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[Lisa Aenne]

.... my husband wanted to try it.  He installed it on to one of our home machines.  I tried to install pgp onto it but it won't install properly.  I like to have pgp on all computers I use but this one is giving me fits. 

Is it a flaw with Vista?  I did some searching and found that pgp does support Vista.  Is it the version I use, which is outlined by Claire in her BWH pgp article? 

TIA for help/advice.

[Bill St. Clair]

The PGP Release Notes say that version 9.7, which they just released, added support for Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and Windows Vista 64-bit. I don't know when 32-bit Vista support was added, but it can't have been too long ago.

If you're willing to give them a bunch of information (or willing to lie about all but an email address that gets to you), you can get a free trial version that allows you to try all the features for 30 days and encrypt and decrypt files and the clipboard for free. Works for me in Mac OS X.

[Apple]

First off, let me warn you that my Windows knowledge is limited, since I don't use it. With that out of the way...

As you may know, Vista does not allow any software to run unless it's approved by Microsoft. Claire specifically instructs you to use version 6.5.8, which is quite old now, so no, it's not supported by Vista. You probably want to install the latest version. I doubt the warnings at the end of Claire's article still apply. They're at version 9 now, and version 6 should of course be considered crippled as well, since it won't run on Vista at all.

The separate freeware version has been discontinued and integrated with the commercial version. You now get one month of free trial, after which it will revert to crippled freeware mode, which you're allowed to use indefinitely. Or you can convert it to Freeware immediately. Tutorial here.

I'm not sure if I should mention this, but version 6 was the last International freeware version, which was independent from the PGP company. There have been rumors that the newer versions contain a backdoor. Then again, if your threat model goes this far, Windows should be considered backdoored as well. So either you avoid Windows, or this argument is null.

As for protecting your e-mail address from those nosey bastards:
https://spamgourmet.com/
https://www.temporaryinbox.com/
http://www.mailexpire.com/
The rest of the form can be filled out with fake info, I think. Javascript required.

[velojym]

Hell, Vista barely lets *itself* run!

Of course, part of that may just be bad communications between the hardware and software, but this flashy new Inspiron notebook
doesn't shut down when I ask it to (unless I use the power button to turn it completely off), re-starts at random, while the computer's
closed and in the bag (so my battery is nice and drained when I pull it out for use), and just crashes at random sometimes. Mostly when I'm
trying to shut down, though.

The Ubuntu install on my old notebook? Never a problem. Once I've gotten a replacement screen for it, I'll probably use it for schoolwork and
writing.

[Lisa Aenne]

The one thing we've learned about Vista: one of the reasons it's so loggy when it starts up is because it's trying to find all new hardware that may have been added during the shut down. So, it runs through the list each and every time you boot up. There's a way to turn that off, I guess. 

I thought it might be a deal where the older pgp was unusable with Vista.  I don't really want to mess with the new version of pgp; what appears to be the only hold up is pgpnet doesn't recognize the modem or network through Vista so it doesn't download properly. Thank you for all the input.  Maybe I can talk my husband into putting xp back on the machine, if nothing else.  We're still struggling with learning linux.

Thank you!

[Lazarus Long]

We're still struggling with learning linux.

If you need a hand with that, just holler.

'Cause friends don't let friends use Vista.     

[Mr. Inspector]

i now have a new lap top, and my daughter"s boyfriend loaded it with new software. As a high-tech geek he advised not getting vista. I did not. I still like windows NT. Not because I know better, it is the system that I am familiar with.

[Lazarus Long]

I still like windows NT. Not because I know better, it is the system that I am familiar with.

One of this forum's most singular individuals, who, unfortunately does not post here very often, also prefers Windows NT, and writes a fair bit about it, as well as about Linux, at his tech website.

I, too, am a fan of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to computer & operating system upgrades.

[Plinker-MS]

You may want to try Gnu Privacy Guard instead. 

It is free, it is Open-Source, and it is what all the Linux geeks have been running since... well... since they switched from Windows (or DOS) to Linux.  I'm pretty sure the Windows version will run under Vista, although you may have to get used to using it from a command-line interface.

[Claire]

You may want to try Gnu Privacy Guard instead. 

It is free, it is Open-Source, and it is what all the Linux geeks have been running since... well... since they switched from Windows (or DOS) to Linux.  I'm pretty sure the Windows version will run under Vista, although you may have to get used to using it from a command-line interface.

Doesn't Enigmail, Thunderbird's (very user friendly) interface for GPG, run under Vista? Posts on Mozdev's help forums indicate that it does.

Lisa Aenne (pretty name), I don't know what mail client you're running. But if it's Thunderbird, you may have an easy encryption option here, assuming that the Chivalrous Tech Geeks don't have contrary word.

Claire

[Lisa Aenne]

Claire, we'll check out the mozdev help forums to see if we can puzzle this out.  I don't use thunderbird currently, but I'm not opposed to giving it a try.  Do you need a new key pair if you switch to gpg Plinker-MS?

[Bill St. Clair]

PGP and GnuPG key files are compatible, though named differently. GnuPG calls them pubring.gpg and secring.gpg. PGP calls them pubring.pkr and secring.skr. Not sure where the default locations are on Windows, but you should be able to find them and copy/rename the files.