Kryptelite

With strong, basic file encryption, InvSoftware's free Kryptelite is a good choice for home users. It's easy to use: You can encrypt and decrypt, verify, and shred an unlimited number of files of any size by right-clicking in Windows, or you can drag and drop files onto Kryptelite's desktop icon. Kryptelite also performs ZIP and BZIP2 compression. It gives up compatibility with legacy ciphers, multipass shredding, command-line capability, and other features found in Kryptel's premium editions. What Kryptelite doesn't give up is industry-standard AES encryption.

Pay attention to Kryptelite's installation notes if you're upgrading or installing the program over an older version; otherwise, you're good to go for Windows 2000 to 8. A quick start guide that's mostly for Kryptel opens when the installer exits. That's fine because Kryptelite works just like its stablemates at the "business end" (that's you) by right-clicking a file or folder and selecting Encrypt from the context menu in Windows. Kryptelite's Start Menu folder accesses the Settings, Kryptel Help, Kryptel Wizards, and other resources. Kryptelite has some interesting options, such as forcing passwords to be entered twice and recognizing content on network shares and USB drives. We could even choose different icons for files and folders.

So how easy to use is Kryptelite? We right-clicked a folder and selected "Encrypt" on the context menu, and then entered a password (twice for accuracy) and clicked "OK." Our folder's icon changed to a padlock (and EDC file type). To open our encrypted file, we merely had to right-click it, select "Decrypt," and enter our password. Clicking "Verify" tested our folder for errors. We could encrypt or decrypt multiple files and folders at once by highlighting them all and right-clicking one. A good encryption tool helps you protect your data and privacy. Kryptelite is a good start.