The Tiny WinPT FAQ.

Version 1.0.2
Last modified September 17, 2001
Maintained by Rich Wielgosz <rich at cnylug dot org>
1.  General
2.  Information Sources
3.  Usage
4.  Problem and errors



1. General

1.1
Q:  What is WinPT?

A:  WinPT is a "Frontend" which allows access to the Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG) encryption engine. WinPT is a Windows® application which resides in the System Tray and "mimics" the look and feel of another popular System Tray application. WinPT contains no crypto routines so it may be exported freely to any country in the world.

WinPT is in essence, a universal plug-in for all email programs because it allows you to cut and paste from any email application, and encrypt the data while it resides in your clipboard. WinPT also has a built-in file browser for the encryption of files on your harddrive.  WinPT will also handle all of your key-management and key-server access needs.



2. Information Sources

2.1
Q:  Where can I download WinPT?

A:  WinPT can be downloaded from the WinPT.org website in the Download section .


2.2
Q:  Where can I get more information?

A:  There is always more info to be had at the WinPT.org website.  You can also get more information from the winpt-users mailing list.  To subscribe to this list send an email to majordomo@lcsweb.net with the words "subscribe winpt-users" in the body of the message (no quotes).


2.3
Q:  Does WinPT require anything else to work?

A:  WinPT requires that you have installed the Gnu Privacy Guard (GnuPG) encryption engine version 1.05 or greater, for Win32 ®.

3. Usage

3.1
Q:   How do I use WinPT?

A:  The use of WinPT is VERY straightforward, and it is beyond the scope of this document to detail all of its many features.  For more information consult the included manual and see the WinPT DOC page .


4. Problems and Errors

4.1
Q: WinPT tells me "Couldn't register hotkey" - What does it mean and how can I fix it?

A: This is because another application has already installed those hotkey definitions. It's also possible that in an NT/Win2K environment you need admin privs to redefine hotkeys. (This we're not entirely sure of, does anyone know if this is true?). You can redefine your hotkeys to something that is available (or more to your liking) by selecting 'Preferences" from the WinPT menu and changing them there.  The default Hotkey definitions are:
Encrypt Clipboard:
Decrypt/verify Clipboard:
Sign Clipboard:

Export to clipboard:
Import from clipboard:

Encrypt current window:
Decrypt/verify current window:
Sign current window:
 CTRL+ALT+E
CTRL+ALT+D
CTRL+ALT+S

CTRL+ALT+X
CTRL+ALT+I

ALT+SHIFT+E
ALT+SHIFT+D
ALT+SHIFT+S


  Please note that the "Export to clipboard" and "Import from clipboard" hotkeys can not be redefined.


4.2
Q: Why is passphrase caching greyed out in the preferences menu?

A: It is greyed out because it is not supported yet. Once the GPG (passphrase caching) Agent is ready for use, or when we find another trustworthy caching program, we'll activate it then.


4.3
Q: Why are people having trouble verifying my signatures in the email that I send them?

A: That is very likely because your email is wrapping the text of your signature in a place it isn't supposed to, therein "breaking" your signature. WinPT solves this problem with a "Wordwrap" feature of its own. This breaks the lines BEFORE signing and as a result won't break your signatures. This feature can be found under the PREFERENCES option of the WinPT menu. The biggest useable value to put in that field (from what they tell me) is 76. To disable the feature put in a '0' (zero).


4.4
Q: I can't decrypt text (error: No Data), but the clipboard is set with valid GPG data.

A: Check your line endings and for broken lines. The easiest way to do this is to use the 'Edit Clipboard' option in the WinPT menu and look at the text. This used to happen to me quite frequently when I was using the mailer that was built into the Opera web browser (Don't misunderstand, we LOVE Opera). All you need to do it edit the Open-PGP message so that its LAYOUT looks like this:

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (MingW32) - WinPT 10.3.0
Comment: See http://www.gnupg.org/

