AxCrypt 2.0 and 1.7

[Tony]

Hello Svante

I feel compelled to put my 2cents in as well regarding version 2.

I think many of us “everyday users” don’t have an appreciation for (or care about…)  why you have implemented the online connection – regardless whether it’s for first use or not.

What I loved about 1.x was its sheer simplicity – my whole family understands how to use it and it just works. No internet connection required, ever. And for free; a truly wonderful contribution to the world which you should be very proud of.

And if I wanted to share an encrypted file with somebody (but never have in years…) then I’d make them install your product and give them the password over the phone. Yep, old school and clunky. But I feel “safer” doing so, and you got another potential user/customer in the process.

So I too would happily pay for you to continue maintaining 1.x or to sell me a fully standalone version of 2.x. I hope the innards of 2.x haven’t changed so much that you cannot consider this. I know I can stay with 1.x indefinitely I suppose, but everyday people also don’t want to fear behind left behind, especially when it comes to security.

You have changed the formula for Coke – and I for one am saying a loud PLEASE NO!

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Tony!

Thanks for your input! We’re certainly listening to the views of our existing users, and we’re working hard trying to find a golden middle path. Who knows – maybe we’ll relaunch as AxCrypt Classic and skip New AxCrypt ;-) Ok, that probably won’t happen, but we may indeed support something similar to “Classic Mode”.

We’ve just had a product meeting discussing these issues, and we’ll be working in the coming weeks to try to meet many of you at least half-way.

The thing about the free AxCrypt 1.x, which I’m indeed proud of, is that I simply cannot maintain it for nothing and unfortunately very few of the existing users donated. If just a few percent of the users had… But that didn’t and won’t happen. Just the way things are. So, while many like yourself say that you’d gladly pay for a version like the 1.7, the real world seems to be different. There’s just not enough of you to support the development.

So… What we’re hoping is that users like yourself realize that you’ll have to give us *something* to get a software such as AxCrypt. That’s essentially the ‘first time signup’. You’re giving us your e-mail, which is no secret, and which does enable you to *receive* encrypted information, even if you, yourself, never have the impulse to share. Someone else may want to share with you. If you’re registered, you’re already in our catalog of users and it’s easier to share with you. It’s a small, but definitive value to us as a product, and a value to our paying users who for whatever reason do want to share. Please note also that version 2 does not have any kind of advertising wrapper, and there’s no advertising on the site either. All we’re asking for is your email, and we promise to do nothing bad with it (not that there’s much bad that can be done that’s not already done with most email-addresses).

Is that really too high a price to pay? Letting us know your email? Something every spammer on earth, everyone you ever sent an email to, and every web site you ever registered with already knows?

Also, Internet is not required. You can disable Internet access ‘permanently’, either with a command line switch –offline, or via the menus. In this case we won’t even get your email :-( .

Our aim is to retain as much as possible like the existing version for free, while creating enough clear value with additional features and platform support (iOS and Android coming up) to get enough paying users to finance the continued development. This all will benefit from.

Now, I’ll go back to working with the various issues we’ve logged as a result of input from existing users like yourself! Thank you! See https://bitbucket.org/axantum/axcrypt-net/issues?status=new&status=open to follow progress!

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello all,

Just wanted to let you know that we’re listening to exiting version 1 user’s input on version 2. Although we’ve not made everything just like it was, we’ve tried to improve version 2 in various ways to make existing users feel more at home.

Here are some things we’ve done recently up until AxCrypt 2.1.1474 (and later):

– It can run entirely without Internet connection, ever. We don’t recommend it, but you can.

– The “sign in” dialog is more compact and less intrusive.

– The main Window state is remembered, so if you minimize it it will  usually stay minimized and never show unless you ask for it.

– The tray icon now actually has some functions, such as sign in / sign out / exit / show main window.

– The Windows Explorer context menu has a “sign out” function.

We *do* still want you to register an email address (but that’s all), and we’re still for now committed to the one-password model for your files. We’ve written a couple of longer discussions about various things that are new in version 2:

http://www.axcrypt.net/blog/use-of-different-passwords/

http://www.axcrypt.net/blog/leaving-computer-axcrypt/

http://www.axcrypt.net/blog/avoid-self-decrypting-files/

If you’ve tried version 2 before as an existing user and have had concerns, why not give it a new try? Download from http://www.axcrypt.net/download/ .

Still have feedback to give? Bring it on! We want to hear from you.

[Scott]

For me, I do not understand why we must sign-in to use your product.  I will not use it if I must sign-in.  Why? Because I feel I am being tracked enough already by everyone else.  It was so beautifully simple before-now? Not so much.  I fumbled and cursed but gave up on it.  Thank you for your original version which I happily donated money even though it had that silly “candy bar” thing.  Why you felt the need to so dramatically change such and easy-to-use product to something that requires a sign-in is a mystery to me but I will now look for something else that is closer to the original AxCrypt.  Good luck to you and good bye.

[SvanteSpectator]

Thank you Scott for the feedback, and for the donation! Unfortunately way too few donated to make it possible to keep maintaining it.

