Welcome to Encrypted Magic Folders (EMF)

Version 98.03a

Encrypted Magic Folders (EMF) provides automated & transparent

encryption. Select folders whose files you want encrypted and EMF

not only makes those folders and files completely invisible to others

but decrypts and encrypts the files automatically and transparently

as you use them. You won't even know you're using encrypted files as

EMF does all the work behind the scenes.

If you wish you can establish five different accounts so everyone

using your computer can create their own invisible folders that only

they have access to.

If you share your computer or own a laptop you need EMF. Use it to

protect files you don't want others to delete, modify, view, or use.

If you have a laptop use it to protect files you wouldn't want others

to get if, heaven forbid, your laptop gets stolen. Keep your

important files safe. Protect them with EMF.

* Why Encryption?

EMF has a smaller brother called Magic Folders that does everything

EMF does except encrypt the files in your hidden folders. (In

addition Magic Folder's registration fee is half that of EMF) Do you

need the extra protection encryption provides? It depends. Magic

Folders does a good job of hiding your folders but the data remains

on your disk in its original format. Specialised disk editing

software that bypasses the operating system can still find your files

and data. In addition, if someone were able to uninstall or disable

Magic Folders then your hidden folders would become visible.

Encryption protects against this. Because the files in your

encrypted folders are encrypted they're protected even if someone

uses a disk editing program or defeats EMF.

* How Secure is it?

EMF's encryption offers good protection and excellent speed. It

hasn't been broken yet. It is, as far as we know, exportable. THERE

IS NO BACKDOOR. Should you forget your password there is nothing we

can do to decrypt your encrypted files.

Quite a few people ask us how big EMF's key size is. They've learned

from other encryption programs that the bigger the key the stronger

the encryption. This really doesn't apply to EMF.

We developed our own encryption instead of using a standard because

we wanted EMF to be able to decrypt at the byte level. In this way

we only need to decrypt/encrypt the data your programs require and

not the entire file.

In theory, because we decrypt at the byte level, the biggest key we

could use would be 8 bits - which is a joke. So instead of

decrypting every hunk of data using the same key, as most other

encryption programs do, we developed an algorithm to vary the key

based on the data's location within the file. In this way we get

both high security and high speed.

Having said that, truth is, most encryption isn't "cracked" by

breaking the algorithm, it's done by guessing the password. Brute

guessing of passwords tends to level the playing field tremendously.

We actually have an advantage because we aren't an established

standard. Because we're small and relatively obscure chances are no

one will take the effort to write a password guessing program (which

incidentally would violate copyright and intellectual property laws.)

Even if someone were to go through all this effort we could easily

change the encryption method for the next update.

If we used an established encryption method like DES or Blowfish then

your files would probably have to be fully decrypted when opened,

would exist on disk as unencrypted while you're using them, and then

would need to be encrypted when closed. This has multiple

disadvantages. First, if your computer shuts down while you have

"encrypted" files open, then those files would be unencrypted. This

doesn't happen with EMF as your encrypted files are always encrypted

as stored on disk. The second disadvantage is that it slows things

down tremendously. As an example, let's say you retrieve your email

and your email program needs to add today's message to the end of

your 3MB email file. If we used a standard encryption method

requiring the decryption of the file before use then the entire 3 MB

file would have to be decrypted, your 300 byte message added to the

end and then the entire file encrypted again. With EMF, no

decryption would need to take place, and the only data needing

encryption would be the 300 byte message. MUCH faster. Around

20,000 times faster in this example!

If you still think you'd like to see us use a standard encryption

method like DES or Blowfish, or have any other suggestions, let us

know and we will consider your input in future updates.

* System Requirements

EMF requires Windows 95. (It runs great with FAT32) Although it will

hide your folders in Win 3.1 and DOS, Auto-Cryption (the automatic

decryption and encryption of files in your encrypted folders) will

not work unless you are in Windows 95. In addition, EMF will not

hide your folders/files in 32 bit file access in Windows for

Workgroups or Windows NT. It's not for use on shared LAN drives.

