News :: 15MR: File Defender v1.1

Hello all and welcome to another edition of 15-Minute Reviews! Today’s application is File Defender version 1.1 by Enplase Research Corporation – An application to encrypt files for protection from prying eyes.

Software Description

As Giveaway of the Day states:

“File Defender is powerful and easy-to-use software that comprehensively protects all of your important files. The software creates encrypted executables, thus removing the need for the software to decrypt files on other computers.

Because the software is based on a very strong encryption algorithm, it is impossible to gain access to protected files without a password. It has a built-in key generator that creates absolutely unique combinations. File Defender is simple to use due to its seamless and user-friendly interface.”

Quick Pros

• Application is simple to use
• Encrypts file into self-extracting format
• Hard to get set up wrong
• Handy password generator for those who are password-challenged

Quick Cons

• Can’t add whole folders or directory trees; Encrypts each file into own separate file
• Visible passphrase when entering?
• Only one encryption algorithym available (XTEA)
• Application crashed when just navigating within the applications
• Seems that there is an option for compression, but grayed out

Expansion

Not a great deal to expand on; The application is fairly straightforward. You either drag and drop files onto the application or use the ‘Add File’ button, click ‘Protect,’ it asks you for a password and away it goes. On a 108,504KB (105.96MB) it took approximately two minutes to encrypt the file. On the resulting end, you get an executable file which can be delivered to anywhere (Windows-based that is) without the need for File Defender for decryption. The application even has a password generator who may have issues with creating their own secure passwords.

A few major notes however; You can not add whole folders or their sub-directories by drag-and-dropping or ‘Add File’ to the application. It does not support folders at all. When you do add multiple files, it does not give you the option to encode them into a single file; It creates a separate exe for each file, and unless you hace File Protector on the destination computer, you have to manually extract each file one at a time. If you want to send a whole folder, you better break out the ZIP or RAR programs before you encode the files.

As well, I had a bit of an issue with the visible passphrase; I know the need for having the passphrase visible while typing in for accuracy, but there are many of times where having a visible passphrase entry could be a bad thing. There should be an option to be able to hide the passphrase.

A few other issues I had was that there is only one encryption format available; XTEA. While not familiar with encryption formats, I’d rather be able to pick my compression format rather than restricted to a single encryption format. I did have a single application crash the first time I launched the application when I was just mousing around the buttons, but could never replicate the error. As well, there seems to be an option for compression but it’s grayed out; It bugs me when there is a feature that shows up but no way to enable it at all, even with a ‘Pro’ version or similar. If the feature doesn’t work, remove the checkbox.

Final Verdict

While a fairly simple application and the resulting EXE files are very handy, it is lacking in the folder support totally. I’d rather be able to encode entire folders than a single file at a time resulting in a single file back out for each file. While it may be handy for those who may want to ensure a file they send across a network isn’t ‘sniffed’ out (Personal information/financial files/etc) I do feel that this is too limited to make it less of a headache of file transfer. Multiple files to email/ftp/upload, or end up having to make a ZIP/RAR first does discourage the use of this application. While free, it is a great little application for if you only need to send a secure file here and there once in a while; I wouldn’t want to use this for a business or similar. As for paying $34.95, with no folder support, I definitely couldn’t warrant paying this much for an application like this, especially if I am having to pre-build ZIP/RAR files first.

Posted by BladedThoth on Tuesday, April 17, 2007