58     Next, download the WinPT binary package from the Internet. You can find the
59 twoaday 180 latest WinPT version at http://www.winpt.org. Create a directory and
60 twoaday 184 extract all WinPT files from the archive.
61 twoaday 50
62    
63 twoaday 246 Keyserver Config File
64     ---------------------
65 twoaday 50
66     Now the keyserver config is read dynamically. That means there is a file
67     which WinPT reads the keyserver from. The name of this file MUST be
68     "keyserver.conf". I added a sample config file with the most common
69     keyservers. Of course it's possible to add own entries. Take a look
70     at the hints inside the file how to format the entries. If there no file,
71     the format can be described like this: 'DNS-Name=IP-Address'. Each line
72     of the file contains such an entry.
73 twoaday 184 But it is recommend that you modify the file directly with the keyserver
74     dialog in WinPT to keep this file consistent.
75 twoaday 50
76    
77 twoaday 246 Verify the Packet Signature
78     ---------------------------
79 twoaday 50
80     To verify that the source (or the binary) wasn't changed, you should
81     verify the package signature with GnuPG. For the process you will need
82     my OpenPGP public key. If you don't have it, please take a look at
83     http://www.winpt.org/twoaday.asc
84    
85 twoaday 180 # gpg --verify winpt-x.x.x-exe.zip.asc
86     # gpg --verify winpt-x.x.x-src.zip.asc
87 twoaday 50
88     gpg should output that the signature was correct and that the signature
89     was created by me.
90    
91 twoaday 180 My key ID is 0xBF3DF9B4: 'Timo Schulz <[email protected]>' or
92     0x27F36D14: 'Timo Schulz (Laptop Key) <[email protected]>
93 twoaday 50
94    
95 twoaday 246 Native Language Support (NLS)
96     -----------------------------
97 twoaday 50
98     As a new feature WinPT now can handle multiple languages. To activate this
99     do the following:
100    
101     - Create a directory where you want to store the locale files
102     (the .mo files)
103    
104     - Rename your favourite .mo file to winpt.mo
105    
106     - Put all .mo files into this directory
107     (For example the gnupg.mo and the winpt.mo)
108    
109     - Start WinPT and choose the menu entry 'Preferences->GPG Prefs'.
110     Set your locale directory to the directory containing winpt.mo.
111    
112     - Now WinPT runs in the language you have selected.
113    
114     For the moment, WinPT supports these languages:
115    
116     * German winpt-de.mo
117 twoaday 184 * Japanese winpt-jp.mo
118 twoaday 50
119     If you are interested in translating WinPT in your native language, please
120     let me know :-). It's not much work and you do NOT need to be a developer!
121    
122    
123 twoaday 246 Other Documentation
124     -------------------
125 twoaday 50
126     For those who are inexperienced with GnuPG it makes sense to download the
127     GnuPG guide or a HOWTO. There are many sites for this, but you can start
128     with the GnuPG site. This site is available in many languages. I prefer
129     the GNU Privacy Handbook. It contains background information that makes
130     working with GnuPG more effective.
131    
132     http://www.gnupg.org
133    
134     General questions (look first at the topic point), can be sent to one of the
135     mailing lists. All GnuPG lists are in English.
136    
137 twoaday 184 GPG user list [email protected]
138     GPG developer list [email protected]
139 twoaday 50
140     At the moment the only available documentation for WinPT is this file. In
141     future releases I will include HTML documentation.
142    
143    
144 twoaday 246 Mailing Lists
145     -------------
146 twoaday 50
147     If you want to get the latest information, reports, or discussions about
148     WinPT you can subscribe to one of the WinPT mailing lists. There is a list
149 twoaday 180 for users and one for developers. All lists are in English! To subscribe
150     visit http://wald.intevation.org and go to the WinPT project site.
151 twoaday 50
152 twoaday 184 Please, before you send a message to the list take a look at the FAQ,
153     the README files and the list archives. It's possible that your question
154     is already answered there!
155 twoaday 50
156    
157 twoaday 246 Hotkey for Common Commands
158     --------------------------
159 twoaday 50
160     WinPT supports shortcuts, or 'Hotkeys', for the main gpg commands. These
161     keys are registered system wide, so you can use them from any window. If you
162     have some problems with this keys, you can change the hotkeys in the
163     preferences dialog.
