DJ-CHRIS1
Golden Master
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This is a guide I wrote last month. It's very useful way to completely hide what you are doing on a computer, useful if you want to have a virtual PC with naughty tools, or hide naughty photos 
. It's secure enough I would trust it enough to hide files even from the NSA.
This guide will teach you how to setup an encrypted virtual PC. With the single stroke of a key you can hide everything you do. Great for people that need a high security work environment. The levels of encryption used for this are unbreakable Following this guide will let you run a secure separate computer inside your physical computer. However this requires a pretty powerful computer to run. To be completely secure, I also recommend turning the page file off (On the host operating system), this however requires a large amount of ram in the computer.
To do this, we need 3 things.
-Windows XP CD (If you have a prebuilt computer, likely did not come with one, instead it's an OEM copy for your specific computer only). You could use another operating system as well if you wanted. Very easy to find a copy of XP for free if you look in the right places however
-True crypt (Free encryption software)
-Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (Free virtualization software)
STEP ONE - TRUECRYPT
-Download the latest stable windows version from this webpage http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
-Extract the folder than run the true crypt setup. Install it and don't view the tutorial.
-Open true crypt and press the "Create Volume" button.
-Create a standard true crypt volume and hit next.
-Press select file button, under file name type virtualpc.tc and press save. This should save the virtual hard drive in your "My Documents" folder
-On the encryption options page, just click next.
-On volume size page, enter a number such as 30000. This would give you 30GB of space, which should be enough for most applications. Feel free to change this is you want.
-For the password page, type a LONG password preferably over 25 digits, upper and lowercase, numbers, symbols, etc. Their are no requirements, but the more complex the better. Short passwords are easy to crack, whereas. This password is the SINGLE weakness of this, so please be VERY careful at this step.
-For the next page choose NTFS as the file system than press format. This will take around half an hour.
STEP TWO - True Crypt / Virtual PC
-Open up true crypt
-Highlight z:, press select file and find "virtual pc" and press open. Now hit the mount button and type your password. You can now close or minimize true crypt.
-Download Virtual PC 2007 from this webpage http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspx (You likely want 32 bit setup)
-Install it (Very simple, hit next a few times)
-Run Virtual PC 2007 and hit the "New" button
-Hit next than "Create a virtual machine"
-Browse for the location and put it on your "Z:" drive we just created with true crypt and hit next.
-Select windows XP as the operating system and hit next.
-In the next step, you can use the recommended ram (Or alternatively, adjust the ram to at least 256, as this is recommended)
-Now you want to create a new virtual hard disk, set the maximum size to the same size as the encrypted hard drive you created before, than click finish.
-Press the start button on your "New Virtual Machine"
STEP THREE – TWEAKS
-Obviously, now you need to install an operating system. I assume you have the knowledge to do this, if not there are many guides available online.
-This method described above does not offer plausible deniability. You can be forced via physical or legal measures to give up the password. You can create a hidden partition inside a normal partition, giving you complete plausible deniability. One password would open a bunch of meaningless files, and another password would open up you're your virtual operating system. Read more here
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability
-There is a slight risk of data being able to be read from the page file on your windows host OS. If you have a large amount of ram (2GB or more) I highly recommend turning this off. You can turn it off by pressing windows key + pause break, than click the advanced tab, than click settings, than click advanced, than hit change. Set your drives to “No paging file†than hit the set button. You will need to reboot your computer to see the changes.
Written by Chris Mayhew, 2007.
. It's secure enough I would trust it enough to hide files even from the NSA.This guide will teach you how to setup an encrypted virtual PC. With the single stroke of a key you can hide everything you do. Great for people that need a high security work environment. The levels of encryption used for this are unbreakable Following this guide will let you run a secure separate computer inside your physical computer. However this requires a pretty powerful computer to run. To be completely secure, I also recommend turning the page file off (On the host operating system), this however requires a large amount of ram in the computer.
To do this, we need 3 things.
-Windows XP CD (If you have a prebuilt computer, likely did not come with one, instead it's an OEM copy for your specific computer only). You could use another operating system as well if you wanted. Very easy to find a copy of XP for free if you look in the right places however
-True crypt (Free encryption software)
-Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 (Free virtualization software)
STEP ONE - TRUECRYPT
-Download the latest stable windows version from this webpage http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads.php
-Extract the folder than run the true crypt setup. Install it and don't view the tutorial.
-Open true crypt and press the "Create Volume" button.
-Create a standard true crypt volume and hit next.
-Press select file button, under file name type virtualpc.tc and press save. This should save the virtual hard drive in your "My Documents" folder
-On the encryption options page, just click next.
-On volume size page, enter a number such as 30000. This would give you 30GB of space, which should be enough for most applications. Feel free to change this is you want.
-For the password page, type a LONG password preferably over 25 digits, upper and lowercase, numbers, symbols, etc. Their are no requirements, but the more complex the better. Short passwords are easy to crack, whereas. This password is the SINGLE weakness of this, so please be VERY careful at this step.
-For the next page choose NTFS as the file system than press format. This will take around half an hour.
STEP TWO - True Crypt / Virtual PC
-Open up true crypt
-Highlight z:, press select file and find "virtual pc" and press open. Now hit the mount button and type your password. You can now close or minimize true crypt.
-Download Virtual PC 2007 from this webpage http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspx (You likely want 32 bit setup)
-Install it (Very simple, hit next a few times)
-Run Virtual PC 2007 and hit the "New" button
-Hit next than "Create a virtual machine"
-Browse for the location and put it on your "Z:" drive we just created with true crypt and hit next.
-Select windows XP as the operating system and hit next.
-In the next step, you can use the recommended ram (Or alternatively, adjust the ram to at least 256, as this is recommended)
-Now you want to create a new virtual hard disk, set the maximum size to the same size as the encrypted hard drive you created before, than click finish.
-Press the start button on your "New Virtual Machine"
STEP THREE – TWEAKS
-Obviously, now you need to install an operating system. I assume you have the knowledge to do this, if not there are many guides available online.
-This method described above does not offer plausible deniability. You can be forced via physical or legal measures to give up the password. You can create a hidden partition inside a normal partition, giving you complete plausible deniability. One password would open a bunch of meaningless files, and another password would open up you're your virtual operating system. Read more here
http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability
-There is a slight risk of data being able to be read from the page file on your windows host OS. If you have a large amount of ram (2GB or more) I highly recommend turning this off. You can turn it off by pressing windows key + pause break, than click the advanced tab, than click settings, than click advanced, than hit change. Set your drives to “No paging file†than hit the set button. You will need to reboot your computer to see the changes.
Written by Chris Mayhew, 2007.
