Good Windows App for Encrypting Data?

[Brinson]

Anyone know of any good windows apps that will encrypt files so that they need a key or password to be unencrypted?

I've used PGP before but it costs $$$ and I'd prefer not pirate it.

 

[EricB]

winrar

 

[mssssee2]

I would also suggest winrar which is free trial for 40 days and then it just pops you a message to buy it when you open an archive (Remember to check the password attrivute as encrypt file names, so names will be encrypted and you'll have to type the password only once), another good programm is "Lock my folder".

 

[KSoD]

With WinRar you can use it for however long you wish. Just dont open the applications.

Right click on a archive you wish to extract and unrar it anywhere. Also use the right click feature to rar up a archive. As long as you use the right click method you will never be prompted to purchase WinRar.

Another alternative is 7Zip. There is also IZArc.

7-Zip
IZArc - The Ultimate Archive Utility - Zip, Unzip, Unrar, 7-Zip, ISO, BIN, compress, archive

 

[Brinson]

Is the Winrar Encryption hard to break? I might have to google around and see how it works.

 

[KSoD]

It uses 128Bit encryption. Which right now takes about 25 years to break. I think that is with a super computer working on it 24/7/52/365. So honestly you dont have much chance of a rar getting cracked. It has been known to happen with brute force but that kind of cracking can get past anything given enough time.