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SHAREWARE NOTICE All programs and accompanying files which constitute PC Padlock are copyrighted software, to which Del Mar Software retains all ownership and rights. You may freely distribute this software, as long as all files are included and free of modification. All copyright notices must remain intact. It is being distributed here as shareware, and Del Mar Software grants you the right to freely use it for a period of thirty (30) days. If after this trial period you find it to be of value and wish to continue using it, you must purchase a copy by registering your shareware. Failure to abide by the above criteria is a violation of 17 United States Code sections 101 through 810. There are several additional benefits gained from registering. These include: * A professionally printed and bound User's Manual. * Free automatic updates for a period of six months on minor releases, with reduced prices on major releases. * Advance notice and reduced prices on new products. * Unlimited free technical support via a toll-free telephone number. Del Mar Software makes no warranties of any kind with regard to the program or printed matter comprising the product. This includes, but is not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and any damages arising from the use of this product, whether consequential or incidental. PC PADLOCK REGISTRATION FORM Your name : _________________________________________________________________ Company name : ______________________________________________________________ Address : ___________________________________________________________________ City : _____________________________ State : __________ Zip : _______________ Please send $20.00 in cash, check, or money order to : Del Mar Software 1551 Old Mill Crossing Marietta, GA 30062 Please specify which media you prefer : [] 5 1/4" DD (360K) [] 5 1/4" HD (1.2 Meg) [] 3 1/2" HD (1.44 Meg) PC PADLOCK (TM) Copyright (c) 1992 Del Mar Software USER'S MANUAL PC PADLOCK (TM) is a trademark of Del Mar Software CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 2 INSTALLATION PROCEDURE 3 The installation directory 3 Copying files 3 Path statement 3 RUNNING PC PADLOCK 4 Using PC Padlock 4 Disk locking 5 Disk encryption 5 File encryption 6 Disk unlocking 6 Obtaining disk status 7 APPLYING PC PADLOCK 8 Maximum protection 8 Medium protection 8 Minimum protection 8 Special cases 8 Other uses 8 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES 9 PC Padlock command line switches 9 Automatic padlock 9 IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY 10 INTRODUCTION Thank you for your purchase of PC Padlock from Del Mar Software. PC Padlock provides the user with a floppy disk locking system for DOS-based computers. Once locked, a disk's contents cannot be viewed, edited, deleted, or even listed by any DOS command or application program. This is especially useful in protecting data disks used for word processors, spreadsheets, desktop publishers, financial software, and any other application that writes data to a floppy. Any confidential information is safe from prying eyes with PC Padlock. In addition to locking, disks may also be encrypted, protecting them from all disk repair utilities. Would-be thiefs and snoops with your disk, the expertise, and time on their hands will never see your confidential data. PC Padlock also includes file encryption, which makes text files unreadable and program files unexecutable. Wildcards are accepted to allow encrypting multiple files in one pass. Although PC Padlock is a DOS application, it may be run as such from within Microsoft Windows V3.0 or higher. -1- SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS * Any IBM or 100% compatible machine. * MS-DOS version 2.1 or higher. * At least 64K of available (free) RAM memory. * Any monitor, although color is supported if available. * A drive with at least 70K of free disk space to hold the program. -2- INSTALLATION PROCEDURE THE INSTALLATION DIRECTORY First, decide in which directory you want to place the program file. It can be an existing directory you have already set up for miscellaneous utility files, or an entirely new one. If you decide to place the file in a new directory, it is advisable to place it directly under root. For example, if the name of this new directory is "pcpadlok", simply enter "mkdir \pcpadlok" from the DOS command line. COPYING FILES You now need to copy the ".exe" file into the chosen directory. To do this, first change to the directory where the program file is now. Then, use the copy command from DOS to place it in the proper directory. For example, let's say the program file is currently in a directory called "c:\download", and you wish to copy it to the "c:\pcpadlok" directory. First, enter "chdir \download" from DOS to change to the directory containing the file. Next, enter "copy padlock.exe \pcpadlok" to copy the file. PATH STATEMENT The path is a list of directories which tells DOS where to search for programs that aren't contained in the current directory. The path is usually defined in your autoexec.bat file, which activates it every time you boot your computer. Including the installation directory in your path enables you to run the programs regardless of what directory you are currently in. If your chosen installation directory is not in your current path, you