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…and well I am a bit disappointed. Note that I’ve added a new “category” in my blog called “whining” because that’s basically what I am doing now, so if you hate whining (read: b*tching) then you might want to skip this post.

In 2004 I got a copy of PGP 8.1 for Windows to use on an XP install at home. With this install came the standard PGP system tray icon that would let you control a sleuth of things to include clipboard and current window encryption/decryption as well as give you quick access to the PGP keys interface. This fine little install also had an Outlook (Express for me on that machine) plug-in for easy encryption/decryption of e-mail. It had its kinks and bugs but it worked pretty well. Now jump 4 years ahead to the present and on my Mac and Linux systems I use GnuGP (gpg) but that’s all done on the command line, so it’s kind of a pain. On an XP install with Office 2007 that I have at home — I do not have anything at all (no PGP or GPG).

Today I decided to put and end to that and paid for the upgrade for $29.99 (I was eligible from my old license) to PGP Home Desktop 9.8. Sure I feel like a sucker paying for software for which there are similar free options, but the GUI and a couple of other features are something I wanted to have. The new version also has some full disk encryption options as well as the creation of encrypted drives/storage spaces, which sounds nifty I suppose. Still consider checking out TrueCrypt anyway.

Anyway, the first thing I noticed was that the download of PGP Desktop was 72 MB .zip file, which seemed a little large. To my surprise they decided to pack both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions into the same .zip file. I really don’t see the logic in this. They could save bandwidth usage and time for both parties and I’ll take an absolutely wild stab in the dark that their 64-bit installs aren’t quite as numerous as their 32-bit installs (I could be wrong… it happened once). Great so I managed to install the correct version and am all fired up and good to go. Only I guess I suck at the whole RTFM thing because I didn’t realize there is no longer an Outlook plug-in. They went with the god awful proxy-detect-email-look-for-encryption-keys-we-suck method. All I can say is that I am very disappointed. I believe the plug-in was one of the best features of the old product. Now you’re stuck with some half-assed detection method that will send unencrypted messages if it messes up — super idea! I think I will pass on that.

Anyone else have some thoughts and opinions on the latest versions of PGP? I would love to hear them and I’ll approve/post the comments as long as they’re not overly vulgar (PG-13 at worst please).