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Downloaded 'AES Crypt - GUI (Windows 64-bit)' from https://www.aescrypt.com/download/. Get error message 'A newer version of MS C++ 2010 redistributable has been detected on the machine ". What now?Wish to password protect Excel in a more secure way that the normal MSExcel encrypt/password. Here are my MS C++ info

As explained in the accompanying text file, you just need to run aescrypt.msi. Don't run setup.exe, as setup.exe attempts to install those files you already have.

Downloaded AESCrypt_v310_x64.zip for Win10.

Okay, so I made the mistake of running setup and got the C++ files error message. Checked this forum to see what I did wrong. Slapped forehead. Ran the .msi, program this time. Folder is created in Program Files with 2 executables and a .dll. Program appears in Setup>Apps. Other than that... nothing. Neither executable runs. Nothing appears in the Start menu.

Tried uninstalling/re-installing a few times, and looked for little tidbits that might have been left behind after uninstalling.

Could someone please tell me what I need to do to fix this?

Once you run the .msi file, you're set. Just right-click on a file you want to encrypt and you should see an option that says "AES Encrypt" or "AES Decrypt". Choose that option and a box will appear prompting you for a password. Once you provide a password, it will do it's job and you'll see a new file created beside the old one.

Woops. Forgot to mention... No context-sensitive (right-click) menu entries either. Really.

Nevermind. Breaking in a new PC with Win10 and OneDrive enabled. My personal files were in directories that, by default, are backed up on OneDrive (like "Documents"). Right-click on one of those files... nothing. Copy the same file to a directory on the local drive (like "Temp"), right-click, and lo-and-behold there's "AES Encrypt" in the right-click menu. Go back to the original in the "Documents" folder, its status is now "local" rather than "cloud" (because of the "copy" operation, I guess), so right-clicky now shows "AES Encrypt". AHHHHHHHHH.



I'm off to read up on the particulars of OneDrive.

Thanks...

I appreciate you doing that, because I had never tried it, myself. Indeed, the context menu does not appear for files out in the cloud. I forget how I wrote that code, but I do recall making an effort to only present that menu for "regular" files, so certain types of "links" would not be targets for encryption. (There are "shortcut" files that are actually real files, so those can be encrypted. The shortcut files merely look like links, but aren't really links at the OS level.)

I guess the way I wrote AES Crypt for Windows, I did it correctly; I had just never tested this scenario with OneDrive. That said, maybe I should not be so restrictive? I did see that the other shell extensions I use also do not recognize these OneDrive links as real files, either. I went to a picture folder I have on OneDrive and noted they were all stored only in the cloud. I saw no "AES Encrypt" option. I double-clicked on it and Windows downloaded the picture (and actually downloaded all three I had stored there). Then, I could encrypt. So, it's not necessary to copy it to a different place; you just need to ensure the file is locally available.

I'm not sure which way it should work: allow or not allow encrypting the file stored on OneDrive? Either way, I'll add this to the ever-growing to-do list.

Thanks for your interest, and thanks for AESCrypt. I can appreciate uncomplicated tools. I wish I could offer suggestions from the noob perspective, but until recently I've only used OneDrive minimally to sync files between work and home. I've since come up with another use (sharing sensitive information with a third-party outside of an organization) and I'm finding it (OneDrive) doesn't work the way I thought it did.

I have both a business and personal OneDrive. I use my personal OneDrive to share files with people since the business account shares user or domain information as a part of the link, if I recall. I did not like that. This is something I wish Microsoft would change, but I'll readily admit I haven't checked that behavior in a year or two. Maybe it has changed.

Same here, both work and personal OneDrive accounts. I've just never tried sharing a file outside of the work organization with either. OneDrive sends a link via email, and that link can be followed by anyone that has it. Not real secure. Sending a link to an encrypted file seemed like a better idea. OneDrive does have a provision for password protection and link expiration, but those are "premium" features and my personal account is of the free "basic" kind. Hence my interest in AEScrypt.

FWIW, I checked a bunch of security/privacy websites looking for available options and AESscript was always mentioned favorably for those just needing to encrypt a few files.