VeraCrypt, a free yet generally secure encryption app, has, at long last, released a new update version 1.26.7. In case you are wondering, the last one was released over one and a half years ago. The wait has been worth it though as the new update brings many new features, improvements, and bug fixes across all supported OSs, ie, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
On the Windows front, the developers have stated that Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 are no longer officially supported which means no further updates and optimizations for them. Windows 10 and 11 are the ones that will be supported going forward. In this release, there are improvements related to memory encryption, UAC (User Account Control), Secure Desktop, Quick Format, file systems (NTFS, ReFS and exFAT), and many more.
You can read the full changelog for Windows below:
- Windows:
- Officially, the minimum supported version is now Windows 10. VeraCrypt may still run on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1, but no active tests are done on these platforms.
- EFI Bootloader:
- Fix bug in PasswordTimeout value handling that caused it to be limited to 255 seconds.
- Rescue Disk: enhance "Boot Original Windows Loader" by using embedded backup of original Windows loader if it is missing from disk
- Addition of Blake2s and removal of RIPEMD160 & GOST89
- Enable memory protection by default. Add option under Performance/Driver Configuration to disable it if needed.
- Memory protection blocks non-admin processes from reading VeraCrypt memory
- It may block Screen Readers (Accessibility support) from reading VeraCrypt UI, in which case it can be disabled
- It can be disabled by setting registry value "VeraCryptEnableMemoryProtection" to 0 under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\veracrypt"
- Add process mitigation policy to prevent VeraCrypt from being injected by other processes
- Minor enhancements to RAM Encryption implementation
- Fix Secure Desktop issues under Windows 11 22H2
- Implement support for mounting partially encrypted system partitions.
- Fix false positive detection of new device insertion when Clear Encryption Keys option is enable (System Encryption case only)
- Better implementation of Fast Create when creating file containers that uses UAC to request required privilege if not already held
- Allow choosing Fast Create in Format Wizard UI when creating file containers
- Fix formatting issues during volume creation on some machines.
- Fix stall issue caused by Quick Format of large file containers
- Add dropdown menu to Mount button to allow mounting without using the cache.
- Possible workaround for logarithmic slowdown for Encrypt-In-Place on large volumes.
- Make Expander first check file existence before proceeding further
- Allow selecting size unit (KB/MB/GB) for generated keyfiles
- Display full list of supported cluster sizes for NTFS, ReFS and exFAT filesystems when creating volumes
- Support drag-n-drop of files and keyfiles in Expander.
- Implement translation of Expander UI
- Replace legacy file/dir selection APIs with modern IFileDialog interface for better Windows 11 compatibility
- Enhancements to dependency dlls safe loading, including delay loading.
- Remove recommendation of keyfiles files extensions and update documentation to mention risks of third-party file extensions.
- Add support for more language in the setup installer
- Update LZMA library to version 23.01
- Update libzip to version 1.10.1 and zlib to version 1.3
You can find the release notes for Linux and macOS on VeraCrypt's website. Head over to this page to download.
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