Got Bitlocker - didn’t ask for it
Discussion
My mother’s laptop (cheap-ish Dell i5) is asking for a Bitlocker key. I set the laptop up five years ago and I absolutely know I didn’t enable bitlocker. There’s also no way my mother (86yo) would have done it - she’s always sending me screenshots asking what she should do when she sees something unusual, so there’s zero chance she would have done it herself.
Clearly, I don’t have a key (I have bitlocker on several other laptops and I’ve kept separate records of the keys in various obscure places)
Are there any other recovery options, or am I looking at a reset? It’s not a disaster, but it will still take hours to sort out that I’d rather not do if there’s a workaround.
Clearly, I don’t have a key (I have bitlocker on several other laptops and I’ve kept separate records of the keys in various obscure places)
Are there any other recovery options, or am I looking at a reset? It’s not a disaster, but it will still take hours to sort out that I’d rather not do if there’s a workaround.
You can get a bitlocker recovery key from your (or your mother's) Microsoft account, assuming it was set up via one of those two. I had to do this recently when my PC asked for the recovery key after a known buggy Windows security update. Can't remember the exact procedure but it's easily searchable.
My daughter had exactly the same thing recently. After some investigation I got the bit locker key from her school Microsoft account by logging in from another computer.
No idea why it suddenly turned itself on, I would imagine non it literate parents would have no idea how to fix it.
No idea why it suddenly turned itself on, I would imagine non it literate parents would have no idea how to fix it.
If she does not have a Pro edition of the OS then it's Windows Device Encryption: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/device...
I would assume she's using an MS account, log in on the web. Here's a nice deeplink: https://account.microsoft.com/devices
Click on the device that the computer is and you will see "Manage Recovery Keys"
Beware - the underlying reason this has come up is likely because the drive is failing in some shape or form.
I would assume she's using an MS account, log in on the web. Here's a nice deeplink: https://account.microsoft.com/devices
Click on the device that the computer is and you will see "Manage Recovery Keys"
Beware - the underlying reason this has come up is likely because the drive is failing in some shape or form.
eeLee said:
Beware - the underlying reason this has come up is likely because the drive is failing in some shape or form.
Useful to know - thanks. Despite me nagging for her to turn the laptop off overnight, I doubt it has been turned off more than 20 times since new - it just stays on until it crashes and needs a reboot.After a recent Microsoft update my local account disappeared and I was asked for a password, I'd set it up with a local account so I could disable pin entry.
After a lot of faffing about I got back in and had to re set up a local account and pin so I could disable it again. Thanks Microsoft.
My point being, after others have had similar issues it may be a Microsoft security update issue.
After a lot of faffing about I got back in and had to re set up a local account and pin so I could disable it again. Thanks Microsoft.
My point being, after others have had similar issues it may be a Microsoft security update issue.
Edited by I am alright Jack on Friday 13th September 22:19
Just to say, crap like this is why I've just switched my desktop to Linux (still dual booting for games).
MS are shortly to push their spyware 'recall' function into the OS and it will not be removable .. just (initially) possible to disable in an option buried in the control panels. These sorts of disable options seem to magically get unchecked whenever they push out updates to the OS, I have found.
They claim that the keypresses that they log and screenshots they take every few minutes will be kept locally and encrypted to be only accessible by the user but I have zero trust that they won't eventually start uploading the things to their cloud and they obviously have the keys themselves to decrypt your supposedly private info (which means the authorities will have access too).
Still in the early days of going Linux but the translation has been very painless. It all depends how you use your PC and what software you run, but so far I've found I can do every common task on either the Linux version of the software, or an equivalent piece of software. Even games are looking good as Steam now will install Proton as per Steamdeck and in theory, this should mean similar compatibility with games. I've got an Nvidia card which has been an issue with Linux in the past but now seems to work very well indeed. So far, I've tried a few 'Windows' games under Steam/Proton in my Ubuntu install and they have worked great.
Just get out of Windows, sooner is better than later.
MS are shortly to push their spyware 'recall' function into the OS and it will not be removable .. just (initially) possible to disable in an option buried in the control panels. These sorts of disable options seem to magically get unchecked whenever they push out updates to the OS, I have found.
They claim that the keypresses that they log and screenshots they take every few minutes will be kept locally and encrypted to be only accessible by the user but I have zero trust that they won't eventually start uploading the things to their cloud and they obviously have the keys themselves to decrypt your supposedly private info (which means the authorities will have access too).
Still in the early days of going Linux but the translation has been very painless. It all depends how you use your PC and what software you run, but so far I've found I can do every common task on either the Linux version of the software, or an equivalent piece of software. Even games are looking good as Steam now will install Proton as per Steamdeck and in theory, this should mean similar compatibility with games. I've got an Nvidia card which has been an issue with Linux in the past but now seems to work very well indeed. So far, I've tried a few 'Windows' games under Steam/Proton in my Ubuntu install and they have worked great.
Just get out of Windows, sooner is better than later.
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