164    
165     Encrypt Clipboard CTRL+ALT+e
166     Sign & Encrypt CTRL+ALT+b
167     Decrypt/verify Clipboard CTRL+ALT+d
168     Sign Clipboard CTRL+ALT+s
169     Export Clipboard CTRL+ALT+x
170     Import Clipboard CTRL+ALT+i
171    
172 twoaday 180 In case of an error, it's possible that another program already uses
173 twoaday 50 some of the hotkeys. WinPT will tell you which hotkey wasn't installed properly
174     so it's easier to figure out which hotkey caused the problem.
175    
176    
177 twoaday 246 Current Window Support
178     ----------------------
179 twoaday 50
180     WinPT allows you to use the main operations (sign and encrypt)
181     within the current window. This only works if the current window contains
182     text. For example, a mailer window with the message, a text editor or a
183 twoaday 184 simple edit field. There are some kind of windows that are NOT
184     supported.
185 twoaday 50
186     The easiest way to access this feature is using the hotkeys. Note: if
187     you use this feature the text will automatically be cut, encrypted
188     and pasted again in the window. You don't need to do anything manually.
189    
190     Encrypt current window ALT+SHIFT+e
191     Decrypt/verify current window ALT+SHIFT+d
192     Sign current window ALT+SHIFT+s
193    
194     Alternately you can use the WinPT menu for the current window support.
195     Please note, that the mode doesn't work very well if you use the menu
196     entry. I recommend to use it with the hotkeys until I fix this problem.
197    
198    
199 twoaday 246 Word Wrapping
200     -------------
201 twoaday 50
202     As a new feature, WinPT can wrap lines at a specific column. You can set
203     the value for this feature in the preferences dialog. If you don't want
204     to use this feature, you only need to set the value to "0".
205    
206    
207 twoaday 246 Default keyid for Signing
208     -------------------------
209 twoaday 50
210     There are two ways to set the default keyid. The best solution is to
211 twoaday 180 set the "default-key" entry in the GPG options file.
212 twoaday 184 The second solution is that you use the Key Manager to set a default
213     key. If no default key was found, WinPT uses the first useable key in
214     the secret key cache.
215 twoaday 50
216    
217 twoaday 246 File Manager
218 twoaday 50 ------------
219    
220     The filemanager is used to perform GPG operations on files. In further releases
221     I'll add more commands. Currently, encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify
222     is available. To add a file to the list element, you can use drag & drop
223     or use the 'Open' menu entry, like Windows Explorer.
224    
225     Please note that this code is under heavy development, but is should be
226     fairly stable. It possible that some parts don't work as expected, but
227     feel free to mail me about any bugs!
228    
229    
230 twoaday 246 Proxy Support
231 twoaday 50 --------------
232    
233     If you are not able to connect directly to the internet, you can
234 twoaday 184 use the proxy settings. To enable proxy support, you need to start
235     the keyserver dialog and use the "change" button to set a proxy.
236     Now the keyserver code uses the proxy instead of the direct connection.
237 twoaday 50
238     If your proxy needs some kind of authentification, you can use
239     "proxy_user" and "proxy_pass". Then for each request the data
240     is used. The code was tested with some HTTP/WWW proxies but it's
241     also possible that it does *not* work with some proxies! Please tell
242     me if you've problems with your proxy server.
243    
244    
245 twoaday 246 Debug Mode
246     ----------
247 twoaday 50
248     To make the detection of bugs and programming mistakes easier, WinPT
249     contains a built-in debug mode.
250    
251     It can be activated with the '--enable-debug'
252     switch on the command line. Then the WinPT output is more verbose and all
253     steps are logged a in a file with the name "gpgme.dbg". This file is stored
254     in the current directory and ONLY contains GPG related information. If you
255     think it is a WinPT problem, you can find a debug file in c:\windows\temp.
256     The name of this file is "winpt.log". It's possible that this file is very
257     large, so do NOT forget to compress it.
258    
259     After an error has occured, it would be very useful to send this file to me.
260     Which file you'll send depends on the occured error. Don't use the debug
261     mode for your usual work; it slows down both GPG and WinPT.

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