Is it possible to run pgp 6.5.8 freeware on Windows 7 64 bit machine?

I am trying to get the PGP Command Line -Freeware Version 6.5.8 by Networks Associates working on a Wndows 7 64 bit machine. Does anyone know if it is possible?

I installed it in C:\pgp

when i run pgp, it keeps telling me that it can't find the pgp.cfg file.

My PGPPATH is defined and set to C:\pgp

I have also included this path in my Path variable

Can anyone tell me what i am doing wrong. The documentation states that:

"The first time you start PGP, the software checks to see if the environment variable PGPPATH is defined. If PGPPATH is defined, the software puts the pgp.cfg in the %PGPPATH% directory"

Edit:

This is most likely a Windows 7 professional folder rights issue, since the file pgp.cfg can't get written. I tried my best given the folder full rights, but im not 100% confident that i did it right. Anyone help me?

2 Answers

Make sure that both the new environment variable is properly set, and that the path environment variable has definitely updated (do a reboot).

Check permissions on the folder that contains the pgp.cfg file, and on the file itself.

Finally, consider using GnuPG instead; it's open source and free, and can be used from most common email clients; for example, Outlook.

EDIT:

Note that GPG can be driven from the command-line, although the passphrase needs to be piped in. One example of how to do this is here, and a decryption example (which works the same for encryption) is here.

Sad but true; the presently available PGP (GnuPG etc) won’t run on Windows 64-bit machines. Not the frontends, nor the key-handlers, nor the encryption-engines.

The problem with the commercial PGP—besides the price—is that the PGP development is nowadays driven by the companies that implement it. Anyone will understand that enterprises are not interested in endpoint encryption but in gateway encryption. The employee syncs via SSL or pre-shared, smartcard-certificates (which is for the communication sector) and the servers talk PGP. This way, no employee can hide information from their company and virus-protection can be implemented on the gateway.

I recommend using S/MIME with certificates. If s.o. doesn’t like to buy TTP-certificates (trusted 3rd party) from Comodo, Thawte, Global-Sign, Veri-sign, etc., he could join a WOT (Web-of-trust) like CA-cert. The only disadvantage is, that friends and commercial partners have to be informed in advance, that getting the CA-cert root-certificate is required (it is not pre-installed in Windows/Mozilla out-of-the-box).

Regarding convenience, that won’t make a practical difference. Using PGP requires all commercial partners to pre-trust the keys and to pre-consider which of their friends they trust. In my opinion, that is the equivalent to informing friends and commercial partners that they need the root-certificate and that they need to check fingerprints (same as PGP).

PGP enthusiasts should at least once in their lifetimes generate a key from someone in their "friend-trust", sign it and forward it to all others (even to the one who is the faked owner of that key). I predict, before the faked key is blacklisted, almost half of the PGP-friend-trust is already using that key.