gpg4win – EMail-Security using GnuPG for Windows
I saw that there was new update for GnuPG so I went over to the site to check it out. In the download information they recommended checking out gpg4win for a consolidated install package for GnuPG and several useful utilities. Most of the utilities I have used in the past were buggy, hard to install correctly, and with a very slow update schedule. Recently I had started using the explorer add-in, GPGee, and was pleasantly surprised. It made checking GPG signatures relatively painless. At gpg4win I found an install package with all of the packages, GnuPG and GPGee, I wanted to install on my laptop and a couple more, GPGol and GPGA, I was interested in trying out.
GPGcol is a plugin for Microsoft Outlook to integrate GnuPG and thus OpenPGP encryption and digital signatures. After restarting Outlook 2003 I found the tab in the preferences. When I changed my mail editor away from Word I saw the buttons for signing and encrypting with GPG. There was also a menu entry under tools for GPA.
The GNU Privacy Assistant (GPA) is a graphical user interface for the GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard). Managing keys with GnuPG has always been the hard part for me in working with GnuPG. Since I use GnuPG so infrequently I always had to return to my cheat sheet to remember how to import or refresh a user key using the command line. GPA is a GUI frontend to the GnuPG commands and seems to do the job without much fuss.
At least for me the consolidated installation via gpg4win is major step forward in improving the user experience. Finding the right tool to make GnuPG more user friendly has always been a hit or miss proposition for the occasional user. Some of the tools existed but were poorly maintained. Gpg4win has a nice collection of stable GnuPG utilities that installs easily and makes using GPG signatures and encryption easier.