will need to add it to the path statement in your autoexec.bat file. Using your favorite text editor, find the line in the file that begins with "path" or "path=". Then, add ";c:\pcpadlok" to the end of this line. If no such line appears in your file, or you have no such file in your root directory, insert the line "path c:\pcpadlok", creating the file to hold it if necessary. If your chosen installation directory is not "pcpadlok", substitute the correct name in the above examples. -3- RUNNING PC PADLOCK PC Padlock enables the user to lock floppy disks, preventing their contents from being viewed, edited, deleted, or even listed. This is useful for data disks used with word processors, spreadsheets, desktop publishers, or any other application that writes data to a floppy. If these disks contain confidential information, it can be safeguarded with a password to protect it from curious or prying eyes. Also, disk encryption may be used to safeguard every file on the disk - even the deleted ones! This encryption may also be used on an unlocked disk to protect any number of individual files from viewing. For a brief description of the command, type padlock /? at the DOS prompt for a help message. The normal way to start PC Padlock is to simply enter "padlock a:" from DOS. If the drive containing the disk to be locked is not in the A drive, replace the "a:" with the appropriate drive letter followed by a colon. NOTE If you get a "Bad command or file name" error from DOS, it probably means that you did not let the installation program modify your path to include the installation directory, or you have not rebooted your computer since installation to let the new path take effect. Refer to the INSTALLATION chapter preceding this one for the importance of doing these things and the consequences of not. If you find that you need to modify your path now, edit your autoexec.bat file located in the hard disk's root directory. Find the line that begins with "path " or "path=" and then add ";c:\pcpadlok" to the end of the line. If no such line exists, add the line "path c:\pcpadlok" at the top of the file. (If your installation directory is not "pcpadlok", enter the correct directory in the preceding examples.) USING PC PADLOCK To run the program, enter "padlock a:" at the DOS prompt. If the floppy disk is not in the A drive, replace the "a:" in the command with the correct drive letter and a colon. If you enter a non-existent or hard drive letter, you will be informed that locking this disk is not possible. First, the disk is checked to see if it is unlocked. If it is, you are presented with three choices - Disk locking, File encryption, or Quit. If you choose disk locking, you will then be asked for permission to encrypt the disk. If the disk was locked, you are asked for permission to unlock it (disk decryption then starts automatically if needed). NOTE You may only use PC Padlock on disks that have the same density as the drive itself. In other words, 360K floppies may not be padlocked in a 1.2 meg drive, nor can 720K floppies be padlocked in a 1.44 meg drive. Attempts to lock or use encryption on low density disks in a high density drive may result in a loss of disk contents and integrity. -4- DISK LOCKING If you lock the disk, you will be prompted for a password which cannot exceed twelve characters in length. You will then be asked to re-enter the password, to make sure you typed correctly the first time. Bear in mind that this password is case sensitive. This means that lower case letters are considered different from upper case ones - the word "safety" is not the same password as "SAFETY". NOTE It is extremely important to remember the password you use for locking a floppy disk. If there is any possibility of losing the password, you may want to write it down somewhere in a safe place away from the computer. Once a disk is locked, there is no way of determining what password was used. If you should forget the password, your only recourse is to send the floppy disk to Del Mar Software. We will unlock the disk and return it to you for a ten dollar service charge. DISK ENCRYPTION After locking, you will be asked for permission to encrypt the disk. Although this process may take a while, it is a good idea to encrypt a disk that may fall into the hands of others for an extended period of time. Disks that will be stored, transported, or otherwise left unattended for long periods fall into this category. You may ask, "Why encrypt the disk if the disk is locked?" The reason is quite simple. Although a locked disk cannot be accessed by any DOS command or application program, there are a few disk repair utilities on the market that can "fix" the disk and make it readable to DOS once again. Although the disk will not be returned to it's original condition, there is a possibility that raw file data may still be viewed. No locking technology available today can avoid this, as these utilities bypass DOS and talk directly to the disk. Disk encryption ensures that if a would-be snoop has the time, expertise, and resources to get that far, the data he views will be indecipherable. Disk encryption may not be run on a disk that contains encrypted files with their own individual passwords (see the following section in this chapter). If the disk contains any encrypted files, you will be informed that disk encryption is not possible. Disk