* Copyright and License

EMF (tm) is copyrighted 1997 by RSE Incorporated. Parts of the

program are proprietary. Do not use the software unless you agree

NOT to unassembled, disassemble, reverse engineer or use any other

means to examine or modify the code of any of its files including

MAGIC.EXE, DISABLE.COM, DECRYPT.EXE, PW.EXE, TB.EXE and MF.EXE.

"Encrypted Magic Folders" is licensed "As is" without any express or

implied warranties whatsoever. In no event shall RSE Inc. be liable

for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage, including

without limitation, special, incidental, consequential or other

damages. Your rights may vary based on your state's laws.

By choosing to install "Encrypted Magic Folders" you signal that you

understand and agree to abide by the above.

* How much?

EMF is shareware. You're freely given this copy in order to evaluate

it. If after a 30 day evaluation period you decide to continue using

EMF then you must become a registered user. You can register

instantly by modem (select "Register Now" under the "Registration"

menu) or by sending the registration fee of $59 plus $2 shipping ($5

overseas) to:

EMF Registration MasterCard or Visa customers:

1157 57th Drive SE http://www.pc-magic.com/register.htm

Auburn, WA 98092 E-mail: [email protected]

USA (253) 939-4105

Make check in US funds drawn on a US or Canadian bank payable to RSE.

You're encouraged to freely distribute copies of EMF.ZIP as long as

you don't modify the files in any way. DO NOT distribute the

individual, extracted, files; only EMF.ZIP.

As a registered user you'll receive these additional benefits:

1. No more annoying messages (and delays) asking you to register.

2. The latest version of EMF.

3. Free updates for 6 months (If you download them)

4. The latest full function evaluation versions of our other

shareware including our popular "Remind Me!" programs.

5. Technical support

6. A sincere "Thank you" for supporting our efforts to develop quality

software and offer it at reasonable prices.

Site licenses are available, as well as quantity discounts. Send

email to [email protected] for details.

If for some reason you decide not to register EMF please send us e-

mail and let us know why. We're always trying to improve our

products.

* Installation

If you haven't already installed EMF you need to do so now. Run

"MAGIC.EXE" from within Windows.

* Disk compression software

If you have disk compression software like Stacker or DoubleDisk make

sure that the line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file that runs EMF (MF.EXE,

or whatever you renamed it during installation) occurs AFTER the line

that loads your disk compression program.

* Selecting your magic folders

Magic folders are folders you want to make invisible. You designate

which folders you want to be magic folders by selecting the "Add"

button at the top of the screen. Click on the desired folder and

then on "Hide" if you just want to hide it but not encrypt it, or

"Hide and Encrypt" if that is your choice.

EMF not only makes the files in your magic folders invisible it also

makes any sub folders invisible too. The same holds true for

encryption. For example, if you designate "C:\TAXES" as a

hidden/encrypted folder then all the files in "C:\TAXES\BUSINESS"

would be hidden and encrypted too.

* Hiding System Folders

We got a lot of requests to allow EMF to hide folders normally hidden

from the user with the System attribute. In this way you can hide

folders such as your "Favourites" list in Netscape and IE4. So

reluctantly I agreed. However keep in mind that we can only hide the

files, we can't control how programs, or Windows, will react when it

can't find your hidden files. All sorts of serious trouble could

occur. If you encounter any problems at all with EMF and you have

hidden System folders (EMF will let you know with a warning when you

attempt to add a System folder to your hidden folder list) then

remove the System folders and see if the problem goes away.

* Making your magic folders invisible

Your magic folders are invisible from the time you start your

computer until the time your computer is turned off unless you

deliberately make them visible as explained below.

