Please recommend encryption plug-in

Tony F · Jul 7, 2023, 6:41 AM

I need to encrypt some text files. I note that there is more than one plug-in to do this. I really don’t want to make the wrong choice here so:

Do you know which is best?
Or have an opinion on which is best?
Or just found one that works ok?
Thanks

PeterJones · Jul 7, 2023, 2:48 PM

@Tony-F ,

“Best” is in the eye of the beholder, depending on what features you need and what workflow you prefer.

A few years ago, I played a little with NppCrypt, and it seemed reasonable to me. (There was a slight kerfluffle because v1.0.6 was incompatible with the earlier versions – but since you won’t be starting with an older version, and the author hasn’t made a new release since v1.0.1.6 in 2019, you shouldn’t have to worry about that for now). But since the Notepad++ plugin interface has changed somewhat over the last couple years, I cannot guarantee that NppCrypt will still work with modern Notepad++ versions.

I see that SecurePad has been more active over the last couple years (it’s most recent release was 2022, compared to NppCrypt’s 2019) – that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily “better”, but it might improve the chances of getting bug fixes and feature requests incorporated into new releases (and it might not).

Personally, for the rare times I’ve wanted to encrypt a file inside Notepad++ (rather than just using a right-click context action), I have a script for the NppExec plugin that runs the active file through my command-line gpg.exe:

encrypt

cls
cmd.exe /c exit %RANDOM%								// cannot access $(SYS.RANDOM) directly through NppExec, but can tell cmd.exe to return it as a value
set tempfile = $(SYS.TEMP)\NppGpgFile_$(EXITCODE).tmp					// create random tempfile name
set ascfile = $(SYS.TEMP)\NppGpgFile_$(EXITCODE).asc					// create associated ascfile name
sci_sendmsg SCI_SELECTALL								// select all
sel_saveto $(tempfile) :a								// save selection to the tempfile	(use :a to save as ansi, to prevent unicode prefix ÿþ getting embedded)
INPUTBOX "Recipients (use -r between multiple): " : XXXXX@XXXXX.XXX -r XXXX@XXXX.XXX // get the recipients
gpg.exe --output "$(ascfile)" -ase -r $(INPUT) "$(tempfile)"					// armor+sign+encrypt to recipient(s)
sel_loadfrom $(ascfile)								// replace selection with results
sci_sendmsg SCI_DOCUMENTSTART							// deselect
//rm -rf "$(tempfile)" "$(ascfile)"							// cleanup temp files
npp_save

decrypt

cls
cmd.exe /c exit %RANDOM%							// cannot access $(SYS.RANDOM) directly through NppExec, but can tell cmd.exe to return it as a value
set tempfile = $(SYS.TEMP)\NppGpgFile_$(EXITCODE).tmp				// create random tempfile name
set ascfile = $(SYS.TEMP)\NppGpgFile_$(EXITCODE).asc				// create associated ascfile name
sci_sendmsg SCI_SELECTALL							// select all
sel_saveto $(ascfile) :a							// save selection to the ascfile	(use :a to save as ansi, to prevent unicode prefix ÿþ getting embedded)
gpg.exe --output "$(tempfile)" --decrypt "$(ascfile)"				// decrypt
sel_loadfrom $(tempfile)							// replace selection with results
sci_sendmsg SCI_DOCUMENTSTART						// deselect
rm -rf "$(tempfile)" "$(ascfile)"						// cleanup temp files
npp_save

(and I have similar ones for gpg-sign and gpg-verify – though honestly, I haven’t used any of them much in the past year or two)

Tony F · Jul 9, 2023, 4:35 AM

@PeterJones thanks v much