While there are hundreds of file encryption tools available for Windows users, ccrypt is perhaps the smallest and fastest out there. It uses the powerful AES 256 bit cipher to encrypt all kinds of files which makes it very useful for any file encryption needs. It can encrypt one or more files in a few seconds. But the problem that many Windows user find with ccrypt is that it is a command line interface tool. You have to use it from a command prompt window.
If you are not a fan of the command prompt and but still want to use ccrypt for quick file encryption or decryption, then you can integrate it with Windows File Explorer. After this you would be able to just right-click on any file or a group of files and choose to encrypt or decrypt it using ccrypt.
So here is how you can integrate ccrypt in Windows File Explorer:
- First of all download ccrypt from http://ccrypt.sourceforge.net/#downloading. You can download any of the ZIP files meant for Windows 64 bit or Windows 32 bit.
- Extract ccrypt.exe, ccguess.exe and cygwin1.dll from the ZIP file and copy them to C:\Windows. This step is needed so that ccrypt.exe stays in the system PATH variable.
- Now download GUI Integration script from http://ccrypt.sourceforge.net/VF/ccrypt_gui_integration.zip. Extract it to a folder, right-click on ccrypt-Win32-install.bat and choose Run as administrator. You have to reply Yes to any prompts that appear.
You have now successfully integrated ccrypt in Windows File Explorer. Now you can right-click on any file and you will have two additional commands – Encrypt File(s) and Decrypt File(s).
If at any later stage, you decide to remove ccrypt and its GUI integration, then you can right-click on ccrypt-Win32-remove.bat and choose Run as administrator. This script can be found in the same ZIP file that you have downloaded in step 3 above. After this you can delete the three files that you copied in the step 2 above.