* Making your magic folders visible

To make your magic folders visible run EMF (in the Accessories group,

or by pressing the hot-key you established during installation),

enter your password, and then select "Make Folders Visible". This

gives you instant, complete, and normal access to all your files,

including the files in your magic folders. As a shortcut you can

just enter your password and click on the yellow folder button on the

password screen. This will grant you access without taking you into

the full program. It also puts and icon on the taskbar that you can

click to instantly hide your folders without having to start EMF

again. In the Properties menu you can set "PW 'Enter' as icon" to

make pressing Enter after your password act the same as clicking on

the yellow icon.

Likewise, to make your magic folders invisible again just run Magic

Folders, enter your password and select "Make Folders Invisible" or

use the shortcut and just click on the "Please enter your password"

message when prompted for your password. Your magic folders also

become invisible again if your re-boot or turn off your computer.

All the folders/files on your list become visible/invisible when you

select "Make Visible" or "Make Invisible". You don't need to select

the folders you want each time you enter your password. If you only

want certain folders to be visible on your list to be visible and

not all of them (and vice versa) then create separate accounts with

each subset belonging to a different account and password.

* PW.EXE

If you put the PW.EXE file in your \WINDOWS directory then you can

enter your password from the DOS prompt just by enter "pw". Although

I can't imagine how you would use it - a couple of users have asked

that we let them enter the password from a command line. You can use

PW.EXE to do this by appending your password after the "pw". For

example if your password is "hello" you could enter "pw hello" at

the DOS prompt and it would grant you access without you having to

physically type in your password. If so inclined you could put the

"pw hello" in a batch file so that access is granted anytime the

batch file is run.

We have also been asked to add a command line option that would let

you enter your password AND disable Auto-Cryption. This would be

useful for making your files visible for a backup but leaving them

encrypted so the backup copy is of the encrypted files. Simply

append a " /x" to your password to invoke this option. In other

words entering "pw hello /x" would enter the password as "hello" and

disable Auto-Cryption - if the password is correct.

* Special Functions

Selecting "Functions" from the top menu lets you change your

password, switch to another account (if you know its password), and

remove your account. The Master Account can also change EMF's hot-

key, make a new KeyDisk, create new accounts and un-install EMF.

* AutoStart

You can use EMF to control access to your computer by having EMF ask

for a password during boot-up. In this "AutoStart" mode, EMF gets

your password, makes your magic folders visible and then exits.

You have two options when installing AutoStart. Both deal with how

incorrect passwords are handled. The first option lets you attempt

to enter the password just once. If incorrect then the user is

granted access to the computer but all magic folders remain

invisible.

The second option lets you attempt to enter the password three times.

After three tries the computer is shut down. In other words, only

those with Magic Folder accounts will have access to the computer.

In both options AutoStart looks for your KeyDisk if the password is

not valid. Therefore you can still use the KeyDisk to gain access

should you forget your password. And as always, you can use DISABLE

on the KeyDisk to uninstall EMF should you not be able to access EMF

within Windows.

AutoStart just makes your magic folders visible. You still run

EMF (in the Accessories group) to modify your magic folder list and

all other Magic Folder functions.

Enable or disable AutoStart using the "Properties" menu.

* Multiple Accounts

EMF lets you create up to five different accounts, each of whose

magic folders are invisible to the others. In this way each user of

your computer, or member of the family, can have their own magic

folders. You could also use this feature to group similar files

together so that working on one group doesn't expose the others. For

example, one account for financial data, one for business, one for

personal documents, etc..

Only one account's magic folders can be visible at a time. In other

words when someone successfully enters their password, all magic

folders are made invisible. If that person exits by selecting "Make

Folders Invisible" then all magic folders remain invisible. If they

exit with "Make Folders Visible" then only their folders become

visible, all others remain invisible. For example if you make your

folders visible, and your son comes along and uses EMF to make his

folders visible, then yours become invisible.

