LibreCrypt: Open-Source disk encryption for Windows

Portable Mode

Portable mode allows you to use LibreCrypt without first installing it on your computers hard drive.

To start portable mode, simply:

1. Unzip the LibreCrypt_portable.zip file to wherever you want
2. When logged on as a user with administrator rights, double-click on "LibreCrypt.exe" (the file with the black box icon).
3. Click on the menu Tools->Allow Test-signed Drivers.
4. Reboot.
5. Restart LibreCrypt and click on the "world" icon on the toolbar

To stop portable mode, select the "Tools | Portable mode drivers" option, or select the "world" icon on the toolbar again.

No files are copied to your hard drive when starting/stopping portable mode.

Administrator rights are required in order to start and stop portable mode. You can still use LibreCrypt on a computer which you do not have Administrator rights on, but will need to ask an Administrator to install it for you first; see the installation section for further details. Alternatively, use LibreCrypt Explorer instead - which doesn't need drivers at all

You can check to see which drivers are operating in portable mode by clicking "File -> Drivers..." - those drivers currently running in portable mode are with a small "world" icon to the left of their names.

IMPORTANT: Stopping portable mode when any containers are open in portable mode can cause unexpected results - it is recommended that you lock all Boxes before stopping portable mode.

For safety reasons, drivers installed in portable mode are installed such that if you reboot your system without first stopping portable mode via the LibreCrypt interface, those drivers will not automatically start up when your computer comes back up. If they were automatically restarted, and your portable drivers were stored on removable media which was taken out while rebooting, possible problems could occur during your boot sequence.

Because of this, if you exit LibreCrypt without stopping all portable mode drivers, and then reboot your computer, you will find that the next time you launch LibreCrypt, the "Portable mode drivers" menu-item will appear checked as LibreCrypt detects your portable mode drivers. If you select this menu-item, the previous portable mode drivers should be stopped and uninstalled as per normal; clearing this menu-item, ready for you to restart portable mode.

You may wish to run LibreCrypt from removable media such as a USB flash drive. This way, your copy of LibreCrypt can easily be transported and used on different computers.

To do this, the following files should be copied onto your flash drive:

1. The main LibreCrypt GUI: "LibreCrypt.exe"
2. The main FreeOTFE driver: "FreeOTFE.sys"
3. At least one hash driver: "FreeOTFEHashXYZ.sys"
4. At least one cypher driver: "FreeOTFECypherXYZ.sys"

There is a menu item - "Copy to portable Disc", that does this automatically.

Please note that if you attempt to start portable mode on a computer which already has one or more of the LibreCrypt drivers installed, LibreCrypt will display an error stating that it cannot start the relevant driver in portable mode - which is hardly surprising if it's already there!