Once you’ve created two different instances of the recovery key and removed any USB drives, click Next.Ĭhoose whichever option best describes your PC. That said, saving your key to Microsoft’s servers will make it possible to decrypt your files if you ever lose the flash drive or paper containing your recovery key code. I decided against saving the file to my Microsoft account, because I don’t know who has access to the company’s servers. In my case, I chose to save the file to a USB key and print the key on paper. You are able to choose as many of these options as you’d like, and you should choose at least two. Windows gives you three choices for saving this key in Windows 8.1 and Windows 10: Save the file to your Microsoft account, save to a file, save to a flash drive (Windows 10), or print the recovery key. Next, you have to save a recovery key just in case you have problems unlocking your PC. Choose whichever method you prefer, but I recommend sticking with the manual password so you aren’t depending on a single USB key for authentication. Windows gives you a choice of either entering the password manually or inserting a USB key. We’re almost at the point where we’ll encrypt the drive! When you’re ready, click Next.īefore you encrypt your drive, however, you will be asked to enter a password that must be entered every time you turn on your PC, before you even get to the Windows login screen. We’ve rebooted and the TPM is now active.Īfter a few minutes, you should see a window with a green check mark next to Turn on the TPM security hardware. In my case I had to hit F10 to confirm the change or press Esc to cancel. After that, your computer should reboot and once you log in again you’ll see the BitLocker window. Once you restart your PC, you may see a warning that your system was changed. Before you do, make sure any flash drives, CDs, or DVDs are ejected from your PC. Then you’ll have to manually restart your PC. To activate your TPM security hardware Windows has to shut down completely. I’ve also added some Windows 10-specific instructions. Here’s how I got BitLocker running on a Windows 8.1 Pro machine. So with BitLocker’s closed-source nature in mind, I wouldn’t expect this encryption program to defend your data against a government actor such as border agents or intelligence services. But if you’re looking to protect your data in the event your PC is stolen or otherwise messed-with, then BitLocker should be just fine. Sure, if BitLocker were open-source, most of us wouldn’t be able to read the code to find vulnerabilities, but somebody out there would be able to do so. The company says there are no backdoors, but how can we be certain? We can’t. That’s problematic for extremely privacy-minded folks, since users have no way of knowing whether Microsoft was coerced into putting some kind of backdoor into the program under pressure from the United States government. When BitLocker is used without a TPM, the required encryption keys are stored on a USB flash drive that must be presented to unlock the data stored on a volume.Here’s the thing about BitLocker: It’s a closed-source program. To use BitLocker on a computer without a TPM, you must change the default behavior of the BitLocker setup wizard by using Group Policy, or configure BitLocker by using a script. Information stored on the TPM can be more secure from external software attacks and physical theft.īitLocker uses the TPM to help protect the Windows operating system and user data and helps to ensure that a computer is not tampered with, even if it is left unattended, lost, or stolen.īitLocker can also be used without a TPM. It is used to store cryptographic information, such as encryption keys. You may want to check out Bitlocker Reader: Ī Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a microchip that is built into a computer. Are you still running XP? BitLocker Drive Encryption was introduced with Vista Premium Ultimate, and 'To Go' came with Win 7.
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