WindowsSecurity & PrivacyEncryption software

What are the best file encryption tools for Windows?

5

Options
Considered

12

User
Recs.

Aug 14, 2019

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

5 Options Considered

Best file encryption tools for Windows	Price	Open Source	Last Updated
-- GNU Privacy Guard	Free	Yes	Aug 14, 2019
-- AxCrypt	-	-	Jun 13, 2019
-- 7-zip	-	-	Sep 7, 2018
-- BitLocker	-	-	Nov 26, 2015
-- Kruptos 2 Professional for Windows	$39.95	-	Dec 5, 2018

GNU Privacy Guard

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Top Pro

Supports multiple types of encryption algorithms

GPG supports public key cryptography (RSA EIGamal, DSA), symmetrical key algorithms (Blowfish, AES, IDEA, etc), cryptographic hash functions (RIPEMD, SHA), and compression (ZIP, ZLIB, BZIP2). See More

Specs

Open Source:Yes

Top Pro

Extensive selection of front-ends available

A good number of available frontends can be found here. See More

Top Pro

Supports volume and individual file encryption

With GPG you can encrypt you whole volume or files individually. See More

Top Pro

Supports paired keys

Allows for encrypted communication. See More

Top Pro

Supports expiring signatures

GPG keys by default expire after a set amount of time. The amount can be changed and this feature can be turned off. See More

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Specs

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AxCrypt

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Top Pro

Quickly accessible from the right-click menu

AxCrypt integrates with the explorer menu allowing you to encrypt files quickly. See More

Top Con

AES-128 encryption

AES-128 encryption is still extremely secure but it is a lower and more outdated level of protection than what other encryption programs offer. See More

Top Pro

Once created, does not depend on other software

As long as you have the password or keyfile to your encrypted file then you can still access it. This is beneficial if the software ever becomes unsupported. See More

Top Pro

Free and open source

AxCrypt is free and open source. This is beneficial because anyone can examine the source code and check for errors. See More

7-zip

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Top Pro

Archive container-based encryption

You can choose between archiving in a .zip container, that offers a choice between ZipCrypto and AES-256 encryption, or a .7z container that uses AES-256 and additionally offers the possibility of encrypting file names. See More

Top Con

The standard encyption method ZipCrypto is unsecure

Be sure to select AES encryption instead of the standard and much less secure ZipCrypto encryption. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

Starts quickly. See More

Top Pro

Unobtrusive

No nag screen. See More

Top Pro

Explorer right-click menu integration

Makes it easy to open any archive file, or create new archives, without having to go open another program first. See More

Top Pro

Multi platform

7-zip runs on many different platforms, including: Windows Linux Mac OS X Solaris (NB: Only Windows and Posix/Linux are officially supported) See More

Top Pro

Free and open-source

7-Zip is licensed under GNU LGPL with the exception of 7z.dll which is licensed under GNU LGPL + unRAR restriction. Source code is available on SourceForge. See More

Kruptos 2 Professional for Windows

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