How to Use BitLocker on Windows 11

In this article, we will explain how to use BitLocker on Windows 11 , both with the Pro, Enterprise and Education editions and with the Home edition, the most popular among users who own a Windows PC.

BitLocker is a security feature in the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 11 that allows you to encrypt an entire hard drive , providing advanced protection for your data from theft, loss, or cyber attacks.
It is virtually impossible for a thief or hacker to break BitLocker encryption: the only way to do so is to know the correct decryption key.

With the BitLocker function active , therefore, even if a person were to get their hands on the computer, by removing the hard disk and connecting it to another PC, they would still have no way of accessing the data contained within it without first knowing the BitLocker key.

To use BitLocker on Windows 11 Home, users of this version have the Device Encryption feature available to them , which automatically enables BitLocker encryption for both the drive on which the operating system is installed and for other fixed drives.

BitLocker and Device Encryption: Differences Between Pro and Home Editions of Windows 11

The main difference between BitLocker and Device Encryption features is that BitLocker can encrypt a single drive by implementing a set of management tools, whereas Device Encryption automatically protects the system and secondary drives without giving the user the ability to exclude a drive or partition.

Simply put, BitLocker drive encryption can only be used in the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 11, while Device Encryption is present in Windows 11 Home, the most popular edition.

Requirements for BitLocker and Device Encryption

Another difference concerns the requirements of each:

• BitLocker requires a PC with a Trusted Platform Module ( TPM ) 1.2 or later chip and a Trusted Computing Group (TGC)-compliant BIOS or UEFI firmware.
• Device Encryption requires a device with a TPM 1.2 or 2.0 chip, as well as enabling Secure Boot (a feature that prevents unauthorized software from being notified on your computer) and DMA protection (short for Direct Memory Access, a feature that protects external devices from unauthorized access to memory).

How to Use BitLocker on Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education

BitLocker encryption is already enabled on most PCs running the Pro , Enterprise , and Education editions of Windows 11. If not, you can enable it by following a few simple steps:

• Open the Windows Security app .
• Click on the “Device Security” item .
• Under the “Data Encryption” heading , click the “Manage BitLocker Drive Encryption” item 

After a few moments, a new Control Panel dialog will open : all you have to do now is click on the “Turn on BitLocker” item corresponding to the drive you want to encrypt.

The next step is to choose where to store the BitLocker recovery key to access the encrypted drive in case you forget the password.
The options available to save the BitLocker password are:

• cloud saving with Microsoft Azure AD account,
• save to a file,
• Print the recovery key.

Once you have saved your BitLocker recovery key, click “Next” to proceed.

In the new screen you have to choose how much space on your drive you want to encrypt . The fastest solution, and also the recommended one, is to encrypt only the used disk space, the slowest one instead involves encrypting the entire drive.

You will then be asked to choose the encryption mode to use . The default choice is “New encryption mode” (best for your computer’s fixed drives), while “Compatible mode” is best for secondary drives.

Finally, if prompted, add a check mark next to “Run BitLocker system check” to ensure that BitLocker is able to read the encryption and recovery keys correctly before encrypting the selected drive.

How to Use BitLocker on Windows 11 Home

Unlike the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions, owners of a PC with Windows 11 Home have access to the Device Encryption feature , which still offers BitLocker encryption but in a more limited form.

Device Encryption is usually enabled by default. If it isn’t, you can enable it in a few simple steps.

Enable Device Encryption on Windows 11 Home

First of all, make sure you are logging into Windows 11 with an administrator account and not a local account. If it is your computer, in 99.9% of cases you are already using an administrator account.

Now open Settings (via the Start menu or the W+I key combination), then in the left side menu click on the “Privacy and Security” item .

In the new screen that opens, locate the “Security” heading and select the “Device Encryption” tab .

Now next to “Device Encryption” move the switch from left to right and make sure it turns blue and says “Enabled” appears .

That’s all, you don’t need to do anything else to use the Device Encryption feature on your computer.

On this same screen, under the “Related” heading, you can see the “BitLocker Drive Encryption” and “Find your BitLocker recovery key” tabs, one below the other .
These are two settings that are tied to the use of BitLocker in the Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions of Windows 11, so you can ignore them.

If you need to use BitLocker drive encryption on your PC, then click on the “BitLocker Drive Encryption” tab: after a few moments, you will be automatically redirected to the official Microsoft Store page for upgrading to Windows 11 Pro.

Regarding this topic, you can find the dedicated procedure in our guide on how to activate Windows 11 .

Finally, regarding the topic of privacy, we share two guides that may be useful for increasing the level of security of your data: