DFW Computer Integration

Recent updates to Windows 11 automatically enable Bitlocker now.

There will be no alert or notice to this effect. Your drive(s) will just be encrypted with a 48 character key.

And you won’t know about it.

But encryption is good, right?

Well, yes.

And no.

Unless you are working for the DOJ, you don’t really need / want drive encryption.

Drive encryption is a very thorough method of securing your data

Once your drive is encrypted, the currently installed version of Windows knows about this and can access all your data.

But when something goes wrong, encryption dramatically complicates everything.

It can make data recovery difficult (EXPENSIVE) to impossible.

If Windows needs to be reinstalled, you MUST have the encryption key on hand.

If an update fails and crashes your system, you will lose everything without the key.

What can you do to protect yourself from this heavy-handed approach by Micro$oft?

Either one or both of these two things.

• Disable Bitlocker altogether.
• Go locate your encryption key, print it out AND save it to a USB stick.

To disable Bitlocker:

in the taskbar search window just type in bitlocker

Click on Manage Bitlocker

The Bitlocker Drive Encryption interface will appear.

From here you can enable / disable Bitlocker on all drives. It will show you which drives (if any) are currently encrypted. Turning it off will take some time. The system is going to remove the encryption from all the files and folders. On a laptop, make sure the power supply is connected and plugged in. Leave the computer alone and turned on until it completes the task.

To find your encryption key:

Sign in to your Microsoft account from another device, navigate to account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey, and select the device you need.

You can also select Manage Devices under Devices on the My Account screen, then select a device and click ∨.

The 48-digit number under the password is the BitLocker recovery key

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