9.1.1. Basic

To access the Enigmail preferences, select OpenPGP → Preferences from the menu bar. (If you use SeaMonkey 1.1 you can also select Edit → Preferences, which brings up the mailclient general preferences, and then select the OpenPGP submenu.) This will initially bring up the Basic preferences, which control the basic functioning of Enigmail.

In Files and Directories, it is shown where GnuPG was found. Enigmail tries to locate automatically the GnuPG executable file upon its start. Typical locations are C:\Program Files\GnuPG\gpg.exe (absolute path) or ..\GnuPG\gpg.exe (path relative to the mailclient) for Windows, and /usr/local/bin/gpg for Linux.
If, however, Enigmail can't manage to find GnuPG, or you want to specify that location manually, tick Override with and enter the path to the GnuPG executable file.

Enigmail asks for your passphrase every time it needs to access your private key, for instance whenever you sign, decrypt, or change your key pair properties. It is often cumbersome to have to type the passphrase all the time, and you might be tempted to choose a passphrase that's short and simple to type, which is a bad idea. Instead, you should set Enigmail to save your passphrase in the cache for a fixed time.
You can do this by entering the desired number of minutes in the field Remember passphrase for [ ] minutes of idle time. In the figure, Enigmail will not ask for the passphrase for 6 hours. Entering the value 0 in the field disables password caching.

You will be asked again for the passphrase when one of these events occurs:

  • The specified caching time has expired;
  • You quit and restarted the mailclient;
  • You flushed the passphrase cache via the command OpenPGP → Clear Saved Passphrase.

Do not leave your computer unattended while the passphrase is stored in the cache.

The passphrase caching mechanism is implemented in a safe way so it is not accessible by other users or processes. However, if the mailclient is swapped to disk, the passphrase is swapped to disk too. If you do not want this to happen, do not use passphrase caching.

If your key pair is not protected by a passphrase, enable the option Never ask for any passphrase to prevent Enigmail from asking your passphrase and passing it to GnuPG.

The Reset button resets all Enigmail settings to their default value.

If you're using SeaMonkey 1.x, there will be also a button named Uninstall Enigmail which uninstalls the Enigmail application altogether.
SeaMonkey 2.0 and Thunderbird do not show this button, as concerning these mailclients Enigmail can be uninstalled like any other extension from Tools → Add-ons → Extensions.

Finally, the Display Expert Settings / Hide Expert Settings toggle button permits access to the expert preferences.
In Enigmail 0.96.0 and earlier, this button makes another button named Advanced... appear (and disappear). Clicking on the Advanced... button opens a separate window with the expert preferences, divided into five tabs: Sending, Key Selection, Advanced, Keyserver, and Debugging.
In newer versions of Enigmail, the Display Expert Settings button activates instead the five tabs with the expert settings directly in the same window.
Expert preferences settings are explained in the rest of this Section.