Installing PGP Desktop in OS X
PGP Desktop can encrypt files into a format that is decryptable on both OS X and Windows versions of the software. This allows an OS X user to exchange encrypted files with a Windows user and vice-versa. PGP Desktop is sold as a commmercial product, but you can run the software in "freeware" mode which allows you to use the software for non-commercial use but with a lot of the features of the paid version of the software disabled. Enough of the software features remain enabled in the freeware mode to allow basic encryption/decryption of files between Windows and OS X.
Installing PGP Desktop
1. Download the free 30 Day Trial of PGP Desktop for Mac OS X.
You can download the program from the PGP company website by clicking here.
- Do not pick the "Enterprise Edition" of PGP Desktop. You only need to download the PGP software titled "PGP Desktop Trial Software".
2. Install PGP Desktop Trial Edition
Decompress the installer file archive that you downloaded in the previous step. You can do this by double-clicking the file archive. After decompressing the file archive, there should be a folder on your desktop that you can open up so that you can start the installer program. Double-click on the installer program to begin running the setup program.
Click Continue to proceed with the installation.
Read the license agreement and then press Continue. Click Agree to agree to the terms of the license agreement and proceed with the installation.
Select the hard drive that you want to install the program onto and then press Continue.
Click Install to install the program files to your computer.
If prompted, enter your username and password and then click OK. If your username and password will not work, then that means you do not have the necessary privileges to install programs on the computer. Contact the computer's administrator to have the program installed onto it.
Click Finish to close the installation program. NOTE: Depending on the version of PGP you are installing, instead of the following two screens below, you may see one that prompts you to restart your computer. Go ahead and restart your computer if prompted.
If the "Setup Assistant" window pops up, click Cancel and then click Yes in the Exit confirmation window that appears.
3. Disable email and AOL encryption services since they are not available in freeware mode and leaving them on will result in error messages in your email application.
The PGP Desktop program should be in your Application folder. Open up the Applications folder by clicking Go on the top OS X menu bar. Then click Applications.
In the Applications window, scroll until you find the PGP program and then double-click on it to start the PGP program.
A "nag screen" will appear reminding you that you have not entered a license for PGP Desktop and you are running it in freeware mode. Click Cancel in this window.
A window will pop up asking you to confirm that you want to run the software with "features disabled". Click OK. If after clicking OK you see a window pop up called "Setup Assistant", click the cancel button in the lower left hand corner to cancel the setup assistant.
On the top menu of the PGP Desktop program, click PGP. Then click Preferences...
In the Preferences window, click the Messaging option.
Disable all options in this window by unchecking the options Secure Email and Encrypt AOL Instant Messages. If the options under Secure Email and Encrypt AOL Instant Messages are greyed out and you can't uncheck them, that is OK because unchecking Secure Email and Encrypt AOL Instant Messages disables those options which is the same as unchecking them.
4. Quit the PGP Desktop program.
In the PGP Desktop program, click the top menu option PGP. Then click Quit PGP Desktop.
5. The PGP Desktop program is now installed.
Notice that there is now a PGP Desktop icon in the top menu bar of OS X. This indicates that the PGP Desktop program is installed on the computer and you can quickly access some of the common features of PGP Desktop by clicking on this icon.
