- Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home full#
- Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home pro#
- Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home windows 8#
- Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home windows 7#
To make Bitlocker usable on Windows Home edition, you only need a TPM module that is ready for usage – that’s all.
Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home full#
In any case, let me emphasize that I expect anyone trying this to follow the instructions to the T, but first of all, to have a full data backup.
Please note: if you have no idea what Bitlocker is or how it works, you should not encrypt your drive with it. This method will give you the same protection and features like device encryption, but on any hardware. So possibly, Microsoft is trying to act in the best interest of the home users that might, after all, not know what they are doing when they are choosing to enable disk encryption and keeps them from using that feature, so that they don't lock themselves out of their computer, possibly rendering their data inaccessible.īut what about you, the home version users, who do understand all of that? This method is for you.
Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home pro#
Ok, so this is something to understand: As a user of the Pro version, you would not be required to back up your key to the cloud, nor to have a device with certain capabilities – Bitlocker just works without it – you could even choose to use a password instead of the TPM, which, according to Microsoft, is not a safe practice. That way, they can ensure that the recovery key, the important fallback key, is saved to your OneDrive cloud storage. Microsoft would have enabled device encryption even automatically if the requirements had been fulfilled and you would be logging on with a Microsoft account. You might have noticed something else: the word “automatic”. Reasons for failed automatic device encryption : Hardware Security Test Interface failed and the device is not Modern Standby, TPM is not usable.Īs I wrote: the TPM is usable and as I will show, it would work with Bitlocker, why not with device encryption? Hmm.Īnd what does an end user even know about HSTI or “ Modern standby”? – If he informed himself, would he be able to buy a device that satisfies this requirement? I am not that sure. Let me open system information (msinfo32.exe) to check whether there is a reason for the missing option.yes, there is: The option is unavailable in control panel. Now let’s see if device encryption can be used. I added a (virtual) TPM chip which (according to the windows snapin tpm.msc) is ready for usage. If these two requirements don’t apply to users that run Windows 10 Pro on the same hardware with Bitlocker, then why would they matter on the Home edition with "Bitlocker light"? Let’s see.įor a test, I created a Windows 10 Home virtual machine in Hyper-V. You will be told to buy the Professional version which entitles you to use Bitlocker. Regarding the lower condition, I am going to ask you, the reader: Why would Microsoft make it that hard? Imagine your machine does not qualify, what can you do? Your device meets certain hardware requirements like InstantGo/”Modern Standby”, that are poorly documented as in "hard to find out why you don't qualify". So, with that said, why would I try to go beyond device encryption? In other words: why would I even write this article? It is because Microsoft only allows device encryption on Windows 10 home when two conditions are met:Ģ. Well, do the home users normally even need these options? Normally, they don’t.
Under the hood, it is the same as Bitlocker, but it will not offer the end user as many options as Bitlocker does. Microsoft started to advertise that the home version comes with "device encryption" as well while making "Bitlocker device encryption" a separate feature, still unavailable on Windows Home edition.
Microsoft’s answer was “ device encryption”, which I would rather call “Bitlocker light”. But what could you use, if you had bought the Home edition of Windows and you wanted to keep away from 3rd party encryption software?
Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home windows 8#
Windows 8 made it available to the professional edition for the first time, which allowed a lot of home users that had purchased Pro to finally use it on their private devices.
Bitlocker recovery key windows 10 home windows 7#
Windows 7 continued that exclusive tradition. As you may know, Bitlocker full disk encryption used to be available only on the enterprise and ultimate editions of Windows Vista, when it was introduced more than 12 years ago.