SecretHelper user manual
SecretHelper is a Firefox extension for Windows that manages a secure, encrypted, password-protected virtual drive.
Basics
Once installed, a new widget appears in the browser's status bar:
Clicking on the widget opens the secure volume. You are then prompted for the password protecting the drive:
Once the secure volume is open, the status bar widget reflects the new state and show the letter assigned to the new drive.
By clicking on the drive letter, it will open an explorer window to your secure volume.
You can make the password check dialog more discreet by clicking on Customize this dialog.
You can provide your title for the dialog by unchecking Default dialog (fancy). For instance, the dialog could then look like this:
You can step back afterwards and change this again from the preferences.
If you leave your browser on, the volume will close automatically, and will ensure that no one else will be able to see your drive's content. You can of course close manually your secure volume by clicking on the status bar widget key hole. When your secure volume closes, entries in the Windows recent documents pointing to the closing drive are cleared for a better privacy.
If the Video DownloadHelper extension is also installed in your browser, SecretHelper will register as a new service and will appear in the DownloadHelper actions menu whenever a video can be captured. By choosing this service will save the video into your secure drive, prompting for the volume password if necessary to open the drive. If you setup Video DownloadHelper conversion rules, the conversion will run before the storage of your final file into your secure volume.
Installation
Remember SecretHelper only works on Windows
If you still didn't get it, you must install the latest version of the Firefox browser.
With Firefox, go to the install page and mouse-drag the SecretHelper link to the browser's address bar. Acknowledge the Firefox extension manager dialogs then restart your browser. Now SecretHelper is installed.
SecretHelper can only works if you have administrator privileges on your machine. If you haven't, the next time you restart Firefox, you will see the message below and the extension will be disabled.
On the first attempt to open your secure drive, you will be requested to create a new volume:
Be very careful when you will enter your password: for a maximum protection of your data, there is no way to retrieve a forgotten password.
Configuration
SecretHelper configuration is handled in a specific preferences dialog. You can open the preferences in several ways:
- Right-click on the status bar widget and choose Preferences
- From the Firefox menu Tools/SecretHelper/Preferences
- From the Firefox addons manager: menu Tools/Add-ons, select SecretHelper and click Options
SecretHelper configuration parameters are fully described in this page.
Controls
There are many operations that can be done with all versions of SecretHelper:
- Open volume
- Close volume
- Change volume password
- Open an explorer window on the volume
Additionally, if you have a registered version of SecretHelper:
- Resize volume
- Create a new volume repository
- Use another volume repository
In general, SecretHelper operations can be performed from several places:
- In the SecretHelper preferences, section Volume
- In the status bar widget context menu (right-click on the widget to see the menu)
- From the Firefox menu Tools/SecretHelper
- From the Firefox context menu (the menu that opens when you right-click in the window), sub menu SecretHelper
Free vs registered version
SecretHelper can be used for free without any limitation of time. However, there are some restrictions associated to this free version:
- Secure drive size if limited to 64MB
- You cannot have a repository (the local file holding the secure volume) other than the one automatically created in your Firefox profile directory.
You can register SecretHelper and remove those limitations from the registration page.
