HOW TO ENCRYPT FLASH DRIVE WINDOWS 10 DISK MANAGEMENT FOR FREE
HOW TO ENCRYPT FLASH DRIVE WINDOWS 10 DISK MANAGEMENT HOW TO

HOW TO ENCRYPT FLASH DRIVE WINDOWS 10 DISK MANAGEMENT FOR FREE

If you upgraded for free from Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1 Professional, you should have Windows 10 Professional. If you already have a Professional edition of Windows 10 installed on your PC, you can search for “BitLocker” in the Start menu and use the BitLocker control panel to enable it. You’ll have to use a USB flash drive as a “startup key” that must be present every boot if you enable this option. Windows normally says BitLocker requires a TPM, but there’s a hidden option that allows you to enable BitLocker without a TPM.

HOW TO ENCRYPT FLASH DRIVE WINDOWS 10 DISK MANAGEMENT HOW TO

RELATED: How to Use BitLocker Without a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) You’ll need one that supports the exact motherboard inside your PC. Search for a TPM chip that’s sold as an add-on module. You can quickly check whether your PC has TPM hardware from within Windows, or check with your computer’s manufacturer if you’re not sure. If you built your own PC, you may able to add a TPM chip to it. However, Microsoft still restricts BitLocker to Professional, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 10.īitLocker is most secure on a computer that contains Trusted Platform Module (TPM) hardware, which most modern PCs do. Microsoft’s BitLocker encryption tool has been part of Windows for several versions now, and it’s generally well regarded. If Device Encryption isn’t enabled-or if you want a more powerful encryption solution that can also encrypt removable USB drives, for example-you’ll want to use BitLocker. RELATED: Should You Upgrade to the Professional Edition of Windows 10? If Device Encryption is enabled-or if you can enable it by signing in with a Microsoft account-you’ll see a message saying so here. If you don’t see anything about Device Encryption here, your PC doesn’t support Device Encryption and it’s not enabled. To check if Device Encryption is enabled, open the Settings app, navigate to System > About, and look for a “Device encryption” setting at the bottom of the About pane. However, this doesn’t apply to the average person’s PC-only PCs joined to domains. Your recovery key would then be uploaded to your organization’s domain servers. For example, you might sign into a domain owned by your employer or school. If you’re worried about the NSA, you may want to use a different encryption solution.)ĭevice Encryption will also be enabled if you sign into an organization’s domain. ( This is also why the FBI likely isn’t too worried about this feature, but we’re just recommending encryption as a means to protect your data from laptop thieves here. This will help you recover your files if you ever can’t log into your PC.

Your recovery key is then uploaded to Microsoft’s servers.

There’s another limitation, too-it only actually encrypts your drive if you sign into Windows with a Microsoft account.

How to encrypt flash drive windows 10 disk management