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Using the Crypted File Decrypter

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Dan O'Connor edited this page Apr 29, 2017 · 9 revisions

How to download the tool

Click the download link here.

How to run the tool

  1. Locate the downloaded CryptedFileDecrypter.zip file (likely in your Downloads folder).
  2. Right click on the .zip and select Extract All.
  3. Locate the extracted files and run the Setup file. Follow the instructions to install the application.
  4. You may see a warning message from Windows saying that the application is unrecognized. It is safe to ignore this warning and continue.
  5. If the application does not start automatically after the installation, you can find it by searching for "CryptedFileDecrypter" in your start menu.

Finding an unencrypted backup file

For the decrypter to work, you just need to find one unencrypted backup of a file that has been encrypted. Once you have a single backup, then the tool can decrypt the rest of your encrypted files. Any backup file of any type will work, as long as there is a matching encrypted version.

There are many places that you may find a backup file, but here are some ideas:

  • Email attachments - Check your inbox and sent mail folders for any email attachments that may also have been saved (and now encrypted) on your PC. Re-downloading the email attachment might give you a valid backup of the encrypted file saved on your PC.
  • Camera photos - Check your cell phone or digital camera for copies of photos that were saved on your PC. The phone or camera version may be a valid backup file to the encrypted photo stored on your PC.
  • Internet downloads - Take a look at the encrypted files in the downloads folder on your PC. Try to re-download the same file from the internet again. The new downloaded version may be a valid backup file to the encrypted version stored on your PC.
  • External or cloud storage - Try to locate backups on any flash drive, external hard drive, or cloud storage service that you use.

Once you have both an encrypted file and its unencrypted backup file, run the decrypter and click continue until you reach the third page. On the key calculation page, you will be asked to enter both of these files and will not be able to continue until you have entered an encrypted file and its matching backup.

If the decrypter thinks that the two files are a match, you will see a success message in the bottom left and the continue button will become clickable.

Decrypting your files

The decrypter is now ready to decrypt the rest of your files.

You can feed files to the decrypter in any of three ways:

  • Drag and drop one or multiple .crypted files into the "Drag & drop" area
  • Click "Pick files" to decrypt one or multiple .crypted files
  • Click "Pick a folder" to decrypt any .crypted files found in the given folder or its subfolders

As you decrypt files, you will see the .crypted file names and the new decrypted file names appear in the log window of the decrypter.

Just to be safe, the tool will never overwrite existing data and will instead create a new decrypted file next to the .crypted version. If you decrypt the same file multiple times, you will get multiple decrypted versions of that file that are named things like "(Copy 2) - MyDocument.docx".

Once you have decrypted your files, try to open the decrypted versions to make sure that the decryption process succeeded. There is a small chance that this tool will not decrypt your files correctly, so please be sure that the decryption worked and that you can open all of the decrypted files before you delete the .crypted versions.

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