Gpg4win

The original creation of Gpg4win was initiated and funded by Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in 2005,{{Cite web |date=2009-08-14 |title=Gpg4win - Email-Security using GnuPG for Windows |url=http://www.gpg4win.org/change-history.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814032737/http://www.gpg4win.org/change-history.html |archive-date=2009-08-14 |access-date=2022-09-14 }}{{cite web |last=Hillenius |first=Gijs |date=19 December 2013 |title=Government-used cryptography tool seeks funds |url=https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/government-used-cryptography |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180119120207/https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/news/government-used-cryptography |access-date=25 April 2019 |archive-date=2018-01-19 |via=europa.eu |quote=Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI)…in 2006…funded the development of GPG4win}} resulting in the release of Gpg4win 1.0.0 on 6 April 2006;{{cite web |url=https://files.gpg4win.org/ |quote=Timestamp of installer file `gpg4win-1.0.0.exe`: 06 April 2006 |via=gpg4win.org |title=About Gpg4win |date=6 April 2006 |access-date=6 January 2022 }} however Gpg4win and all included tools are free and open source software, and it is typically the non-proprietary option for privacy recommended{{cite news |url=https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/encrypted-e-mail-how-much-annoyance-will-you-tolerate-to-keep-the-nsa-away/ |title=Encrypted e-mail: How much annoyance will you tolerate to keep the NSA away?|first1=Peter |last1=Bright |first2=Dan |last2=Goodin |date=14 June 2013 |work=Ars Technica |access-date=25 April 2019 }}{{cite news |url=http://www.pcworld.com/article/245534/gpg4win_powerful_encryption_for_free.html |title=Gpg4win: Powerful Encryption for Free |first=Erez |last=Zukerman |work=PCWorld |date=5 December 2011 |access-date=25 April 2019 |archive-date=30 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530181916/http://www.pcworld.com/article/245534/gpg4win_powerful_encryption_for_free.html |url-status=dead }} to Windows users.

As Gpg4win v1 was a much overhauled derivate of GnuPP,{{cite web |url=https://www.gnupp.com/start.html |title=GnuPP project |date=May 2002 |access-date=6 January 2022 }} both were using GnuPG v1 for cryptographic operations and thus only supported OpenPGP as cryptography standard.

Hence in 2007 the development of a fundamentally enhanced version was started, also with support from the German BSI (Federal Office for Information Security); this effort culminated in the release of Gpg4win 2.0.0 on 7 August 2009 after a protracted beta testing phase,{{cite web |url=https://gpg4win.org/news-20090812.html |title=Gpg4win 2.0.0 press release |quote=Press release: Gpg4win 2.0.0 is ready, it does S/MIME and secure attachments |via=gpg4win.org |date=2009-08-12 |access-date=6 January 2022 }} which was based on GnuPG 2.0, included S/MIME support, Kleopatra as a new certificate manager, the Explorer plug-in GpgEX for cryptography operations on files, basic support of smart cards, a full set of German dialogue texts in addition to the English ones, new manuals in English and German, plus many other enhancements.{{cite web |url=https://files.gpg4win.org/README-2.0.0.en.txt |title=README-2.0.0.en.txt |via=gpg4win.org |date=2009-08-07 |access-date=6 January 2022 }}

In contrast to Gpg4win v2, which focused on new features and software components, the development of Gpg4win v3 focused on usability, plus consolidation of code and features:{{cite web |url=https://gpg4win.org/version3.html |title=What's new in Gpg4win 3? |via=gpg4win.org |date=20 September 2017 |access-date=6 January 2022 }} This resulted in the release of Gpg4win 3.0.0 on 19 September 2017 with proper support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) by utilising GnuPG 2.2 (instead of 2.0), broadened, stabilised and enhanced smart card support, a fundamentally overhauled Outlook plug-in GpgOL for Outlook 2010 and newer, support of 64-bit versions of Outlook 2010 and newer, supporting dialogues in all languages which KDE supports etc.{{cite web |url=https://files.gpg4win.org/README-3.0.0.en.txt |title=README-3.0.0.en.txt |via=gpg4win.org |date=19 September 2017 |access-date=6 January 2022 }} It is also distributed as GnuPG VS-Desktop with commercial support and approval for handling NATO RESTRICTED, RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED and German VS-NfD documents, which in turn has become the major source of revenue for maintaining and further developing the GnuPG framework and Gpg4win.{{cite web |url=https://gnupg.org/blog/20220102-a-new-future-for-gnupg.html |title=A New Future for GnuPG |via=gnupg.org |date=2 January 2022 |access-date=6 January 2022 }}

Gpg4win 4.0.0, released on 21 December 2021,{{cite web |url=https://files.gpg4win.org/README-4.0.0.en.txt |title=README-4.0.0.en.txt |via=gpg4win.org |date=12 December 2017 |access-date=6 January 2022 }} switched to using GnuPG 2.3 (from 2.2) and continued to refine and enhance the feature set of Gpg4win v3.{{cite web |url=https://gpg4win.org/version4.html |title=What's new in Gpg4win 4? |via=gpg4win.org |date=12 December 2021 |access-date=6 January 2022 }}

• GnuPG: the core cryptography framework
• Certificate managers
• Kleopatra: certificate manager for OpenPGP and X.509
• GPA: an alternative certificate manager (GNU) for OpenPGP and X.509
• Plug-ins for email and file cryptography
• GpgOL: a plug-in for Microsoft Outlook to provide email encryption and signing
• GpgEX: a plug-in for the Windows Explorer to provide file encryption, signing and hash calculations
• Gpg4win Compendium: an introduction to encryption (OpenPGP and X.509) and user manual for Gpg4win

{{Portal|Free and open-source software}}

• E-mail privacy

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|https://www.gpg4win.org/}}

Category:Free security software

Category:Cryptographic software

Category:OpenPGP

Category:Email

Category:Privacy of telecommunications

Category:Windows security software