Forums Community Upgraded but no longer able to create self-decrypting ".exe" files? Reply To: Upgraded but no longer able to create self-decrypting ".exe" files?

#6371 Reply

Svante
Spectator

Hello Flashfox,

You are right. Self-decrypting .EXE is not supported in version 2. In it’s stead, we have a fully featured standalone portable application. The only difference from before is that we don’t “physically” append the data to the executable, so it’s two files.

You always need AxCrypt on the target computer. The “self-decrypting .exe” of AxCrypt 1.x is just AxCrypt with the encrypted file appended. It’s literally exactly the same as the following MS-DOS command line command:

copy /b AxDecrypt.exe+SecretFile-txt.axx SecretFile-txt.exe

So, yes, you have AxCrypt on the target computer. Now, with AxCrypt 2, we just don’t do the above so instead you send / store AxCrypt-2.1.1494.0.exe (or whatever version is current) and SecretFile-txt.axx as two separate files.

See https://forum.axcrypt.net/blog/avoid-self-decrypting-files/ for details about why we have done this change.