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How to use BitLocker Drive Encryption on Windows 10 | Windows Central.BitLocker - Windows security | Microsoft Docs
Enabling Bitlocker on Windows 10 from either is very simple, but users generally prefer the visual aspect of managing Bitlocker via the Control Panel rather than the command prompt. Setting up Bitlocker is pretty straight-forward. One only needs to follow the on-screen instructions, choose their preferred method to encrypt a volume, set a strong PIN, safely store the recovery key, and let the computer do its thing.
For a few users, the Bitlocker Drive Encryption will itself be listed as a Control Panel item, and they can directly click on it. Expand the drive you want to enable Bitlocker to click on the Turn on Bitlocker hyperlink. You can also right-click on a drive in File Explorer and select Turn On Bitlocker from the context menu.
If your TPM is already enabled, you will directly be brought to the BitLocker Startup Preferences selection window and can skip to the next step. Otherwise, you will be asked to prepare your computer first. Go through the Bitlocker Drive Encryption startup by clicking on Next. Click on Shutdown when ready to continue. Turn on your computer and follow the instructions that appear on the screen to activate the TPM. Activating the module is as simple as pressing the requested key. The key will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, so carefully read the confirmation message.
The computer will most likely shut down again once you activate the TPM; turn on your computer back on. We will be setting a PIN on our computer.
If you decide to move forward with the other option, do not lose or damage the USB drive bearing the startup key. On the following window set a strong PIN and re-enter it to confirm.
The PIN can be anywhere between 8 to 20 characters long. Click on Next when done. Bitlocker will now ask you your preference for storing the recovery key.
The recovery key is extremely important and will help you access your files on the computer in case something deters you from doing so for example — if you forget the startup PIN. You can choose to send the recovery key to your Microsoft account, save it on an external USB drive, save a file on your computer or print it. We recommend you print the recovery key and store the printed paper safely for future needs. You might also want to click a picture of the paper and store it on your phone.
You never know what will go wrong, so it is better to create as many backups as possible. Click on Next to continue after you have printed or sent the recovery key to your Microsoft account. Bitlocker gives you the option to either encrypt the entire hard drive or only the part used. Encrypting a complete hard drive takes longer to accomplish and is recommended for older PCs and drives where most of the storage space is already being used. If you are enabling Bitlocker on a new disk or a new PC, you should choose to encrypt only the space that is currently filled with data as it is much faster.
For instance, if you determine that an attacker has modified your computer by obtaining physical access, you can create new security policies for tracking who has physical presence. After the recovery password has been used to recover access to the PC, BitLocker will reseal the encryption key to the current values of the measured components.
For planned scenarios, such as a known hardware or firmware upgrades, you can avoid initiating recovery by temporarily suspending BitLocker protection. Because suspending BitLocker leaves the drive fully encrypted, the administrator can quickly resume BitLocker protection after the planned task has been completed.
Using suspend and resume also reseals the encryption key without requiring the entry of the recovery key. If suspended BitLocker will automatically resume protection when the PC is rebooted, unless a reboot count is specified using the manage-bde command line tool. If software maintenance requires the computer to be restarted and you are using two-factor authentication, you can enable BitLocker Network Unlock to provide the secondary authentication factor when the computers do not have an on-premises user to provide the additional authentication method.
Recovery has been described within the context of unplanned or undesired behavior, but you can also cause recovery as an intended production scenario, in order to manage access control. For example, when you redeploy desktop or laptop computers to other departments or employees in your enterprise, you can force BitLocker into recovery before the computer is given to a new user.
Before you create a thorough BitLocker recovery process, we recommend that you test how the recovery process works for both end users people who call your helpdesk for the recovery password and administrators people who help the end user get the recovery password. The -forcerecovery command of manage-bde is an easy way for you to step through the recovery process before your users encounter a recovery situation.
On the Start screen, type cmd. Recovery triggered by -forcerecovery persists for multiple restarts until a TPM protector is added or protection is suspended by the user.
When using Modern Standby devices such as Surface devices , the -forcerecovery option is not recommended because BitLocker will have to be unlocked and disabled manually from the WinRE environment before the OS can boot up again.
For more information, see BitLocker Troubleshooting: Continuous reboot loop with BitLocker recovery on a slate device. When planning the BitLocker recovery process, first consult your organization's current best practices for recovering sensitive information. For example: How does your enterprise handle lost Windows passwords?
How does your organization perform smart card PIN resets? You can use these best practices and related resources people and tools to help formulate a BitLocker recovery model. MBAM makes BitLocker implementations easier to deploy and manage and allows administrators to provision and monitor encryption for operating system and fixed drives.
MBAM prompts the user before encrypting fixed drives. MBAM also manages recovery keys for fixed and removable drives, making recovery easier to manage. After a BitLocker recovery has been initiated, users can use a recovery password to unlock access to encrypted data. Consider both self-recovery and recovery password retrieval methods for your organization. Determine a series of steps for post-recovery, including analyzing why the recovery occurred and resetting the recovery password.
