BitLocker locked me out of my PC after a system update, but the recovery key saved me. I found it on my Microsoft account under the device’s details and used it to unlock each encrypted drive. It’s a ...

Microsoft’s BitLocker is a security feature built into Windows that encrypts the entire hard drive. The idea is to protect your personal files from prying eyes in case your PC is ever lost or stolen.

Microsoft handed over encryption keys for its hard drive encryption software BitLocker to the FBI last year, complying with a search warrant tied to a fraud investigation in Guam. This marks the first ...

Microsoft has confirmed that it provided BitLocker recovery keys to the FBI in response to a valid legal order, giving investigators the ability to decrypt hard drives that would otherwise have been ...

In the Pro editions of Windows, the BitLocker hard drive encryption feature has been included since Windows Vista. Under the name Device Encryption, it also became part of the Home editions with ...

The disclosure underscores how recovery keys stored in Microsoft’s cloud can be accessed under warrant, even when enterprise data is encrypted. Microsoft gave Windows users’ BitLocker encryption keys ...

Update 19-Aug-2024: Microsoft has now resolved this bug. See details below. Five years ago, after a particularly embarrassing run of flawed Windows updates, Microsoft vowed to do better. Part of its ...

Microsoft has addressed a known issue causing some Windows 11 systems to boot into BitLocker recovery after installing the April 2026 Windows security updates. BitLocker is a Windows security feature ...