Gpg4Win 2.0.4 with GnuPG 1.4.11??

[Bo Berglund]

On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 10:50:34 -0500, Jerry <gnupg.user at seibercom.net>
wrote:

>On Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:07:26 +0100
>Bo Berglund <bo.berglund at gmail.com> articulated:
>
>> Unfortunately the Gpg4Win 2.0.4 installer lets me choose if I want to
>> install *all* of the extras by having a checkbox for each. But the
>> GnuPG itself is *not* optional! And it installs the less stable 2.0.14
>> version...
>
>Maybe I missed it somewhere, but exactly why do you feel "2.0.14" is
>unstable? I have been using gpg (GnuPG) 2.0.16 on my FreeBSD box
>without a single problem. Prior to that, at one point in time, I did
>have the older 1.x version installed. Updating to the newer 2.x versions
>never caused a single problem. I realize that you are referring to a
>different OS; however, I have not seen any definitive postings
>regarding the "2.0.14" version's unsuitability to task in that OS.
>

Warning - Long answer:

I tested GPG4Win 2.0.0 in Feb 2008 and found that:
- The GpgOL plug-in made my Outlook 2003 crash
- I read about the switch from GPG1 to GPG2 that there were many
issues, so I assumed that the crashes were caused by GPG2 or/and GpgOL
in that distribution.

In previous versions of Gpg4Win using the GPG1 tree the GpgOL plug-in
did not work all that well, it seemed to only work for me but not for
my co-workers who were located on the corporate LAN. So we stopped
using the Outlook plug-in. But to stop the crasches of Outlook we had
to uninstall Gpg4Win 2.0.0 altogether and instead install Gpg4Win
1.1.4 (still not using the plug-in).

I have been following (infrequently) the Gpg4Win development since
then but all the time there have been disclaimers about the Outlook
plug-in making me believe that it is not a worthwhile thing to use.

But now that GPGee has disappeared from the Windows Explorer context
menu on Windows 7 X64 I need to find some other solution to use for
file encryption on Windows and with a GUI interface. This is the
reason for this and a couple of other of my threads.

Today I tested the version 2.0.4 on a virtual machine running XP-Pro
SP3. Had to uninstall the previous 1.1.4 version first.
It seemed to work for file encryption in my environment (actually my
existing keyrings were carried over, which was one of my concerns
regarding uninstalling).

Then I connected a VPN channel to the company and started Outlook
2003, which is set up on this virtual machine to use Exchange mode.
Then I made an email (simple one using the HTML editor) to my private
address and set it to be encrypted.
A new dialog popped up requesting me to select certificates for the
recipient and twice for myself.
Then it started sending the message, which took a while and then
seemed to succeed.

However, after a short time I received back an error message claiming
that the recipient address could not be reached.

So I made another email to the same recipient but without encryption.
This succeeded without error messages.
Only the last one actually reached my external account....

So my conclusion is that GpgOL is still not usable, but now at least
it does not crash Outlook 2003. Question is if it does crash OL 2007
or 2010?

For your information the system setup is as follows:

My normal (non-virtual) system:
- Windows XP Pro SP3 attached to the company domain
- (The XP PC soon to be replaced with a Win7X64 one)
- Outlook 2003 in POP3 mode, because I work 10000 km from the company
- Internet connection by way of ADSL and a POP3 gateway in the
firewall at the company

Co-worker systems:
- PC:s located on the company LAN
- Windows XP and 7 in different combinations
- Outlook 2003, 2007 and possibly 2010
- Email via Exchange server on company LAN
- Internet connection via company firewall

My best bet would probably be to test installing Gpg4Win 2.0.4 but
making sure to unselect the GpgOL plug-in, I guess....


-- 
Bo Berglund
Developer in Sweden