Creating an OpenPGP Key Pair for Outlook Email Encryption

Before sending or receiving an OpenPGP encrypted email in Microsoft Outlook, you must create a key pair consisting of a private key and a public key.

Your private key must be kept private. Anyone who can access your private key will be able to view encrypted email messages that have been sent to you.

Your public key can be shared with anyone.  Post it on your website, if you like. Only your private key will be able to open a message that has been encrypted with your public key.  It sounds like magic, but its just math.

If you lose your private key, you will lose your ability to open a message that was obscured with your public key. Likewise, anyone who obtains your private key can send you an encrypted email message. 

Encryptomatic OpenPGP can import most existing key pairs. If you don't have a key pair or you want to make a new pair,  it can help you with that, too.

Make an OpenPGP Key Pair

When you first run Outlook after installing Encryptomatic OpenPGP,  you will be prompted to import or create your OpenPGP keys.  You can also initiate key pair generation by going to:  Key Options > Key Import >New

Creating a new OpenPGP key pair

Select "New" to proceed to the "Generate New Key" screen.  Here is where you can choose to create a key pair for email encryption. You can one or more email addresses to include in your key by checking the box next to the email address.  The email address must be setup in Microsoft Outlook to appear in the list.

Generate a key OpenPGP key pair in Encryptomatic OpenPGP

Your Passphrase protects your private key.  Before Encryptomatic OpenPGP or any other software app can access your private key to decrypt a message or file, you must enter this password.   Encryptomatic OpenPGP lets you determine the amount of time that it will have access to this password.

You may only want it to have access for a moment, preferring to enter the password each time you are sending an email.  Or, perhaps you are sending a lot of emails over a short period of time and want Encryptomatic OpenPgp to retain access to your private key for an hour or so.  Its up to you. Just make sure that your passphrase is very strong, and known only to you.

Setting Key Expiration Date and Key Strength

Your key can automatically expire after a specific date.  We urge you to consider setting an expiration date, especially if you plan to share your pubic key with the public key server network. If there is no expiration date, your key may persist forever.  You can always extend the expiration date later.

You can also select the encryption algorithm that will protect your private key. The stronger the algorithm, the longer it will take to generate your key pair.  If you are unsure about this, just use the default settings in Encryptomatic OpenPGP.

Click the "Generate" button to start the process of making your new key pair.

When you see the "Generating Keys" message, feel free to step away for a few minutes to get yourself a cup of coffee. When you return, you should see this message:

Your key will now appear in the Key Management window. To share your key, click on the "Key Share" menu.

This is where you can perform many functions for managing your key.  There are options to export your public and or private key to a file. You can also share your pubilc key with a key server so others may find your key more easily.  You can change your expiration date or passphrase,  and even revoke your key.  Revoking a key tells key servers to indicate that the key is no longer valid and should not be used.

We hope this has been helpful to you. If you have any questions or comments, please post them below, or contact us directly.