Xecrets Ez is entirely free of cost, but the additional premium features are available with a premium subscription, for €15/year.

Xecrets Ez uses the same strong cryptographic primitives in both the free and premium versions. They are AES-256 for encryption, SHA-256 for authentication and RSA-4096 for key exchange.

The core feature of Xecrets Ez is to encrypt files. After encrypting the file, it will be saved with the extension .axx and the original file will be securely deleted. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

The reverse of encryption is to decrypt files. After decryption, the contents and the original file name will be restored, regardless of any renaming of the encrypted file, and the encrypted file securely deleted. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

Encrypted files are fully compatible with any and all cloud services such as Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, Dropbox etc. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

Many other encryption solutions creates a special encrypted container or folder, and when you move or copy a file out of the container or folder, it is no longer encrypted. Operating system built in encryption such as Windows Encrypting Filesystem (EFS), macOS FileVault or Linux LUKS also have similar limitations.

With Xecrets Ez, the encryption always follows the file, and it will remain encrypted regardless of where you move or copy it. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

There is no installation required, it comes as a single portable executable file and can even be run off a USB stick or similar, although we do recommend placing it in a suitable location. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

There is no registration or account in the cloud, although you do create a profile using your e-mail as identifier, it's entirely local, and no server is involved and no emails are sent. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

No connection is ever made to the Internet, it's always offline. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

When receiving files from others for example, you may need to use a different password than your own. You do this in the Edit|Add Decryption Password... menu option. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

If your intention with file encryption to use, view and edit the file, it's important that it doesn't require a lot of manual work. With only simple file encryption and decryption, you have to manually decrypt the file, view or edit it, and then remember to re-encrypt it after use.

With Xecrets Ez when you want to view or edit an encrypted file, it will automatically decrypt the file to a temporary location, open it in the default application, and then keep track of it so it can automatically, or with a single click, be re-encrypted, and the decrypted copy securely deleted.

Use the File|Open... menu option, the main window button, or drag and drop or copy/paste a single file into the main window to do this.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

The Yubico YubiKey is a hardware security key that provides smart card encryption and two-factor authentication. It's a small USB device that you can use to secure your Xecrets Ez password, making it much easier to use a strong password without having to remember it.

You can configure the YubiKey to require a PIN, a touch or just being inserted to automate entering your password. See the help page for more information.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

As a separate feature, the File|Secure Delete... menu option can be used to really erase the contents of a file to make it much harder to recover the data. It should be noted that it may still be possible, using special tools that access the hard drive directly, bypassing the operating system and the file system but it makes it much harder and more expensive.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

Sometimes it's useful to encrypt a copy of a file with the File|Encrypt Copy..., while retaining the original.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

With the regular encrypt file feature, you can select one or more files to encrypt within the same folder. With the File|Encrypt Folder Files... feature, you can encrypt all files in a folder and all it's subfolders in one go.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

When you want to send an encrypted file to someone else, you should not send a file encrypted with your own password, as you then need to share your password with the recipient. Instead, you should encrypt the file with an alternate password using the File|Encrypt Copy to Share... feature. They you can send the file and the password separately to the recipient using different channels. Typically you'd send the file with e-mail or using a chat service, and text or call the recipient with the password.

The recipient can decrypt the file by adding a decryption password with the Add Decryption Password menu option.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

Each logged on user on your computer of course have their own user profile and settings when using Xecrets Ez. But with the User|Create New User... menu option, you can have multiple user profiles for the same user. This is useful if you for example have different sets of files that you want to keep separate, perhaps work and personal files.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

With the regular decrypt file feature, you can select one or more files to decrypt within the same folder. With the File|Decrypt Folder Files menu option, you can decrypt all files in a folder and all it's subfolders in one go.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

When you open a file received from someone else, it will be encrypted with a password that you have agreed on, but it will not be the same as the password you use for your own files. When you try to open or decrypt such a file, Xecrets Ez can try alternate passwords, which you add with the Edit|Add Decryption Password... menu option.

With the Save in settings option checked, such passwords will be saved in your user profile for reuse so you don't have to remember and retype them.

Such decryption passwords are not used for encrypting files, just for decrypting files that are not encrypted with your own password.

This is a premium feature, it's not available in the free version of Xecrets Ez.

Authentication is the process of verifying that the data has not been tampered with. This is done with a Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC-SHA256) in Xecrets Ez. This is a cryptographic hash function that uses a secret key in combination with a hash algorithm. The same strong authentication is used in both the free and premium versions.

Depending on the original file contents, compression can reduce the size of the encrypted file. Xecrets Ez will intelligently and conditionally compress files before encryption, but only if it significantly reduces the size. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.

Both when encrypting and decrypting files, the original file is securely deleted. This is supported in both the free and premium versions.