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Quick Start Guide

This guide walks you through encrypting and decrypting your first file with Necron Vault Manager. You'll be up and running in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Necron Vault Manager installed — see the Installation Guide
  • A USB dongle plugged in, or a Free Tier account (software key with 30-day trial)

Step 1: Launch the App

Open Necron Vault Manager from the Start Menu. You'll see the Gatekeeper lock screen.

  • If you have a USB dongle, plug it in — the Gatekeeper scans for it automatically and takes you to the main interface.
  • If you're using the Free Tier, enter your email and password in the login form under "ENTER FREE TIER" and click Log In. If you don't have an account yet, click "Sign up" to create one.

Step 2: Explore the Main Interface

Once past the Gatekeeper, you'll see the main application window with three panels:

  • Sidebar on the left — your vault list at the top (with a "Create / Import Vault" button) and the dongle status card at the bottom showing your connected key and pad capacity
  • Center stage — the vault browser showing your encrypted files in a tree view with Name, Last encrypted, and Size columns
  • Inspector on the right — a selection card with vault metadata, vault locations, and three footer action tiles: Encrypt, Decrypt, and Settings
  • Toolbar across the top of the center stage — ADD FILES, ADD FOLDER, and DECRYPT FILES buttons

Tip

The dongle status card at the bottom of the sidebar shows your key connection status and a capacity bar indicating how much pad material remains.

Step 3: Create a Vault

Before encrypting files, you need a vault to store them:

  1. Click Create / Import Vault in the sidebar
  2. Follow the wizard to name your vault and choose at least one storage location (a folder on your local drive, external drive, or cloud-synced folder)
  3. Once created, the vault appears in the sidebar and the vault browser shows its contents

Step 4: Encrypt Files into the Vault

The primary way to encrypt files is by adding them to a vault:

  1. Select a vault in the sidebar
  2. Click ADD FILES in the toolbar to select files from a file picker — or click ADD FOLDER to add an entire directory
  3. The files are encrypted and imported into the vault automatically

You can also use the Quick Encrypt feature for standalone encryption (outside of a vault):

  1. Click the Encrypt tile in the inspector footer
  2. A Quick Encrypt modal opens — add files, optionally choose a destination, and click Encrypt
  3. Files are encrypted as standalone NCV3 files

Note

Quick Encrypt always produces NCV3 format files. You can optionally enable filename encryption, which replaces the original filename with an encrypted token and uses the .ncrn extension.

Step 5: Decrypt Files

To decrypt files from a vault:

  1. Select one or more files in the vault browser
  2. Click DECRYPT FILES in the toolbar
  3. Choose a destination folder for the decrypted output

For standalone decryption (outside of a vault), use the Decrypt tile in the inspector footer to open the Quick Decrypt modal.

Warning

Make sure the same dongle (or a SLAVE copy) is connected when decrypting. The app verifies that the connected dongle matches the key used to encrypt the file. A different dongle cannot decrypt the file.

Step 6: Verify Your Work

After encrypting and decrypting:

  1. Open the decrypted file and compare it with the original — they should be byte-for-byte identical
  2. Check the capacity bar in the dongle status card — it will reflect your current pad usage

What You've Learned

In this quick start, you've:

  • ✅ Launched Necron Vault Manager and passed the Gatekeeper
  • ✅ Created a vault for organized encrypted storage
  • ✅ Encrypted files into the vault
  • ✅ Decrypted files from the vault
  • ✅ Verified the round-trip works correctly

What's Next?

Now that you've encrypted your first file, explore these features: