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
    2023-09-03T11:06:34+00:00

    When bitlocker was activated on my computer, I search and search for all possible places that the key could have uploaded to or saved to but in the end I had to bite the bullet and re-install from scratch.

    From what I have read on this thread, it looks like Microsoft are denying that it can happen and also a few sarcastic people on here too, but it clearly does.

    Of course now I have the constant worry that this could happen again.

    I wonder if Bitlocker can be removed from the OS completely so that it cannot.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-09-02T11:13:22+00:00

    Hi!! Yerstaday it happened to me to.After 1,5 years of owning my dell laptop and working on it on dailie base some update triggered the Bitlocker last night and locked me out!!Im so frustrated about this and my last solution is fully reinstall windows!!But before that i would like to know few things if someone can help..I bought this dell laptop and i set it up alone!!!So because windows wasnt preinstalled i think its not posible that some1 has the recovery key(is it true ?)!!I have searched all my microsoft account and still there is not key..i never saw something asking me write down the recovery key and i never uploaded in microsoft account..i cannot even find it in my student microsoft account.So here is my question!! 1)Is it posible that the key automaticaly uploaded in some other microsoft account that i may used and propably forgot?Or they only way is to upload it my self? 2) could my school organaization (some admin )own that key from the time i enabled my account in my pc?Is there maybe a third explanation of what could hapened!A help would appreciated!.Thanks

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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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