Blog / Cryptomator 1.6.7 Release: Major Changes on Windows

2022-03-25

Hello Community!

The last blog post is already a while ago. We hope you’re all doing fine. Cryptomator 1.6.7 for Desktop is out now and let’s explore the changes together since it’s more than just a “patch”! The update contains some noteworthy changes, especially for Windows users.

New Installer

With Cryptomator 1.6.0, instead of delivering a “regular” executable for installation, we provided a Windows Installer package to allow easier scripted deployment of Cryptomator. But this approach also had drawbacks: We couldn’t bundle third-party drivers (i.e., Dokany) leading to inferior user experience.

These dire times are over! When you head over to downloads and select Windows, you’re getting an executable again that bundles the MSI installer as well as additional dependencies. Furthermore, it supports command-line parameters (e.g., /quiet). For a complete list, run the installer with the /? parameter.

If you want to download the “pure” MSI installer without dependencies, it’s also available on the downloads site or head over to the release on GitHub.

New Default VFS Driver (Virtual Volume)

As already mentioned, the new EXE installer can include dependencies again, so we added one right from the start: WinFsp.

This decision is mainly based on the long-term maintenance effort. The integration of a vault into the OS currently supports WebDAV (legacy), Dokany (Windows), and FUSE (all systems). FUSE support (provided by WinFSP) on Windows is now available for quite a while and feedback was very promising. The time has come to make this the default choice so we can focus on a common code base.

WebDAV and Dokany will remain part of Cryptomator, should you prefer it in your individual setup. Please note that Dokany 2.x is not yet supported and our existing Dokany 1.x glue code requires a migration.

There are some known issues with WinFsp though:

  • If you are logged in to Windows via an AzureAD account, vaults can only be accessed read-only.
  • Access with the admin rights is only possible when the vault is mounted into a directory (as opposed to a drive letter).

If you aren’t affected by any of these issues, we encourage you to use WinFsp/FUSE.

Those were the two major changes you should know about. For all changes, have a look at the changelog.

We hope you are enjoying this Cryptomator update.