First launch and the app password

The first time you open CySecTek it asks you to set an app password. Read this before you choose one.

It is not a screen lock

The password is the key. A 32-byte key is derived from it with Argon2id, and that key encrypts every SSH, SFTP and RDP password you save, along with your session transcripts. The password itself is never written to disk.

That is the entire point: a credential file copied off your machine is useless without the password, including to something running as your own Windows account. It also means there is no recovery. Lose the password and the saved credentials are permanently unreadable. Everything else in the app keeps working, and you can set a new password, but the old credentials do not come back.

Put it in a password manager before you type it into the app. Minimum length is eight characters.

If you are upgrading

Coming from a version before 0.7.0, you had saved passwords protected by Windows DPAPI. When you set the app password those are re-encrypted onto the new key immediately — you do not need to re-enter them. See upgrading and migrating.

A sensible first ten minutes

1. Overview tells you what this machine is on — address, gateway, DNS, and which adapter has the route out.
2. Port Finder, if you have Npcap and you are on Ethernet, tells you the switch and physical port. This is the feature most people came for.
3. IP Scanner sweeps the subnet you are already on. Right-click a host to open SSH, SFTP or RDP against it.
4. Save a connection you use often, and put it in a group named for the site — the list is easier to live with when it has folders from the start. See saved connections.

Locking it again

The Security page has the controls: change the password, lock on demand, and optionally lock after a period with no keyboard or mouse activity. Idle locking is off by default.