File Share Encryption

Hi,

We currently run 3 different versions of the PGP Desktop client without our corporate environment and have written our own script to report back the PGP WDE Encryption status for all client devices using the PGPWDE.exe --disk-status command.

This works for the recent versions of PGP Desktop however doesnt work for some of the older versions. We were considering upgrading all older PGP Desktop clients to the current version so they are all the same and therefore we can use our script to report the disk status.

Is there any way of upgrading the PGP Desktop client can be upgraded on client pc's which have the hard drive encrypted or do we need to decrypt the HDD firstly ?

Many Thanks.

Blake

You can upgrade an existing version without needing to decrypt. The only issue occurs (that I'm aware of) when you try upgrading while encryption is not complete in which case the install will fail.

Thanks James.

For upgrading the PGP Desktop client, can the newer version be simply installed over the top of the existing client or will an un-install be needed ?

The upgrade happens over the top, followed by a restart. If you tried uninstalling you'd find that PGP won't let you otherwise you'd lose access to the encrypted data - it would tell you to decrypt first in this instance.

It may be helpful if you indicate what version you would be updating from and to.  Generally, this is not a problem, and if it is, you should see this stated in the newer version's Release Notes.  Off hand, the last time I recall this being a problem was when updating from PGP 8.x.  Also, recently, there have been some people here reporting a problem updating to 10.2 from 10.x, but all working correctly if uninstalling PGP and then doing a fresh install of 10.2.  It is correct that if you uninstall, you need to decrypt first.