encryption may take less than two minutes or up to ten, depending upon the size of the disk and the number of files it contains. The entire disk is scanned, and all active files are encrypted. In addition, all deleted files are cleared, because DOS V5.0 and some utility programs can "undelete" files, making them accessible again. Clearing assures that no data will be made available to someone who "repairs" a locked disk and then undeletes files. Because of this clearing process, you must be sure there are no deleted files you may want to undelete later. If there are, you must undelete the files before starting disk encryption. If a file deleted before encryption is undeleted after decryption, it's contents will only be a few stray characters, NOT the original data. -5- As the disk is encrypted, a meter will appear on the screen to show you the completion percentage of the process. Once one hundred percent has been reached, a message informs you that the disk is locked and encrypted. Note that if you ask DOS to give you a directory of a disk immediately after locking, the files may list out, appearing as though the disk is not locked. This is normal, and happens on systems which use some form of "directory caching". These systems, to avoid taking up time re-reading a disk, will store it's directory in RAM memory. If the computer knows you have not removed or written to the disk since the last directory request, it will merely take the information from RAM for faster response. To satisfy yourself that the disk is indeed locked, you may open and close the disk door and then ask for another directory listing of the floppy. This time, you will get a DOS error instead of a file listing, which is the normal response from a locked disk. FILE ENCRYPTION If you choose file encryption from the three choices presented for an unlocked disk, you will then be asked to enter a file name. This file name may contain wildcards, to allow encrypting more than one file at a time. For example, if you wish to encrypt all files with an extension of ".txt", you should enter "*.txt" for the file name. Consult your DOS manual if you need further assistance using wildcards in file names. For each file found, you will be asked to enter a password. It cannot exceed eight characters in length, and like a disk locking password, it is case sensitive. If you are decrypting files, you will be given two chances to input the correct password. After that, the program returns to DOS. If you have Menu Pro installed on your computer, the presence of it's environment variable will signal PC Padlock to store any failed attempts to decrypt a file. The next time you run Menu Pro, you will be notified of these attempts. Note that individual file encryption does not work like disk locking - the file may still be viewed, edited, or even deleted. Viewing or editing will do little good, however, as the data will bear no resemblance to the original and be indecipherable to the user. You should only use individual file encryption to prevent someone from seeing the contents of a file. If there is a chance someone may delete the file, you should lock the disk instead. DISK UNLOCKING If you unlock the disk, you will be asked to input the password you used to lock the disk. You will be given two chances to enter the correct password, to allow for mistyping. If you have Menu Pro installed on your computer, the presence of it's environment variable will signal PC Padlock to store any failed attempts to unlock a floppy disk. The next time you run Menu Pro, you will be notified of these attempts. -6- If disk decryption is needed, a meter will appear on screen to display the progress of the operation. When done, a message informs you that the disk is unlocked and ready to use. OBTAINING DISK STATUS There may be times when you only need to know the status of a floppy disk - whether it is locked or not, and what encrypted files it may contain. An example of this would be if PC Padlock refused to encrypt a disk because it contained encrypted files. You might want to know which files were encrypted, so you could decrypt them and go back and encrypt the disk. To obtain this status, enter "padlock a: /s" from the DOS command line. If the disk is not in the A drive, replace the "a:" in the above command with the proper drive letter followed by a colon. If the disk is locked, you will be informed of that fact. If not, you will also be given a list of all encrypted files on the disk, if any. -7- APPLYING PC PADLOCK PC Padlock's features may be used individually or combined, tailoring it's use to your particular needs. Here are a few suggestions : MAXIMUM PROTECTION You have a data disk which contains confidential company information - trade secrets, formulas, patent information, software source code, or other such data. It is not accessed on a daily basis, and therefore stored somewhere. You should lock and encrypt the disk. MEDIUM PROTECTION You have a disk which contains company data - projections, sales, new product information, or other similar data. It is accessed several times a day, but never leaves your office. You are certain no unauthorized personnel will have access to the disk for extended periods of time during the day. You should keep the disk locked and encrypted overnight. During the day while it is being used, however, you may only opt for locking alone. MINIMUM PROTECTION