In some cases, users might have the recovery password in a printout or a USB flash drive and can perform self-recovery. We recommend that your organization create a policy for self-recovery. If self-recovery includes using a password or recovery key stored on a USB flash drive, the users should be warned not to store the USB flash drive in the same place as the PC, especially during travel, for example if both the PC and the recovery items are in the same bag, then it's easy for an unauthorized user to access the PC.
Another policy to consider is having users contact the Helpdesk before or after performing self-recovery so that the root cause can be identified. If the user does not have a recovery password in a printout or on a USB flash drive, the user will need to be able to retrieve the recovery password from an online source. However, this does not happen by default.
The following policy settings define the recovery methods that can be used to restore access to a BitLocker-protected drive if an authentication method fails or is unable to be used. Select the Do not enable BitLocker until recovery information is stored in AD DS check box if you want to prevent users from enabling BitLocker unless the computer is connected to the domain and the backup of BitLocker recovery information for the drive to AD DS succeeds.
If the PCs are part of a workgroup, users should be advised to save their BitLocker recovery password with their Microsoft Account online. Having an online copy of your BitLocker recovery password is recommended to help ensure that you do not lose access to your data in the event that recovery is required.
You can use the following list as a template for creating your own recovery process for recovery password retrieval.
You can use the name of the user's computer to locate the recovery password in AD DS. If the user does not know the name of the computer, ask the user to read the first word of the Drive Label in the BitLocker Drive Encryption Password Entry user interface.
This is the computer name when BitLocker was enabled and is probably the current name of the computer. Verify that the person that is asking for the recovery password is truly the authorized user of that computer. You might also want to verify that the computer with the name the user provided belongs to the user. Because Computer object names are listed in the AD DS global catalog, you should be able to locate the object even if you have a multi-domain forest.
If multiple recovery passwords are stored under a computer object in AD DS, the name of the BitLocker recovery information object includes the date that the password was created.
If at any time you are unsure what password to provide, or if you think you might be providing the incorrect password, ask the user to read the eight character password ID that is displayed in the recovery console. Since the password ID is a unique value that is associated with each recovery password stored in AD DS, running a query using this ID will find the correct password to unlock the encrypted volume.
Before you give the user the recovery password, you should gather any information that will help determine why the recovery was needed, in order to analyze the root cause during the post-recovery analysis.
For more info about post-recovery analysis, see Post-recovery analysis. Because the recovery password is 48 digits long, the user might need to record the password by writing it down or typing it on a different computer. If you are using MBAM, the recovery password will be regenerated after it is recovered from the MBAM database to avoid the security risks associated with an uncontrolled password.
Because the digit recovery password is long and contains a combination of digits, the user might mishear or mistype the password. With earlier versions of Windows, administrators had to enable BitLocker after Windows had been installed. Although this process could be automated, BitLocker would need to encrypt the entire drive, a process that could take anywhere from several hours to more than a day depending on drive size and performance, which delayed deployment. Microsoft has improved this process through multiple features in Windows 11 and Windows Beginning in Windows 8.
With Windows 11 and Windows 10, Microsoft offers BitLocker Device Encryption support on a much broader range of devices, including those that are Modern Standby, and devices that run Windows 10 Home edition or Windows Microsoft expects that most devices in the future will pass the testing requirements, which makes BitLocker device encryption pervasive across modern Windows devices.
BitLocker device encryption further protects the system by transparently implementing device-wide data encryption. Unlike a standard BitLocker implementation, BitLocker device encryption is enabled automatically so that the device is always protected. The following list outlines how this happens:.
Microsoft recommends that BitLocker Device Encryption be enabled on any systems that support it, but the automatic BitLocker Device Encryption process can be prevented by changing the following registry setting:.
In this case, BitLocker device encryption automatically makes additional BitLocker options available. No conversion or encryption is required, and MBAM can manage the full BitLocker policy set if any configuration changes are required. After that, different BitLocker settings can be applied. BitLocker in earlier Windows versions could take a long time to encrypt a drive, because it encrypted every byte on the volume including parts that didn't have data.
That is still the most secure way to encrypt a drive, especially if a drive has previously contained confidential data that has since been moved or deleted. In that case, traces of the confidential data could remain on portions of the drive marked as unused. But why encrypt a new drive when you can simply encrypt the data as it is being written? To reduce encryption time, BitLocker in Windows 11 and Windows 10 let users choose to encrypt just their data.
Depending on the amount of data on the drive, this option can reduce encryption time by more than 99 percent. Exercise caution when encrypting only used space on an existing volume on which confidential data may have already been stored in an unencrypted state, however, because those sectors can be recovered through disk-recovery tools until they're overwritten by new encrypted data.
In contrast, encrypting only used space on a brand-new volume can significantly decrease deployment time without the security risk because all new data will be encrypted as it's written to the disk. Microsoft worked with storage vendors to improve the hardware capabilities, and now BitLocker supports the next generation of SEDs, which are called encrypted hard drives.
