PGP Desktop Email - 10.1 Quick Start Guide

What is PGP Desktop Email?

PGP Desktop Email is part of the PGP Desktop family of
products. Use PGP Desktop Email to:

y Automatically and transparently encrypt, sign, decrypt, and

verify email messages through policies you control.

y Use part of your hard drive space as an encrypted virtual

disk volume with its own drive letter.

y Create secure, encrypted Zip archives.
y Put files and folders into a single encrypted, compressed

package that can be opened on Windows systems that do
not have PGP Desktop Email or PGP Desktop installed.

y Completely destroy files and folders so that even file

recovery software cannot recover them.

y Securely erase free space on your drives so that your

deleted data is truly unrecoverable.

Contents

y What is PGP Desktop Email? (page 1)
y New to PGP Desktop Email? (page 1)
y Understanding the Basics (page 1)
y What Am I Installing? (page 1)
y System Requirements (page 2)
y Installing PGP Desktop Email (page 2)
y Starting PGP Desktop Email (page 3)
y The PGP Desktop Email Main Screen (page 3)
y Using PGP Desktop Email Email (page 3)
y Using PGP Viewer (page 5)
y Creating PGP Virtual Disk Volumes (page 9, page 6)
y Creating a PGP Zip Archive (page 6)
y Using PGP Shred to Shred Files (page 7)
y Getting Assistance (page 8)

PGP Desktop Email

Quick Start Guide

Version 10.1

access to a certain set of PGP Desktop Email features.
Certain other features of PGP Desktop Email may require
a different license. For more information, see the
Licensing section of the PGP Desktop User’s Guide.

y For deployment, management, and policy enforcement

information for PGP Desktop Email, see the PGP Universal
Server Administrator’s Guide.

Understanding the Basics

PGP Desktop Email uses keys to encrypt, sign, decrypt, and
verify your messages.

After installation, PGP Desktop Email prompts you to create a
PGP keypair. A keypair is the combination of a private key and
a public key.

y Keep your private key and its passphrase private, as the

name suggests. If someone gets your private key and its
passphrase, they can read your messages and
impersonate you to others. Your private key decrypts
incoming encrypted messages and signs outgoing
messages.

y Your public key you can give to everyone. It does not have

a passphrase. Your public key encrypts messages that
only your private key can decrypt and verifies your signed
messages.

Your keyring holds both your keypairs and the public keys of
others, which you use to send encrypted messages to them.
Click the PGP Keys Control Box to see the keys on your
keyring:

1. The icon for a PGP keypair has two keys, denoting the

private and the public key. Alice Cameron has a PGP
keypair in this illustration, for example.

2. The icons for the public keys of others have just one key.

Ming Pa’s public key, for example, has been added to the
keyring shown in this illustration.

New to PGP Desktop Email?

Use this step-by-step guide to get started. You will find that,
with PGP Desktop Email, protecting your data will be as easy
as turning a key in a lock.

y This Quick Start Guide helps you install PGP Desktop

Email and get started.

y The PGP Desktop User’s Guide provides more detailed

information on PGP Desktop Email. In it, you will learn
what a keypair is, why you might want to create one, how
to create one, and how to exchange keys with others so
you can encrypt your own data and share data securely
with others.

Note: A PGP Desktop Email license provides you with

What Am I Installing?

PGP Desktop Email uses licensing to provide access to the
features you purchase. Depending on the license you have,

1

some or all of the PGP Desktop Email family of applications
will be active.

This document contains instructions for viewing the features
activated by your license.

PGP Desktop Email is a member of the PGP Desktop family
of applications. You can use PGP Desktop Email to
automatically and transparently encrypt, sign, decrypt, and
verify email messages through policies you control. You can
also use PGP Desktop Email to encrypt IM sessions for clients
such as AIM and iChat. Both users must have PGP Desktop
Email enabled.

PGP Viewer is a member of the PGP Desktop family of
applications. You can use PGP Viewer to decrypt, verify and
display email messages outside of the

Other components included with PGP Desktop Email are:

PGP Virtual Disk volumes uses part of your hard drive space
as an encrypted virtual disk volume with its own drive letter. A
PGP Virtual Disk is the perfect place for storing your sensitive
files; it is as if you have stored them in a safe. When the door
of the safe is open (when the volume is mounted), you can
change files stored in it, take files out of it, and move files into
it. Otherwise (when the volume is unmounted), all the data on
the volume is protected.

PGP Zip adds any combination of files and folders to an
encrypted, compressed, portable archive. PGP Desktop must
be installed on a system to create or open a PGP Zip archive.
PGP Zip is a tool for securely archiving your sensitive data,
whether you want to distribute it to others or back it up.

PGP Self-Decrypting Archives (SDAs)

folders into an encrypted, compressed package that can be
opened on Windows systems that do not have any PGP
software installed. SDAs are the perfect solution for securely
exchanging files with someone who does not have PGP
software installed.

