First of all - thank you to everyone who is behind and who contributes to this community effort. I have started the journey. Couldn’t have begun it without you.
My problem. . . .
I have the Windows 11 Home Edition and I am trying to enable Bitlocker per the instructions provided:
There is still no GUI way to enable encryption on Home edition without sending your recovery key to Microsoft. Windows 11 enabling encryption by default probably does mess up this guide though.
@enspIcIl you likely have to disable encryption in Settings, then follow the guide on the website (@ph00lt0’s suggestion might work as well, I’m not sure):
I think you are right that I will need to disable device encryption. I did think that the error suggested this when I read ‘Only one key protector of this type is allowed for this drive’ - the implication seemed to be that device encryption was standing in the way of drive encryption. And I do have device encryption enabled.
Hello
Point 1:
“Access [Advanced Startup Options. You need to reboot while pressing the F8 key before Windows starts and” This doesn’t work on all Laptops (for example on my HP Envy it didn’t).
I would suggest replacing it with:
Windows 11 : Settings → System → Recovery → Click on the “Restart Now” next to “Advanced Startup”
Windows 10: Settings → Recovery → Click on the “Restart Now” under the section of “Advanced Startup”
Point 2:
The guide then suggests: “manage-bde -on c: -used”
This didn’t work on my machine, until I deleted the Shadow copies of Drive C. I used a command, which I can’t recall perfectly but it was something like “manage-bde -on c: -DeleteVolumeShadowCopies”
This should be added to the guide.
Point 3:
Doesn’t this guide only apply to Drive C? Shouldn’t we add a notice to encrypt all other available drives by replacing (C) with the name of the Drive?
Point 4:
It’s not clear if the user can safely delete (BitLocker-Recovery-Key.txt) from the Desktop after copying it to an external storage.
Point 5:
Shouldn’t we add a command to check if Bitlocker is really enabled? Otherwise we can just copy my checking method using the GUI in the comment below
Point 6:
I really think we should add a command to disable Bitlocker if needed (as this method doesn’t exist anywhere online so there isn’t any guide to deactivate Bitlocker using the command line)
P.S: Thanks so much for this guide, which I couldn’t find anywhere on the internet besides Privacyguides. You guys rock
Regarding the GUI and modifying this Guide to a GUI-Based one:
I’m not sure that all Windows 11 Home editions have the GUI for Bitlocker or even normal device encryption ((I’m on the latest Windows 11 2H22). My device fulfills all requirements mentioned in the guide, I encrypted my C Drive using it but I still can’t see the option from the GUI.
Here’s the proof that Bitlocker is activated (using your guide) on C Drive but not D Drive on my machine:
(System → Storage → Advanced Storage Settings → Disk & Volumes)
I don’t wanna sound mean, but shouldn’t fixing the Bitlocker guide be a priority, as Windows is the most used Desktop OS? I mentioned many points that could be looked at and easily fixed (if the person reading knows how to correct them)
The problem is, out of the box this just works for new users. With older laptops it is all quite different system to system. So many of the fixes depend on your hardware and previous configurations.
what do you mean for new users? I have an HP Envy with Intel 8th gen. (which is not really new, but qualifies for Windows 11).
The problems I mentioned aren’t really that difficult for the guy who wrote that guide (as he’s obviously familiar with the used commands) and can quickly take a look at what’s happeneing. I could also happily help debugging, as I still need to do the same steps but for drive D (seperate HDD in my laptop)
It’s probably not better to promote piracy instead of a regular guide just to use a function that’s not supported on a GUI.
From their website: “MAS project doesn’t accept donations and it’s free.
It’s because it’s a community project and involves many contributors, splitting donations is not practical and also because profiting from piracy is not good.”
I get your point, but if one can do something with some power-shell commands, I don’t think he needs to deal with watermarks or piracy. The guide already exists and the research is already done, it just needs to be checked again (which also takes time, but less than doing the guide for the first time).
Regarding the quote, I didn’t want to emphasize the profiting, just that even the maintainer acknowledges this as piracy (and thus we shouldn’t be promoting it). Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Does windows 11 home now provide pre-boot authentication too in addition to usage of tpm through the command line interface. Earlier in windows 10 home bitlocker was present with limited support. Pre-boot auth would be better instead of just relying on TPM.
I understand your point, but I think the lack of ease of use when you could just search for a generic key online is just not worth it. For example, changing your encryption password is probably going to be a pain in the ass.
I’m not saying that CLI is itself hard, I really love the CLI workflow. But it can’t be denied that windows isn’t really designed for it