If you plan to use, whole-drive encryption with Windows 11 or Windows 10, Microsoft recommends that you investigate hard drive manufacturers and models to determine whether any of their encrypted hard drives meet your security and budget requirements. For more information about encrypted hard drives, see Encrypted Hard Drive.
An effective implementation of information protection, like most security controls, considers usability and security. Users typically prefer a simple security experience. In fact, the more transparent a security solution becomes, the more likely users are to conform to it.
It's crucial that organizations protect information on their PCs regardless of the state of the computer or the intent of users.
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Finding your BitLocker recovery key in Windows
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage bitlocker for windows 10 the latest features, bitlocker for windows 10 updates, and technical support. This topic provides a high-level overview of BitLocker, including a list of system requirements, practical applications, and deprecated bitlocker for windows 10. BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature that integrates with the operating system and addresses the threats of data theft or exposure from lost, stolen, or inappropriately decommissioned computers.
The TPM is a hardware component installed in many newer computers by the computer bitlocker for windows 10. It works with BitLocker to help protect user data and to ensure that a computer has not been tampered with while the system was offline. On computers that do not bitlocker for windows 10 a TPM version 1. However, this implementation will require the user to insert a USB startup key to start the computer or resume from hibernation. Starting with Windows 8, you can use an operating system volume password to protect the operating system volume on a computer without TPM.
Both options do not provide the pre-startup system integrity verification offered by BitLocker with a TPM. In addition to the TPM, BitLocker offers the option to lock the normal startup process until the user supplies a personal identification number PIN or inserts a removable device, such as a USB flash drive, that contains a startup key.
Bitlocker for windows 10 additional security measures provide multifactor authentication and assurance that the computer will not start or resume from hibernation until the correct PIN or startup key is presented. Data on wkndows lost or stolen computer is vulnerable to unauthorized access, either by running a software-attack bitlocker for windows 10 against it or by transferring the computer's hard disk to a different computer.
BitLocker helps mitigate unauthorized data access by enhancing file and system protections. BitLocker also helps render data inaccessible when BitLocker-protected computers are decommissioned or recycled. BitLocker Recovery Password Viewer. You can use this tool to help recover data that is stored on a drive windiws has been encrypted by using BitLocker.
By using this tool, you can examine a computer object's Properties dialog box to view the corresponding BitLocker recovery passwords. Additionally, you can right-click a domain container and then search for a BitLocker recovery password across all the domains in the Active Bitlocker for windows 10 forest. To view recovery passwords, you must be a domain administrator, or you must have been delegated permissions by a domain administrator. BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools.
Both manage-bde and the BitLocker cmdlets can be used to perform any task that can be dor through the BitLocker control panel, and they are appropriate to use for windowws deployments and other scripting scenarios. Repair-bde is provided for disaster recovery scenarios in which a BitLocker protected drive cannot be unlocked normally or by using the recovery console.
TPM 2. Devices with TPM 2. For added security Enable the Secure Boot bitlockeg. A partition subject to encryption cannot be marked as bitlocker for windows 10 active windowd this applies to the operating system, fixed data, and removable data drives. When installed on a new computer, Windows will automatically create the partitions that are required for BitLocker. When installing the BitLocker optional component on a server you will also need to install the Enhanced Storage feature, which is used to support hardware encrypted drives.
Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Table of contents Exit focus mode. Table of contents. Note TPM 2. Submit and view feedback for This product This page. View all page feedback. In this article. This bitlockfr for the IT professional provides an overview of the ways that BitLocker Device Encryption can help protect data on devices running Windows.
BitLocker frequently asked questions FAQ. This bitlockker for the IT professional answers frequently asked questions concerning the requirements to use, upgrade, deploy and administer, and key management policies for BitLocker. Prepare your organization for BitLocker: Planning and policies. BitLocker basic deployment. This topic for the IT professional explains how BitLocker features can be used to protect your data through drive encryption.
BitLocker: How to deploy on Windows Server. BitLocker: How to enable Network Unlock. BitLocker Group Policy settings. This topic for IT professionals describes the function, location, and effect of each Bitlocker for windows 10 Policy setting that is used to manage BitLocker. BCD settings and BitLocker. BitLocker Recovery Guide. Protect BitLocker from pre-boot attacks.
This detailed guide will help you bitlocker for windows 10 the circumstances under which the use of pre-boot authentication is recommended for devices running Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8.
This guide describes the resources that can help you troubleshoot BitLocker issues, and provides solutions for several common BitLocker issues. Protecting cluster shared volumes and storage area networks with BitLocker.
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Device encryption in Windows
To manage BitLocker encryption. Tap Start and in the search box, type Manage BitLocker and then select it from the list of results. The Manage BitLocker. BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature that integrates with the operating system and addresses the threats of data theft or.
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