Bitlocker enabled itself on Windows 10 Home edition without a notice and without permission

Anonymous
2022-06-29T22:51:13+00:00

After three years of owning a Dell Inspiron 13 (Windows Home) the computer somehow enabled Bitlocker on its own and encrypted my C: drive. Since I did not activate Bitlocker, I don't have the keys to decrypt the drive. My Microsoft account does not list any keys in it so there is no way to recover the keys as far as I know. Therefore none of the published solutions I have seen can work because they all assume that I have access to the keys. I see many similar complaints online (at least since 2018) and hundreds of "likes" so this appears to be a relatively common problem.

When booting, I see a message titled "BitLocker recovery" and it asks for the recovery key. It then says to "try your work or school account at: aka.ms/aadrecoverykey."

This suggests that the key may be associated with some active directory domain away from my computer. However, the admin account on this computer has, to my knowledge, never logged into an active directory domain, although non-admin users have. And, if the Amin account has connected to a Active Directory somewhere, I sure as heck did not give them a permission to encrypt my drive and lock me out of my computer, and give the key to some third party "work or school" account. If this is what happened, Microsoft, you have a serious security issue where third parties can effectively encrypt hard drives without permission using Microsoft's own tools. That is ransomware - without the ransom. But, this is still just a theory vaguely supported by this link https://hardsoft-support.kayako.com/article/99-windows-10-bitlocker-turns-on-without-a-notice

Here is a quote from the post: "Dell and Lenovo systems that ship with the Windows 10 operating system and are equipped with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) capability will have Microsoft BitLocker encryption enabled from the factory. It has been found that once the device is registered to a Active Directory domain - Office 365 Azure AD, Windows 10 automatically encrypts the system drive. You find this once you reboot your computer and are then prompted for the BitLocker key."

Since I don't know what possible organization could have encrypted the drive, and since I don't have admin access to them, the instructions in the article don't apply.

The laptop is Dell Inspiron 13 7370 - which I don't even think has a TPM chip built in it. BIOS is version 1.20.0. ePSA build is 4306.13 UEFI ROM.

So, Microsoft, how does this get fixed?

P.S. My other computers have Win10 Pro and and they have Bitlocker turned on, but this computer intentionally did not have Bitlocker turned on - and it was not supposed to be possible to turn on bitlocker on a Win10 Home edition. I am mentioning this to highlight that I did not "accidentally" trigger the Bitlocker being turned on - especially because it requires many steps and confirmations. The drive was simply encrypted one day with permission from me.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Security and privacy

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-07-29T23:31:44+00:00

    Thanks for the snarky assumptions. These were client machines brought to me because they suddenly were BitLocked. These are not MY computers.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-07-29T23:24:05+00:00

    "PC Expert"??????

    Yes, W10 Home can use Bitlocker from the manufacturer. If you and others didn't avail yourself of saving the backup keys that's on you.

    It is very unfortunate that users don't learn about the various features of their computers and make sure to take appropriate backup measures.

    You surely, as a PC Expert, save routine backups so even if you didn't save your Bitlocker key you could restore your device painlessly, right?

    Thank goodness I don't use YouTube for "PC Advice"! LOL

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-07-29T22:53:53+00:00

    Only way I know of is to stop using Windows. Microsoft support claims this cannot happen. My two BitLocker laptops, and now yours, prove this is not true. And both of mine had Windows 10 Home, not Pro. Microsoft also said this couldn't happen. Microsoft claims that if it was a legitimate BitLocker, those keys would be visible under the customer's Microsoft account. Want to take a swing at the answer here?

    Microsoft's solution: "wipe and reinstall Windows". End of story.

    This will definitely be a subject I have covered and will continue to cover on my YouTube channel. Sorry for your data loss, my friend :(

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-07-29T22:02:33+00:00

    Well it looks like my turn.

    This morning I took my Lenovo laptop out of my bag, turned it on, only to be greated by a request for a Bitlogger key.

    I have searched far and wide the whole day for some sort of solution and came up with nothing.

    I use my laptop for work and have some important files on there which no doubt I am going to get in to trouble for losing them.

    The laptop has never been logged into or linked to a Microsoft account, but I have had Office 365 installed which is linked to my works Microsoft account.

    There I expected to see the bitlocker key, but there isn't one.
    I have contacted works Admin in the slim hope that the key is hidden from me and that they some how have it, but I propably have a better chance on the lottery.

    I feel physically sick over this.

    I don't even know what I have lost until I need it.

    Even if I reinstall Windows 11 Home, how can I stop this happening again?

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-07-24T20:46:53+00:00

    Well, someone needs to tell this information to this Lenovo laptop I have sitting here with Windows 10 Home, currently a brick on my desk with a bright blue "Bitlocker" screen on it.

    I'm not a coding expert by any means, just a PC repair guy...but if Microsoft is going to put something on a distribution (Pro or otherwise), they need to do a better job of either a) telling the end user that there is this mysterious application that "isn't supposed to work on your computer but might" and that they should back up THIS code immediately ...or b) not give users the chance to *not* back up their codes on legit BL Pro installations ...or (my favorite) c) spend less time "protecting" a machine that likely will never leave someone's private computer desk and spend more time preventing their core OS from constantly crashing when it doesn't like something it sees.

    Just my .02

    Guess I'll wipe this client's Windows 10 Home hard drive and just tell them a program that Microsoft said isn't on their computer caused it

    /sarcasm
    /sadface
    /thanksforkeepingmeinbusiness

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