hQIOA5K/4SdC8KCgEAf/ej46PTbHQ7CA8MvtYyTYtivJ4hQ6oo//V2aHsl6/E/HK u81oJzop7QzCvK1CLjzK4hqhlZZYb07s/2n40zBSvy4apGVas6DxfpqoX2SFFlnC 5wqvNt8BekM3w9JIKsfGj2x5E/xMe0slJUegiiBkUup0BtzcGJB7Yzpts1FSE/QM wFzJLiyTJ4m5XOMLEvnNS9U3PjWXyzlNWG3RNtyCHCLG/ovV3oGR1H+TCVBOmuft NhfSHau4jKSffjShWWB5pMIxE7ZrHtJT838Ch57VR8oamZbszmtQo+gLg83ip8Er QrpxiTuFLu/l5+0YUDjZN6nYPSNbbGDDdTYSbjF1VwgAxR1er7hw3FysrS0j7yBB ZHiT+O6VZzcXUZMO1UsbZSf5htrS2t6Qf13DAoYahBFJCUWVCRxLprutKRyqy/KZ U2p//gvXfoalDLJZNGwBXXvNodkt3kzzGjT5DxREEYuHPMlrsZ8RABeaEzlTuBDD O6y6Sk0Qc72FJlQO2jP82wCOQTKvxX5QpJmUHVC4er5Hzkd8FNMbMlbGwV9zyvQW PUPyT3llHIuv8FLHyBLr60nmJYBAbA1Wy5vYaGyhRS8NwQQbIR5cVBRDs0f5mv8=
=c5uG
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----


...and not like this (or some other similarly mangled way):


-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (MingW32) - WinPT 10.3.0
Comment: See http://www.gnupg.org/hQIOA5K/4SdC8KCgEAf/ej46P
TbHQ7CA8MvtYyTYtivJ4hQ6oo//V2aHsl6/E/HK
u81oJzop7QzCvK1CLjzK4hqhlZZYb07s/2n40zBSvy4apGVas6DxfpqoX2SFFlnC 5wqvNt8BekM3w9JIKsfGj2x5E/xMe0slJUegiiBkUup0BtzcGJB7Yzpts1FSE/QM wFzJLiyTJ4m5XOMLEvnNS9U3PjWXyzlNWG3RNtyCHCLG/ovV3oGR1H+TCVBOmuft NhfSHau4jKSffjShWWB5pMIxE7ZrHtJT838Ch57VR8oamZbszmtQo+gLg83ip8Er QrpxiTuFLu/l5+0YUDjZN6nYPSNbbGDDdTYSbjF1VwgAxR1er7hw3FysrS0j7yBB ZHiT+O6VZzcXUZMO1UsbZSf5htrS2t6Qf13DAoYahBFJCUWVCRxLprutKRyqy/KZ U2p//gvXfoalDLJZNGwBXXvNodkt3kzzGjT5DxREEYuHPMlrsZ8RABeaEzlTuBDD O6y6Sk0Qc72FJlQO2jP82wCOQTKvxX5QpJmUHVC4er5Hzkd8FNMbMlbGwV9zyvQW PUPyT3llHIuv8FLHyBLr60nmJYBAbA1Wy5vYaGyhRS8NwQQbIR5cVBRDs0f5mv8=
=c5uG
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----


Please note that there should ALWAYS be a blank line between the PGP header information and the actual beginning of the ciphertext.  The PGP header information includes the BEGIN PGP MESSAGE line, the Version information, and the Comment line.  It's also important to make sure that there are 5 '-' characters before and after the 'Begin PGP Message', and 'End PGP Message' tags.


4.5
Q: What is "Debug Mode"?

A: Debug Mode is a mode of operation built into WinPT which causes WinPT to output error code to two files on your harddisk. If WinPT crashes, take these debug files, zip them up with a compression utility, and email them to Timo with a detailed explanation of what happened. One file is in the same directory as your WinPT executable and is called "gpgme.dbg". The other file is called "winpt.log" and can be found in your C:\WINDOWS\TEMP directory.  If you can't find the "winpt.log" file don't worry, sometimes it isn't generated, but "gpgme.dbg" is always generated.  To enable debug mode in WinPT use the "--enable-debug" switch on the command line when invoking WinPT.  If you've set up WinPT to run from an icon, right-click on the WinPT icon and select "properties," then select the "shortcut" tab and type "--enable-debug" (without quotes) in the end of the "Target" field.  Be sure there is a space between the last character of what was originally in that field, and what you add.
 
4.6
Q: Why isn't "Current Window" mode working properly for me?

A:  Current Window mode works better with the hotkeys, so try using them first.  Currently not all window types are supported, so in some cases it might not work at all (we're working on that).  If this mode does not work the first time, merely try it again a second time.  If it still does not work then the window you're trying to operate on is an unsupported type, and this will be addressed with a future release.

  The good news is that the Current Window code works much better now.  It even works with Outlook Express.   :-)  

  If it's still giving you problems here are a few things you can do to make it work better.  If possible place the cursor at the beginning of the text and avoid selecting other windows during the decryption/encryption process.  Please note that these latest fixes will only work in the latest snapshop (0.3.9a) and later.  This will include the 0.4.0 releases and beyond.

Q: Why in an earlier example does it say there's a version 10.3.0 of WinPT?

A: Because I'm pulling your leg. :-)