If you create multiple accounts you can't make all files on the

computer visible at one time without uninstalling EMF. Remember this

when making backups. It also means you don't want to make multiple

accounts if you have a disk fix or defragmenting utility that reports

more errors when folders are invisible than when they're visible (see

WARNING section below).

Only the master account can create new accounts. This doesn't mean

however that the master account has access to all accounts. Each

account can change its password. Let's say you want to give your

spouse a private account. You'd select "Functions" then "Create New

Account" and enter the new account password as requested. You would

then tell your spouse the password you used to establish the account

and they would run EMF using that password, select "Functions", and

select "Change Your Password". Now they have their own account, with

a password only they know.

Unlike the master account which can use the KeyDisk to get access

should the password be forgotten there is no way another account can

make their magic folders visible if they forget their password -

other than uninstalling EMF. Don't forget your password(s)!

* Scrambled Filenames

Filename Scrambling renames the files in your hidden folders to

something non-descript when your folders are hidden. For example,

95BIZTAX.DAT might become ZBAAafA.~^A. The benefit is that if

someone were to disable EMF the names of your files would give no

clue as to their contents.

Unlike file encryption, the unscrambling of filenames does not occur

as you use each file but is done all at once when you enter your

password. Likewise filename scrambling is done when you hide your

folders, shut down, or enter another password. This means you must

wait during these events while the filenames in all your encrypted

folders are scrambled or unscrambled. It also means that if you turn

off the computer (without using Shutdown) while your folders are

visible then your filenames won't be scrambled.

You can enable Scrambling for some or all of your hidden, encrypted

folders.

Note1: Filenames in excess of 190 characters will not be scrambled.

Note2: For files that have long filenames the long filename will be

restored but there is no guarantee that the short filename alias will

be the same. For example, if you have a file called "95 Business

Taxes.DAT" that has an alias of "95BUST~3.DAT", then the long

filename of "95 Business Taxes.DAT" will always be restored but the

alias "95BUST~3.DAT" may not be, as Win95 automatically generates an

alias of its choosing when the file is renamed.

Note3: On some systems (depending on disk size, FAT type, partition

size, and cluster size) the operating system slows down

significantly when unscrambling folders with a lot of files. You may

want to spread files over several directories. On one test we

calculated the time it would take to scramble 1000 filenames. When

all the files were in one directory it took a whopping 31 seconds.

When spit into 2 directories (of 500 files each) it took 16 seconds.

And when split into 4 directories (of 250 files each) it only took 9

seconds. All for the same number of files.

* WARNING

If you use a disk fix or defrag utility other than SCANDISK, DEFRAG,

Norton Disk Doctor, or Norton Speed Disk then you MUST test them to

see if they are safe to use with EMF. The danger is that they may

see the space allocated to your invisible files (including your

password info) and free it thereby deleting all your invisible

folders and files.

With over 150,000 people trying EMF and Magic Folders the only disk

utility we've heard of that becomes confused is CHKDSK.EXE which is

why we disable it so it won't run when EMF is installed (as long as

it is named CHKDSK.EXE). There are situations where you may need to

copy or access CHKDSK. For example, Win95 puts CHKDSK on the

bootable recovery disk it creates. For this reason you can disable

CHKDSK protection in the "Properties" menu thereby making CHKDSK

temporarily accessible.

To test your utilities (if not listed above) : Run your disk fix or

defragmenting utilities when your Magic folders are visible and

invisible. DO NOT FIX ANY ERRORS THEY MAY REPORT. If more errors

are reported when your folders are invisible then do one of the

following:

1. Remove the utilities (so you can't use them) or remove EMF.

2. Use only one account in EMF (just use the Master

Account already created) and move the offending utility into one of

your invisible folders. That way it can only be used when all

folders and files are visible, and thereby safe.

If the errors reported are the same when your magic folders are

hidden as they are when magic folders are visible then you can use

the utility without concern.

