Download TrueCrypt 3.1

TrueCrypt is an encryption program that can be used to encrypt physical (a hard disk or a partition) and virtual volumes (a file accessed as a partition). A number of different methods can be used for encryption: AES (256-bit), Blowfish (448-bit), CAST5 (128-bit), Serpent (256-bit), Triple DES and Twofish (256-bit). They can also be used sequentially so that a file is encrypted first with AES and then with Serpent.

The special thing about TrueCrypt is the ability to create a hidden volume in the encrypted disk. This second volume is only visible if the correct password is entered. So if you are forced to give the password, you can only give the password that gives access to the entire encrypted disk. The second hidden volume is then completely invisible. More information about this can be found at this page to be found.

Recently, version 3.1 of TrueCrypt has been released by the development team. Volumes can be opened here as read-only or as removable media. The full changelog looks like this:

Improvements:

• Partitions/devices that are already in use by another driver (usually an anti-virus utility) can now be mounted.
• It is now possible to run multiple instances of the TrueCrypt Volume Creation Wizard.

New features:

• TrueCrypt can now run in ‘traveller’ mode, which means that it does not have to be installed on the operating system under which it is run. There are two ways to run TrueCrypt in ‘traveller’ mode:
• After you unpack the binary distribution archive, you can directly run ‘TrueCrypt.exe’.
• You can use the new ‘Traveller Disk Setup’ facility (accessible from the ‘Tools’ menu) to prepare a special ‘traveller’ disk and launch TrueCrypt from it. This facility can also configure a ‘traveller’ disk in a way that when it is inserted, TrueCrypt is automatically started or a specified volume is mounted (note that this works only when the ‘traveller’ disk is a removable medium such as a CD or DVD; Windows XP SP2 is required in case of USB memory sticks).
• Volumes can now be mounted as read-only. This can be set in the newly implemented ‘Mount Options’ dialog, which can be opened from the password entry dialog or by holding Control while clicking ‘Mount’. (Command line usage: ‘/mountoption ro’)
• Volumes can now be mounted as removable media (for example to prevent Windows from creating the ‘Recycled’ and/or ‘System Volume Information’ folders on the volume). This can be set in the newly implemented ‘Mount Options’ dialog, which can be opened from the password entry dialog or by holding Control while clicking ‘Mount’. (Command line usage: ‘/mountoption rm’)
• Default mount options can be configured in the main program preferences (Tools -> Preferences).
• ‘Refresh Drive Letters’ function added to the tools menu. It can be used when Windows Explorer fails to register a newly mounted volume (for example when it is not shown in the ‘My Computer’ list).
• Volume can now be selected by dragging its icon to the TrueCrypt program window (this also allows to avoid the Windows file selector).
• ‘/auto devices’ auto-mounts all device/partition-hosted TrueCrypt volumes (command line usage).

Bug fixes:

• The ‘Auto-Mount Devices’ facility will not mount ‘phantom’ partitions on some removable media (eg USB memory sticks).
• In some cases TrueCrypt did not use all available space on some removable media (such as USB memory sticks).
  Remark: This bug was inherited from E4M, so it applies also to volumes created by E4M.
• Freezing caused by applications not responding to drive change messages when mounting/dismounting TrueCrypt volumes will no longer occur. Users are now prevented from setting a too small cluster size when creating a FAT volume (which caused various problems).
• The command line parser no longer causes TrueCrypt to crash.
• Other minor bug fixes

[break]The following two downloads are ready:
Truecrypt 3.1 (652KB)
Source Truecrypt 3.1 (564KB)