3. How to Get Your First GPG Keys

#Installing GPG

The steps to install GPG on your computer are the following:

1. Download the necessary software for your Operating System at:
   • Windows
   • Linux - Installed through terminal
   • Mac OS

#GPG4Win Kleopatra

#Generating your own new GPG Keys

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Generating your own new GPG Keys is extremely easy. Here is a series of screenshots of the process using the Kleopatra application for Windows.

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It is extremely important to use a passphrase and more important if you use it to actually write it down somewhere so that you never loose it.

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#Creating a Revocation Certificate

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#Sample Public GPG Key

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#Command Line or Terminal

In order to generate your new keys you have two options:

• Running the default setup.
• Running the full setup which lets you define some additional specifications such as the encryption level.

#Default Setup

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Open the command line as an admin and type:

    terminal
    gpg --gen-keys

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Once this has been done the keys get generated with the default encryption level of 3072.

#Full Setup

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This option lets you:

• Define the encryption level up to 4096.
• Insert a comment.
• Define the key type (RSA, DSA, Elgamal, etc.).

It automatically generates also a revocation certificate at the default location which is indicated at the final step.

Open the command line as an admin and type:

    terminal
    gpg --full-generate-keys

#Defining the key type

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#Defining the encryption level

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#Defining the expiration date

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#Defining the user ID to identify the key

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#Final screen with revocation certificate location

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