If you find an offending utility PLEASE send the results of your

testing to [email protected]

For those interested in the technical details, this is why CHKDSK

(and maybe others) get confused. Disk fix and defragmenting

utilities bypass the operating system and directly examine your disk.

In this way they can see the space allocated for your invisible

files. Instead of directly examining the disk to see which files

belong to this allocated space (as smart utilities do) they instead

ask the operating system. Since the operating system doesn't see

your magic folders when they're invisible these utilities assume the

space allocated to your invisible files should be freed. Freeing

this space will obviously delete your invisible files and folders.

On the other hand if you don't create any additional Magic Folder

accounts except for the Master Account created during installation

then you can put the offending utility into one of your magic

folders. In that way it can only be run when all folders and files

are visible to the operating system.

WARNING TOO!

DON'T hide folders that contain critical system files. By default

your folders are invisible until you use EMF to designate them as

visible. If Windows needs a file that exists only in one of your

hidden folders then it won't be able to find it until you make the

folders visible. If you accidentally hide important system files

then you'll need to run DISABLE on your KeyDisk to uninstall EMF and

then re-install it. See "Problems?" below.

* Things to remember

Moving files out of an encrypted folder:

Files in encrypted folders are encrypted only while they reside in

the encrypted folder. For example, if you make your folders visible

and then copy a file from an encrypted folder to a normal folder the

destination file will be decrypted because it's not in an encrypted

folder. The only exception are files moved to the Recycle Bin (or

Norton's Protected Recycle Bin) as a result of being deleted from an

encrypted folder. These files are not decypted when moved to the

recycle bin. In other words encrypted files deleted from within an

encrypted folder will also be encrypted in the Recycle Bin.

Backups:

Some backup programs won't backup your magic folders unless they are

visible. Remember, if you have multiple accounts you can't make all

files visible at once, you can only make the magic folders of one

account visible at a time.

Because files are only encrypted within an encrypted folder, copying

a file from an encrypted folder to an unencrypted folder decrypts the

file. This is true for backups as well. You can get around this by

disabling "Auto-Cryption" from within the "Properties" menu. This

temporarily disables the automatic decryption of your encrypted files

thereby allowing your backup program to copy them to your backup disk

without EMF automatically decrypting them first. You can also use

this function to verify that files in your encrypted folders are

really encrypted.

You can also use PW.EXE to enter your password and disable Auto-

Cryption from DOS or a batch file in preparation for doing a backup.

See the PW.EXE section above.

Networks:

Do not use EMF on a file server for a LAN. The files in your

encrypted folders will always be encrypted of course but the LAN will

be able to see your hidden folders.

However, EMF works great protecting files on your local workstation's

drives that are not accessible to the LAN.

Win95 "Boot to DOS":

If you exit Win95 by booting to DOS the visibility of your magic

folders remains the same in DOS as they were when you exited Win95

but the files in your encrypted folders won't decrypt as you use

them.

Shortcut:

If you've made your magic folders visible and you want to make them

invisible again, just start EMF and click on the "Please enter your

password" message.

Another Shortcut:

You can just enter your password and click on the yellow folder

button on the password screen. This will grant you access without

taking you into the full program.

Another Shortcut:

If you exit EMF by clicking on the yellow folder button on the Main

Screen, then not only will your magic folders be visible, but the

"Hide M-folders" icon will appear on the Task Bar. You need only

click on this "Hide M-folders" icon and your magic folders will be

instantly hidden. Notice that the "Hide M-folders" description only

appears for 5 seconds and then disappears leaving no evidence that

EMF is present.

Changing the Hot-Key:

If Windows doesn't honor our request to establish a hot-key (or

change it using "Change HotKey" in the Functions menu) then you'll

need to do it manually:

Right click on "Start"

Click on "Open"

Double click on the "Programs" folder

Double click on the "Accessories" folder

Right click on the Encrypted Magic Folders icon

Select "Properties"

Click on the "Shortcut" tab

Change the "Shortcut key"

Click on "OK" to finish

* Making EMF tougher to defeat

Note: As there are multiple options, please read this whole section

before making a decision as to what, if any, method you will

implement.

