I’ve been waiting for an extension like this for years. FireGPG lets you encrypt, decrypt, sign and verify text using GPG from the context menu. Currently, it only works with Gmail, but that’s fine since that’s what I use for most of my important email.

At some point last year, I switched from Gmail’s browser interface to using it with Thunderbird, so I could make use of the Enigmail extension, as well as pull in all my other email addresses (work, domains, spam-pits) in one place and I think I’ll continue to use it, but the ability to just browse to Gmail and not have to copy, paste, fire up a terminal, copy and paste again is absolutely great.

FireGPG currently works with Windows and Linux. OSX is out of luck, but I see on that on the exension’s page that the developers are actively looking for help in porting it. Awesome.

Dongle! It’s true, the only purpose of this post is to use “dongle” as many times as possible. Dongle, dongle, dongle. *sigh*

Seriously though, daveb has been struggling all day with a technical conundrum and endless googling turned up scarce and confusing info. Having finally figured it out, he feels bound to post the steps as simply as he can so that other brain-damaged squirrel humpers like himself can get the job done. With that said, daveb presents to you:

How to install your GPG keys to a USB dongle for WIN XP

1. Install the latest binary version of GnuPG
2. Attach your USB dongle and create a folder named keys, or whatever’s appropriate for you. If you have pre-existing keyrings, place them here.
3. Open REGEDIT (START > RUN > type regedit)
4. In REGEDIT, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\GNU\GnuPG
5. Right click in the folder and select NEW > STRING VALUE
6. Name it “HomeDir” (without the parenthsis, of course)
7. Right-click the entry and select MODIFY.
8. Under VALUE DATA, type the full path to your desired key folder. For example, daveb’s is F:\keys\ (”F” being the USB dongle). Hit OK.
9. Open a command prompt and type “gpg –version” or “gpg –list-keys”. Check for the Home that is listed, it should now be your dongle and any keys in that folder should now be listed. You’re done!

Now that you’re finished, use a file-shredding program like Eraser to destroy any locally saved copies of your keys. With that done, the only way to encrypt or decrypt with your keys is to have possessin of the dongle. So, keep it safe. You also might want to consider hiding a backup on floppy somewhere (safe deposit box, deserted island, anal cavity) due to the fact that although dongles last a long time, they do have a write-life, depending on your model.