The short answer to why I changed it to a “sign in” was that I thought that it would be a well-recognized metaphor by users. in order to solve a real problem. Perhaps too much as it turns out. It’s really not a sign in. It’s not very different from checking both “Remember this passphrase for decryption” and “Remember this passphrase for encryption” in version 1 – *with a validation that you’re really entering the right password*.

One of the strongest reasons was thus to reduce the risk of users losing data because they happened to consistently mistype the encryption password twice. It happens with version 1. Not so much with version 2.

Anyway, good luck in the future!

[Marcel]

AxCrypt was a different program on the market precisely because of the way it was designed. I do not understand the reason to create a new version where it looks like other market.
I noticed several other user also not liked the change.
But for me the worst of all was the annual fee. I would be willing to purchase a permanent license. But pay annually discourages me. I would, just clicking right in my files and encrypts them. I know that the new version offers online services but they do not interest me. There would be the possibility to rethink this?
All this is taking me to look for alternatives.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Marcel,

Thank you for your feedback. Have you checked out 2.1.1474 (or later)? It is much more like the version 1, in that the password dialog is more like it, it doesn’t show the main Window if you don’t want to etc. Personally, I really do not see that much of a difference in daily use! You double-click, maybe get a password dialog, click OK. The file opens. You close.  It gets re-encrypted. You right-click, select AxCrypt | Encrypt. It encrypts. Just like version 1!

On top of that there are many other feature that have been asked for during the years, that’s why we have the main Window. In fact, a common support question for version 1 is “Where is the program window?”.

As for the license vs. subscription, please read http://www.axcrypt.net/blog/subscription-vs-license/ for a longer discussion about that.

There’s always a possibility to rethink! That’s why we’re asking you all for feedback! And we do rethink, we’ve made many changes to version 2 based on the feedback we’re getting. So keep it coming!

[Marcel]

Thanks for the reply but unfortunately I live in Brazil and here the rate of the euro is very high and the annual cost is not so cheap as well.

With respect to the version you mentioned I downloaded and installed it yesterday and did not like. In fact I did not know the version 2.0. Only yesterday I noticed that there was this new version.

What really interests me?

1) AES-256 encryption
2) Secured Folders
3) File Wipe
4) Anonymous File Names

Nothing more.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Marcel,

Thanks for your feedback!

You do understand that the version 2 is still just as capable as version 1, for free? There’s no requirement subscribe to Premium.

Svante

[Marcel]

Reinstalled version 2 1 1474.

1) With the same e-mail could create an offline ID and other online. Each ID with a different password. That’s right? With the same e-mail ???

2) I noticed that this version after I put my password files are opened automatically while I’m logged in. Compared to version 1.7 this is a disadvantage because if I walk away from the computer and someone else trying to open my files it will.

[SvanteSpectator]

Hello Marcel,

Sure you can have one offline and one online with the same email and different passwords. If you’re offline, you’re offline. Offline you could use my or Bill Gates email or Elvis. As long as it’s a syntactically correct email, i.e. has the dots and ats in the right places, there’s nothing more we can do to validate the email or verify the password when you’re offline. You’re offline! No Internet.

As for point 2), the short answer is that you should not walk away from your computer with Windows logged on.

If you do, you’re lost anyway. If someone else has access to your computer, with your permissions, it’s no longer your computer so to speak.

Please read http://www.axcrypt.net/blog/leaving-computer-axcrypt/ for a longer discussion and explanation why this is so, and how AxCrypt mitigates this and other risks.

[Zen]

I love the original version and donated, and would happily pay a fee to purchase a permanent license as well-not an annal fee however.  I have never seen so many people plead to keep a product in place only to be told how you must have an email as some form of payment.  No thanks.  You contend that all the spammers already have our addresses-then go get a billion email addresses from them-this make no sense to me that so many loyal users beg you to keep a simple, beautiful product in place, only to have you continually steering us to a version that is not as simple, and not intrusive.  What a shame-and btw-Coke got rid of New Coke.

[Paul]

I could not find a webpage where the main differences between 1.7 and 2.1 are discussed. Could you please direct me to one?

I still use 1.7,  on my laptop and my home desktop — both  running under Windows 10. I’m away from home for the coming half year. If I would now (i.e., November  2016) update AxCrypt on my laptop, I take it that newly encrypted files on my laptop will be unreadable on my desktop?   So probably it is safer to update on both computers after my return home?

[Tony]

“Why you should avoid Self-Decrypting Files…”

This argument holds some water if I’m sending files to others, but in my case, where I use Axcrypt exclusively within my own domain, losing this feature is yet another reason for me never to want to move to to 2.x. I use this feature 100% of the time as it is so convenient! It would be interesting to poll your user base to see what percentage of people send encrypted files around and thus should consider this advice.

 

[Yngvar Kristiansen]

Hi

I have been using AXcrypt for many years. I love it’s simplicity.

Now, after downloading version 2, I see I cannot use it without registering an account. I already have a password manager, and I really don’t like registering for anything, but I still want the encryption/decryption of files.

I will obviously just use the old version. However, will you fix any security issues that may arise to it, even it is still not maintained?

Regards

 

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