Table of Contents

Installation

How to make sure the VeraCrypt installation file is legitimate

Go to the VeraCrypt website (https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html) to download the Windows installer. Since you will be securing sensitive data, VeraCrypt points out that an attacker might have found a way to modify or replace the installer in order to gain access to your data. It is thus good practice to verify if the installer is legitimate or not. To do so, you want to verify the digital signature of the installer by following these steps:

  1. Download the .exe installer.
  2. After having downloaded the installer, right-click the VeraCrypt Setup[…].exe file and select Properties from the context menu.
  3. In Properties, select the Digital Signatures tab.
  4. In Digital Signatures, under Signature list, double-click the line saying IDRIX or IDRIX SARL.
  5. The Digital Signature Details dialog window should appear. Look for the sentence “This digital signature is OK.” on the top of the dialog window. If the sentence is not displayed, then the file is very likely corrupted.

IMPORTANT: On some older, obsolete versions of Windows, some of the necessary certificates are missing, which is the reason the signature verification fails. Please consider using up-to-date versions of Windows.

For more information on this or a different way of verifying the digital signature of the installer, refer to the Digital Signatures section in the VeraCrypt manual.

VeraCrypt Installation

  1. Launch the VeraCrypt Setup.exe file.
  2. Select your preferred language. Please keep in mind that this manual is written in English for the English version of VeraCrypt.
  3. Carefully read and accept the VeraCrypt License Agreement. NB: The license states among other things that the user is responsible for the data and the correct working of the software.
  4. This installation procedure expects you to want to install VeraCrypt on your machine. Should you want/need to have it in portable mode (in order to not provide hints that you are storing encrypted data on your machine), please consult with the DCC (dcc@rug.nl).
  5. Follow the installation instructions in the pictures below:

Unselect the Install for all users option (underlined in blue) if you would like to only have it available for one user, but we don’t recommend you do so.

Click Finish (red box) and select NO for all options prompted by the installer. Should you need to adapt your Windows configuration for VeraCrypt, you will do so with assistance from an expert (as it is required mainly for System Encryption).

→ Move to the next step