EMF does a great job of keeping your files protected and invisible if

its loaded and running. If no one knows EMF is running then they

won't have any reason to defeat it. EMF is totally transparent to

the non-authorised user . If we broadcast the fact EMF is protecting

your files then a nosy user could try to disable it. This isn't

as much of a concern with EMF as it is with Magic Folders because even

if someone disables EMF and your files become visible your encrypted

files still remain encrypted.

However, if you wish, there are things you can do to make EMF more

difficult to defeat. During installation MF.EXE is renamed to the

new name you give it. You can make multiple copies of this renamed

file, giving each copy a different name, putting them in different

directories, and running each of the different copies from within

your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Someone would then have to remove all

references to the renamed EMF files in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file before

EMF would be defeated. Don't worry about loading Magic Folders

multiple times as it only loads itself once regardless of how many

times it is run.

You can also use this "multiple load using different names" method in

the SYSTEM.INI file. Look for the section "[386Enh]" and add a line

underneath it that says "device=" followed by the full pathname of

the renamed MF.EXE file. For example, if during installation you

rename EMF to SYS_MGR, and the Encrypted Magic Folders files are in

C:\MF, then you would add the line: "device=c:\mf\sys_mgr.exe".

This is only useful in Win95.

You can also use REGEDIT.EXE to modify the registry files. If you

don't know what the Registry is or how to use RegEdit, or you don't

understand the following directions, then DON'T try this. DO NOT ask

us for help if you mess up your registry. Microsoft technical

support won't even take calls on the registry. You're on your own.

Windows 95 depends heavily on the registry so ALWAYS backup the

registry files (SYSTEM.DAT SYSTEM.DA0 USER.DAT USER.DA0) to a floppy

before modifying the registry. Use REGEDIT to hi-lite the

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/VXD

key. Making sure you've selected the "VXD" key select "Edit" then

"New" then "Key" and enter whatever you want the key to be named.

Double click on your new key to open it. Then select "Edit", "New",

and "String Value" and enter "StaticVxD". Then double click on the

"StaticVxD" and enter the full pathname of the renamed MF.EXE file.

Since most people aren't stupid enough to mess with the Registry,

and you're hiding the purpose of this key fairly well, this is a

fairly secure method of assuring that EMF runs whenever Windows 95

does. Note: Win95 Safe Mode doesn't use the registry, but EMF uses

another method to load in Safe Mode.

You can protect against someone booting from a floppy system disk by

having your BIOS boot only from C: drive and then password protect

access to your BIOS. Then if you need to boot from A: you enter the

password to modify your BIOS, change the BIOS to allow booting from

A:, and then reboot with the system disk in A:. Not all BIOS can be

password protected. If you don't understand this paragraph then

don't do it. You really don't want to get locked out of your BIOS.

If you decide to load EMF using any of these methods keep in mind

that using the "Uninstall" Utility within EMF (or DISABLE on your

KeyDisk) only un-installs the initial copy of EMF. You'll need to

manually remove all other references to the renamed MF.EXE file in

your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (and SYSTEM.INI and Registry if appropriate).

* Uninstalling EMF

You can uninstall EMF using the "Uninstall" function within the

"Functions" menu inside EMF or by using DISABLE on your KeyDisk. If

you have multiple accounts with encrypted folders then you'll need to

go to each account and use the "Remove this account" function in

"Functions" to remove each encrypted account before uninstalling. If

you orphan any encrypted files (this could happen if you have

multiple accounts with encrypted folders and you use DISABLE to

uninstall) then run "DECRYPT.EXE" to decrypt them.

If you've done any of the things described in the previous section to

make EMF harder to defeat then you'll need to undo those things

manually - EMF does not undo them for you automatically.