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
    2023-03-07T00:18:01+00:00

    Hello,

    While I do not have time to read through all the comments, I do want to share something similar happening to me. I recently performed a clean install on a new NVME 2TB drive with Windows 10 22H1 (Home) on 10/15/2022. I am just noticing the (Bitlocker Encrypted) in Disk Management today, 3/6/2023.

    I went to Settings > Update & Security > Device encryption and low and behold it is offering for me to disable it, when I did not come here to enable it.

    I have been able to press the disable button here and it is in the midst of decrypting the drive now. If I do not reply again, it was successful. I will make another post if I am forced to perform a reinstall.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-04-25T05:50:07+00:00

    I recently experienced a "crash" and had to reinstall Windows 10 (Home). Not only did Bitlocker appear on my system, it locked me out of one of my crucial drives I use for my business. I have no clue how to recover my bitlocker ID or Password. I have NO PATIENCE with this type of BS!

    With all the available encryption software available, I see no reason to activate a system especially without permissions...

    If you have a solution to unlocking my External HDD it would be greatly appreciated. And NO, I cannot format. I have essential information and documents on the drive I need to use and recover.

    Thanks,

    FD

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-04-26T02:59:15+00:00

    Login to Microsoft and you can get the bitlock code.

    Finding your BitLocker recovery key in Windows - Microsoft Support

    Is this on an HP Laptop?

    Good luck.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-05-16T23:46:59+00:00

    I own a computer repair shop in MI, I've seen this a lot starting around sept of last year (2022). Yes it's on HOME editions, not Pro or other and it is being activated without user consent (90% of the people don't even know what it is!), I've had to reset about a dozen and was able to get access to the keys for another couple dozen so yeah something going wrong on Windows side. Thankfully it does store your recovery key in your MS account if you have access but if you don't your up a creek.

    Additionally, after this error, I've seen installer packages not recognize the version of Windows you have installed and refuse to install (specifically Nvidia drivers). No apparent fix but to reinstall.

    For what it's worth, I think it is BIOS related, at least mine was.

    I turned off TPM to stop getting Windows 11 notices because they are insufferably persistent and crafty by repositioning responses. When I rebooted after changing that setting, Bitlocker was turned on. I reset to default BIOS settings and rebooted and was able to get to the OS (Win10) normally.

    If this is some sort of insidious way of keeping people from avoiding a Windows 11 install, I honestly wouldn't doubt it.

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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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