AES Crypt on Windows

Graphical User Interface (GUI) Usage

AES Crypt can be used in one of two ways via the Windows desktop. The first is by launching the AES Crypt application from the start menu and the other is by using the file context menu. Each will be discussed below.

Launching AES Crypt

When you install AES Crypt, an application icon is added to the start menu. If you run the AES Crypt application from the start menu, you will see a window open that looks like the Windows File Explorer. The title will say "AES Crypt" and instructs you to select one or more files.

Navigate to the location of the files you want to encrypt or decrypt. You can select just one file or as many files as you wish. Once the files are selected, click "Open" and you will then see the password dialog window. Enter the password to encrypt or decrypt and AES Crypt will then encrypt or decrypt each of the selected files, placing the output in the same folder as the original file, either appending the .aes file extension when encrypting or removing the .aes extension when decrypting.

File Context Menu

To encrypt a file via the file context menu, right-click on the file you wish to encrypt, select the "AES Encrypt" option, and enter the desired password. (The "AES Encrypt" menu option is under the "Show more options" sub-menu on Windows 11. You can open that menu directly by holding the Shift key while right-clicking.)

After clicking "OK", AES Crypt will produce an encrypted file with the same name as the original file, but with an ".aes" extension. You can also identify that it's an encrypted file, as the file icon will look like a piece of paper with a lock icon on the bottom-right corner and the letters "AES" on the upper-left of the icon (depicted in the figure below).

Note that when you encrypt a file with AES Crypt, it does not delete the original file. Generally, people encrypt files for the purpose of sending a file securely via e-mail or copying it to a portable storage device that is more susceptible to loss. As such, most people do not want to delete the original. You may delete the original file: just do not forget the password. It is impossible to recover the contents of an encrypted file if the password is lost.

Decrypting an encrypted file just as easy. To decrypt the file via the file context menu, you right-click on the encrypted file, select the "AES Decrypt" option (again, this will be under the "Show more options" sub-menu on Windows 11 or via Shift and right-click) and enter the password used to encrypt the file when prompted. You may also double-click on an encrypted AES file to launch AES Crypt.

You may encrypt or decrypt multiple files at once using the same password by selecting a collection of files and right-clicking on one of the selected files to show the AES Encrypt/Decrypt menu option.

Command-Line Usage

AES Crypt for the command-line works the same way on all platforms. See the command line instructions for usage.