AxCrypt File Encryption for Windows

Published: 03/26/2009

AxCrypt is a pretty nice open source (OSS) encryption program for Windows. What makes me want to write about it though is that it integrates directly with Windows Explorer and includes a right click context menu for easier manipulation of files so there isn’t a program that has to be started or opened (I always hate the wait for a program to start up…).



[caption id=“attachment_1230” align=“aligncenter” width=“191” caption=“axcrypt”]axcrypt[/caption]



According to their site:

AxCrypt is the leading open source file encryption software for Windows. It integrates seamlessly with Windows to compress, encrypt, decrypt, store, send and work with individual files.



AxCrypt is pretty straight forward;



To encrypt:


  1. right click over a file

  2. choose “AxCrypt”

  3. choose “Encrypt”

    [caption id=“attachment_1238” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“AxCrypt Encrypt”]AxCrypt Encrypt[/caption]

  4. enter a passphrase

    [caption id=“attachment_1239” align=“aligncenter” width=“279” caption=“AxCrypt Enter Passphrase”]AxCrypt Enter Passphrase[/caption]

  5. click ok



To decrypt:


  1. right click over archive

  2. choose “AxCrypt”

  3. choose “Decrypt”

    [caption id=“attachment_1240” align=“aligncenter” width=“300” caption=“AxCrypt Decrypt”]AxCrypt Decrypt[/caption]

  4. enter passkey

    [caption id=“attachment_1241” align=“aligncenter” width=“279” caption=“AxCrypt Enter Passphrase”]axcrypt_decrypt_enter_passphrase[/caption]

  5. click ok



If you need to share sensitive files between people this is a really nice project.