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
    2024-05-05T12:16:02+00:00

    The identifier of the drive is generated when the drive is encrypted. This allows you, the end user, to identify which recovery key goes to which encrypted drive. the key file would have the same name , for multiple computers this is why, in your case you not giving me enough info, i asked do you have the drive still in the computer and why not, do you have windows home or pro, also other user has got files using bitlocker repair tool command line tool, BitLocker Repair Tool: Recover data from inaccessible encrypted drive (thewindowsclub.com)

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-02-21T23:08:24+00:00

    as i repeat all the info for the 3rd time in this forum

    Only disability is your understanding,

    its by design now in modern windows Home and some pro OEM pc's, if you log in with a microsoft account it turns it on automatically Yet It will Save the Key on Microsoft site in your account. .

    so only way is to TURN TPM OFF in BIOS or encryption in windows settings, that it, move on. that is what TPM does, its for encryption.

    your recover KEY if you get locked out is in attached to your microsoft account accessible on any device, .

    see link in here that says In your Microsoft account.

    Finding your BitLocker recovery key in Windows - Microsoft Support (if this link no longer works , google it is all)

    and ya if you dont now how to log into your microsoft email account on another computer , then thats your problem at this point. or if was setup on a previous account on that device, then ya , option is to format

    and know what to do going forward,, ie ,learn how to manage and remember to log into your microsoft account on any device , or TURN TPM OFF in BIOS. Thats all ,

    Windows 11 Home is now designed to login with Microsoft account so you have to turn it off even if you bypass windows default process, ......., NEXT

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-17T07:58:51+00:00

    This recently happened to me too but in Windows 11.

    It was a MSI laptop and i checked bitlocker after windows installation to make sure bitlocker was disabled so i can access my files if the laptop stops working for a hardware failure, windows update or any windows shinnanigan making it impossible to boot. And bitlocker was DISABLED in all drives.

    To my surprise today i upgraded my bios and windows asked me for my bitlocker key because it detected some security change or something. **** is going on, i never enabled this ****.

    Thank god the key was saved in my MS account (without my knowledge too) and i could access the system again, but this is **** stupid.

    I DONT **** WANT MY DRIVES ENCRYPTED AT ALL. And making it so it enables itself without user knownledge is even more stupid.

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  4. 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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  5. 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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