PGP Shredder completely destroys files and folders so that
even file recovery software cannot recover them. Deleting a
file using the Windows Recycle Bin (on Windows systems) or
Trash (on Mac OS X systems) does not actually delete it; it sits
on your drive and eventually gets overwritten. Until then, it is
trivial for an attacker to recover that file. PGP Shredder, in
contrast, immediately overwrites files multiple times. This is
so effective that even sophisticated disk recovery software
cannot recover these files. This feature also completely wipes
free space on your drives so your deleted data is truly
unrecoverable.

Key Management manages PGP keys, both your keypairs and
the public keys of others. You use your private key to decrypt
messages sent to you encrypted to your public key and to
secure your PGP Virtual Disk volumes. You use public keys to
encrypt messages to others or to add users to PGP Virtual
Disk volumes.

— Puts files and

y Windows XP Professional 32-bit (Service Pack 2 or 3),

Windows XP Professional 64-bit (Service Pack 2),
Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2 or 3),
Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, Windows
Vista (all 32- and 64-bit editions, including Service Pack 1
and 2), Windows 7 (all 32- and 64-bit editions), Windows
Server 2003 (Service Pack 1 and 2).

Note: The above operating systems are supported only

when all of the latest hot fixes and security patches from
Microsoft have been applied.

Hardware Requirements

y 512 MB of RAM
y 64 MB hard disk space

Installing PGP Desktop Email

PGP Corporation recommends exiting all open applications
before you begin the install. The installation process requires a
system restart.

Note: If you are using PGP Desktop Email in a PGP Universal

Server-managed environment, your PGP Desktop Email
installer may be configured with specific features and/or
settings.

¾ To install PGP Desktop Email

1. Locate the PGP Desktop Email installation program you

downloaded.

The installer program may have been distributed by your
PGP administrator using the Microsoft SMS deployment
tool.

2. Double-click the installer.

3. Follow the on-screen instructions.

4. Reboot your system when instructed.

5. When your system restarts, follow the on-screen

instructions to configure PGP Desktop Email.

Licensing

To see what features your license supports, open PGP
Desktop Email and select Help > License. Those features with
a checkmark are supported by the active license.

System Requirements

PGP Desktop Email can be installed on systems running the
following versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems:

2

Starting PGP Desktop Email

To start PGP Desktop Email, use any of the following
methods:

y Double-click the PGP Tray icon.

y Right-click the PGP Tray icon and then select

Desktop Email.

y From the Start menu, select Programs > PGP > PGP

Desktop Email.

The PGP Desktop Email Main Screen

The PGP Desktop Email application window is your main
interface to the product.

The PGP Desktop Email main screen includes:

1

The Menu bar. Gives you access to PGP Desktop Email

commands. The menus on the Menu bar change
depending on which Control box is selected.

2

The PGP Keys Control Box. Gives you control of PGP

keys.

3

The PGP Messaging Control Box. Gives you control

over PGP Messaging.

Open PGP

7

The PGP NetShare Control Box. Gives you control of

PGP NetShare.

8

The PGP Desktop Email Work area. Displays

information and actions you can take for the selected
Control box.

9

PGP Keys Find box. Use to search for keys on your

keyring. As you type text in this box, PGP Desktop Email
displays search results based on either name or email
address.

Each Control box expands to show available options, and
collapses to save space (only the Control Box’s banner
displays). Expand a Control Box by clicking its banner.

Using PGP Desktop Email Email

PGP Desktop Email Email automatically and transparently
encrypts and signs outgoing messages and decrypts and
verifies incoming messages. All you need to do is to send and
receive your email just as you always have; PGP Desktop
Email Email will take care of the rest.

Sending Encrypted Email

After installation, PGP Desktop Email Email inserts itself
between your email client and your mail server and watches
your email traffic.

When incoming messages arrive, PGP Desktop Email Email
intercepts them before they get to your inbox and
automatically attempts to decrypt and verify them; it uses your
private keys to decrypt and the public keys of others to verify.
When it is done with your messages, PGP Desktop Email
Email delivers them to your inbox.

In most cases, you do not have to do anything special;
decrypted incoming messages will appear in your inbox just
like any other incoming messages.

When you send outgoing messages, PGP Desktop Email Email
intercepts them on the way to your mail server and
automatically attempts to encrypt and sign them, based on
configured policies.

Again, you do not have to do anything special; just create your
messages using your email client and send them—PGP
Desktop Email Email handles everything else.

Details of how PGP Desktop Email Email transparently handles
your incoming and outgoing messaging is found in the
following sections.

4

The PGP Zip Control Box. Gives you control of PGP

Zip, as well as the PGP Zip Assistant, which helps you
create new PGP Zip archives.

5

The PGP Disk Control Box. Gives you control of PGP

Disk.

6

The PGP Viewer Control Box. Gives you the ability to

decrypt, verify, and display messages outside the mail
stream.

Incoming Messages

PGP Desktop Email Email handles incoming messages based
on their content:

y Not encrypted or signed. If a message is not encrypted

or signed, PGP Desktop Email Email just passes it along to
your email client. You can read the message as is, so
there is nothing for PGP Desktop Email Email to do to it.

y Encrypted but not signed. If a message is encrypted,

PGP Desktop Email Email attempts to decrypt it so that
you can read it. It will look first on your keyring for the

3