ZIPcrypt

Keeping sensitive data on a computer is risky, especially for large businesses. There's always the risk of files being stolen if you simply store them in a folder or share them with someone. An excellent solution is ZIPcrypt, which compresses your files and protects them with high-grade encryption protocols. The software integrates seamlessly into your system's shell so that you may lock your files at a moment's notice, without going through any menus and lengthy preparations.

ZIPcrypt is free to try, without any functionality limitations. It works on all modern Windows systems, without relying on any third-party tools or services. The setup file is small and the installation process doesn't involve any complicated settings, so can have the application up and running in just a few seconds.

Although ZIPcrypt comes with an executable, the user interface it presents is just a simple options panel, on which you can set a destination and link the application to an email account. You can find its core functions when you right-click a file or folder. The software adds a new set of options in the Windows Explorer context menu, which allow you to encrypt and decrypt your data.

The software provides support for the AES 256-bit encryption algorithms, as well as XOTIC, a proprietary 512-bit encryption protocol. All you have to do is right-click your files, navigate through the menus and select an algorithm, and the application will encrypt your data right away, without asking for any further input. Whenever you want to protect your documents or project files, you can do it at a moment's notice, as if you were just compressing them. Alternatively, you can pick an option to encrypt and share the files in a single run, if someone is waiting for those files and you wish to do it in a secure manner.

ZIPcrypt uses an interesting method of locking and unlocking files, which doesn't rely on the use of a password, so you don't have to commit anything to memory. Once it's done compressing and encrypting your data, the software will store two files. One of them is the encrypted data itself and the other is the key for unlocking the files. You can extract the encrypted files at a moment's notice, without being asked for any passwords, by simply double-clicking the encrypted archive, as long as the key file is located in the same folder. If the key file is not there, the operating system won't know what application to use to open the encrypted archive.

Taking its clean and straightforward functionality into account, there is no denying that ZIPcrypt is one of the most efficient and convenient solutions out there when it comes to data security.