TrueCrypt is a software system for establishing and maintaining an on-the-fly-encrypted drive. On-the-fly encryption means that data are automatically encrypted or decrypted right before they are loaded or saved, without any user intervention. No data stored on an encrypted volume can be read (decrypted) without using the correct password or correct encryption key. Until decrypted, a TrueCrypt volume appears to be nothing more than a series of random numbers. The entire file system is encrypted (i.e., file names, folder names, contents of every file, and free space).
New features:
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Hardware-accelerated AES (for more information, see the chapter Hardware Acceleration).
Note: If you want to disable hardware acceleration, select Settings > Performance and disable the option "Accelerate AES encryption/decryption by using the AES instructions of the processor". -
A volume can now be configured to be automatically mounted whenever its host device gets connected to the computer (provided that the correct password and/or keyfiles are supplied). (Windows)
Note: For example, if you have a TrueCrypt container on a USB flash drive and you want to configure TrueCrypt to mount it automatically whenever you insert the USB flash drive into the USB port, follow these steps: 1. Mount the volume. 2. Right-click the mounted volume in the drive list in the main TrueCrypt window and select "Add to Favorites". 3. The Favorites Organizer window should appear. In it, enable the option "Mount selected volume when its host device gets connected" and click OK.
Also note that TrueCrypt will not prompt you for a password if you have enabled caching of the pre-boot authentication password (Settings > "System Encryption") and the volume uses the same password as the system partition/drive. The same applies to cached non-system volume passwords. -
Partition/device-hosted volumes can now be created on drives that use a sector size of 4096, 2048, or 1024 bytes (Windows, Linux). Note: Previously only file-hosted volumes were supported on such drives.
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Favorite Volumes Organizer (Favorites > "Organize Favorite Volumes" or "Organize System Favorite Volumes"), which allows you to set various options for each favorite volume. For example, any of them can be mounted upon logon, as read-only or removable medium, can be assigned a special label (which is shown within the user interface instead of the volume path), excluded from hotkey mount, etc. The order in which favorite volumes are displayed in the Favorites Organizer window can be changed and it is the order in which the volumes are mounted (e.g. when Windows starts or by pressing the "Mount Favorite Volumes" hotkey). For more information, see the chapters Favorite Volumes and System Favorite Volumes. (Windows)
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The Favorites menu now contains a list of your non-system favorite volumes. When you select a volume from the list, you are asked for its password (and/or keyfiles) (unless it is cached) and if it is correct, the volume is mounted. (Windows)