Windows 11 caveat

Sangoma

Sangoma

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Steve, Coventry, England
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It seems that W11 enables bitlocker (drive encryption) by default.

That is fine if you are building nuclear weapons, or work with children and have their details on your machine, in both cases your data should also be on your works server.

But for home users, it could well be a problem.
I means that if you take a drive out of your machine and connect it to another machine (something many will have done for several possible reasons) you will not be able to access the data unless you have the bitlocker key for that drive.
I have disabled it and decrypted the drives.

Another point is that restore does not fully restore the machine to the restore point. It leaves installation folders in the Programme Files folder, which might need deleting before you reinstall the software.
 
This applies specifically to Windows 11 Pro and not Home since Bitlocker is a Pro feature plus this isn't anything new, Windows 10 Pro systems also enabled Bitlocker encryption by default if the system met the requirements (I have Bitlocker keys going back to 2014 despite never manually enabling it). The Pro version of the operating system is meant for business use and from experience, there are plenty of people carrying around work machine with data on them.

The recovery keys are automatically uploaded to the Microsoft account the PC was logged in with available through aka.ms/recoverykey
 
JohnMcL7 said:
This applies specifically to Windows 11 Pro and not Home since Bitlocker is a Pro feature plus this isn't anything new, Windows 10 Pro systems also enabled Bitlocker encryption by default if the system met the requirements (I have Bitlocker keys going back to 2014 despite never manually enabling it). The Pro version of the operating system is meant for business use and from experience, there are plenty of people carrying around work machine with data on them.

The recovery keys are automatically uploaded to the Microsoft account the PC was logged in with available through aka.ms/recoverykey
Click to expand...

If you don't log in to M$, does it still enable bitlocker?
 
JohnMcL7 said:
This applies specifically to Windows 11 Pro and not Home since Bitlocker is a Pro feature plus this isn't anything new, Windows 10 Pro systems also enabled Bitlocker encryption by default if the system met the requirements (I have Bitlocker keys going back to 2014 despite never manually enabling it). The Pro version of the operating system is meant for business use and from experience, there are plenty of people carrying around work machine with data on them.

The recovery keys are automatically uploaded to the Microsoft account the PC was logged in with available through aka.ms/recoverykey
Click to expand...

Sangoma said:
If you don't log in to M$, does it still enable bitlocker?
Click to expand...
My new build in 2023 is W10 Pro does not have the Bit Locker engaged and never did.
By default IIRC it required me to create/login to MS account but I very quickly setup the PC as a 'local' machine and have not logged it on since.

On the other hand
My refurbished Dell Ultrabook is W11 Pro
Akin to the way my self build desktop W10 it needed an MS login but I also set it up a a 'local' machine but to my surprise I discovered that the drive was Bit Locker encrypted. So that does appear to be the default setting but as it was bought as my travel PC I decided to leave it as it is.
 
Box Brownie said:
My new build in 2023 is W10 Pro does not have the Bit Locker engaged and never did.
By default IIRC it required me to create/login to MS account but I very quickly setup the PC as a 'local' machine and have not logged it on since.

On the other hand
My refurbished Dell Ultrabook is W11 Pro
Akin to the way my self build desktop W10 it needed an MS login but I also set it up a a 'local' machine but to my surprise I discovered that the drive was Bit Locker encrypted. So that does appear to be the default setting but as it was bought as my travel PC I decided to leave it as it is.
Click to expand...

Yes, I was going to comment, I have 4 machines here running 10 pro, and no bitlocker, but none set up with an M$ account.
 
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