You have personal data on a disk at work or home which you wish to keep private. It is accessed many times during the day, so you need a protection scheme that is quick and easy. You only wish to keep the data safe from any casual users who may inadvertently place the disk in your drive. In this case, locking only should meet your needs. SPECIAL CASES You use a data disk that is used by others, and wish to keep your files on that disk private. You should use file encryption on the desired files. You are giving someone a test via floppy disk. The disk contains reference material, the test itself, and the answers. You need to make sure the user cannot read the file containing the answers until he has completed the test. You should encrypt the answer file, and give the user the password when you deem appropriate. OTHER USES With a little imagination, the uses for PC Padlock can be limitless. Always bear in mind, though, that any disk that may fall into unfriendly hands for extended periods of time needs to be encrypted for maximum protection. -8- ADVANCED TECHNIQUES This chapter is for users who are experienced with computers and software in general, and who what to get the most possible out of PC Padlock. The casual user may not utilize these techniques. PC PADLOCK COMMAND LINE SWITCHES /s - (status) causes PC Padlock to display the lock status of a disk. If unlocked, it also lists all encrypted files contained on the disk. /bZZ - (background) changes the background color of the input, error, and message boxes to the specified value, where ZZ is the color number. This switch is used by PC Padlock is to provide compatibility with Menu Pro, and will probably not be very useful outside of that. Still, it is listed here for your information, and you may utilize it if you find a need for it. These color numbers are the same ones displayed by Menu Pro's color palette box. They are listed below for your reference : 0 - black 8 - gray 1 - blue 9 - light blue 2 - green 10 - light green 3 - cyan 11 - light cyan 4 - red 12 - light red 5 - magenta 13 - light magenta 6 - brown 14 - yellow 7 - white 15 - bright white AUTOMATIC PADLOCK Many users will want to unlock their disk, run an application, and relock the disk when done. Instead of entering three commands from DOS to do this, you may create a batch file to accomplish the task. Let's say your drive containing the data disk is the A drive, and you normally type in "spreadsheet info.doc" to run your application. You may create the following batch file called "spread" with any text editor : padlock a: spreadsheet info.doc padlock a: Now all you have to do is enter "spread" from DOS to unlock, use your application, and relock the disk. If the name of the data file you work on changes periodically, you may replace the second line of the batch file with "spreadsheet %1". This allows you to enter "spread filename" from DOS, where "filename" is the name of the desired data file. -9- IN CASE OF DIFFICULTY DOS GIVES A "Bad command or file name" ERROR WHEN I TRY TO RUN PC PADLOCK. The directory which contains the program (the installation directory) is probably not in your current path. To check this, type "path" from the DOS prompt. If the installation directory does not appear in the list DOS responds with, you need to add it to your path. Refer to the note at the beginning of the RUNNING PC PADLOCK chapter on how to do this. PC PADLOCK DOES NOT RUN, GIVING AN "Abnormal program termination" ERROR. You may have entered an invalid path name or have a DOS version earlier than V2.1. Less likely, you may be using a color video card that has insufficient memory to support video paging. PC PADLOCK WILL NOT RECOGNIZE MY PASSWORD, ALTHOUGH I AM SURE IT IS CORRECT. All passwords used in PC Padlock are case sensitive. That means that lower case letters, such as "abcdef", are considered different characters from upper case ones, such as "ABCDEF". Hit the Caps Lock key and try your password again. If this does not work, it is either the incorrect password, or you may have mixed lower and upper case letters in the password (although this is unlikely). There is absolutely no method to view, edit, or delete the password. Please refer to the note in the DISK LOCKING section of the RUNNING PC PADLOCK chapter for more information. PC PADLOCK GIVES A "cannot read disk" ERROR, BUT I AM SURE IT IS FORMATTED, IN THE DRIVE, AND THE DRIVE DOOR IS CLOSED. The floppy disk is probably not the correct density - double density drives can only lock double density disks, and high density drives can only lock high density disks. Attempts to lock low density disks in a high density drive may result in a loss of disk contents and integrity. I AM STILL UNABLE TO SOLVE MY PROBLEM. HOW MAY I RECEIVE TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE? Simply call Del Mar Software at (404) 977-0419. Or, you may leave mail on CompuServe to user ID # 76570,3342. IS THIS VERSION OF PC PADLOCK COMPATIBLE WITH EARLIER VERSIONS? Yes and no. This version, PC Padlock V1.3, will unlock disks locked with any earlier version. However, disks locked with V1.3 cannot be unlocked by these earlier versions. And of course, since earlier versions did not offer encryption, you cannot decrypt files with them. Your conversion from an earlier version is simple - merely unlock the old disks with the new V1.3 and continue to use this version. -10-