AxCrypt-1.7.2893.0-x64-en-US-Beta.msi has always been a safe and reliable version of the AxCrypt encryption software. A few months ago, I made the mistake of upgrading to the Version 2 package. It is NOT backward compatible to the version 1 software. So BEWARE. I would recommend that anybody wanting to try Version 2, make a system image of their system for backup. What I was not satisfied about were:
1. Microsoft Edge presented a problem in Version 2 when it was used as the default PDF viewer in the Chrome or IE browsers or using EDGE itself for a browser. No matter which type of file (encrypted) was opened via windows Explorer, the application would fail to save any updates to the file receiving error message that it was shared with another application. Now, I believe if a file NOT encrypted is opened with Excel for example, Excel actually changes the name internally to a temporary name and then back again when closed. That is nothing new. When the file is encrypted, it has to also go through steps from AxCrypt to decrypt it and this also appears to be an internal temporary name that needs to be put right before closing again. Well, whatever happens internally, the AxCrypt package (Version 2) sometimes fails when trying to Save the file and then proceeds to an unsecure state of leaving the file in your %appdata% folder PERMANENTLY not encrypted until you to manually delete it. This was reported, but not satisfactory solution exists and the developers were not interested in debugging it. Thus, I went back to version 1 (above .msi install file and running happily again.
2. Version 2 was very confusing with its new LOGIN password vs. file passphrase. To simplify, if you are converting from version 1 to version 2, set the registration login password to the version 1 passphrase. The was it works is that you now have to login (the first time) and from then on all files being encrypted or being decrypted will use that password as the passphrase (version 1 equivalent term). I you make the mistake as I did by assuming that it was just an additional level of security since it also controls file access/encryption across platforms, you will end up with your old version 1 files (unless mass converted to version 2) using the old version 1 passphrase and the new version files using the login password. Anyway, when you realize this and do make them the same, you still have a problem in that when you open a version file and save it it is now a version 2 file. Fine you assume since the passphrase/password is the same. Wrong. If you ever decide that you want to go back to version 1 or use version 1 on another system, you will NOT be able to open it despite the passphrase/password being the same. Version 2 formatted files are a completely different animal and can only be opened by Version 2 AxCrypt. This is a nightmare implementation! Converting back to Version 1 required me to restore the version 1 files from my backup disk. So BEWARE again.
3. Version 2 did NOT honor the KEEPTIMESTAMP implementation from version 1. It always changed the timestamp to the date the file was encrypted. At least this is true for files that were version 1 that it converted to version 2 when just looking at it without making any changes. NOT good if you, like me, have PDF files in folders for the last 10+years and periodically want to search for a file based on date yo originally saved it. After the Version 2 access to it, the date now is the date it was converted.
Enough ranting re Version 2. I might mention that when I went back to Version 1, I decided to get the most recent version 1, not the .msi level (2nd most recent) as stated above. It too has the random can't save problem as version 2. May I mention that an additional symptom of incorrectly managing files opened via Windows Explorer is when trying to signout or shutdown Windows 10. Randomly as mentioned you will not be able to shut down because AxCrypt is holding the file someway. You either have to tell Windows 10 to shutdown anyway, of if you are just signing out and don't get the message to allow you to force shutdown, have to bring up Task Manager and kill the AxCrypt tasks -- there will be 2 or more during this error condition. You should also check your %%APPDATA%% folder for leftovers when you get back up. OR just reinstall the version stated above and sail though life without problems.
2/25/17 Update Note: Re to not being able to signout and saving files because file is shared, I traced the task actions during the phases and noticed that it takes about 10 seconds for the task managing the actual closing of the file and re-encryption before it ends. If during that 10 seconds I clicked to open a new encrypted file, the task for the "unfinished" previous file gets stuck and never closed. Thus, I believe, is the mysterious task that causes all the problems. I am using a 2.10 GHz PC with Windows 10. Windows 7 never gave me this problem and I handled the files similarly. Thus, the timing seems has become susceptible. I'll test further. At this point, the cause could be Windows 10 and/or speed of processor running Windows 10 (I don't remember this happening with first versions of Windows 10 -- might be time to replace this old Dell with a new faster one).
So, what I lost when installing version 2 and then back to version 1 was the KEEPTIMESTAMP registry key setting that is mandatory for the way I mange my files. I always want the encrypted timestamp of a file to be equal to the last updated date of the file. This, registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Axantum\AxCrypt\KEEPTIMESTAMP must be non-zero. Thus, do a REDEDIT and set it back if desired.
Other Registry Key settings can be found at: http://www.axantum.com/AxCrypt/Registry.html
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