Bitlocker Question

depawl52 · Jan 16, 2025

Greetings all. Not sure if this is the correct forum, this is my first post, so here goes:
I've got 2 computers, one running Windows 11 Pro and the other running Windows 11 Home.
If I password protect/encrypt an external USB drive on the Win 11 Pro machine, will I be able to access it from the Win 11 Home machine?
I realize Win 11 Home doesn't have BitLocker, but wondered if I plug the drive into that machine would it recognize the drive and let me access the data
on it using the password?
Thanks in advance for any input.
I realize that another option would be to upgrade the Home machine to Pro, but I really have no other need to do that.

kelper · Jan 16, 2025

While you wait for someone more knowledgable than me, I asked ChatGPT and she said,

Yes, if you password-protect and encrypt an external USB drive using BitLocker on the Windows 11 Pro machine, you can still access the encrypted drive on the Windows 11 Home machine. Here's why and how it works:

BitLocker To Go Reader: Windows 11 Home cannot encrypt drives with BitLocker, but it includes support for reading BitLocker-encrypted drives. When you plug the encrypted drive into the Windows 11 Home machine, the system will prompt you to enter the password you set during encryption on the Pro machine.

So just give it a try.

depawl52 · Jan 16, 2025

Thank you Kelper. I'll def give it a try. Never used ChatGPT.

glasskuter · Jan 16, 2025

Good to see someone else who uses Chatgpt @kelper. Don't you think it is more intuitive in both its understanding and its answers than co-pilot?
I don't need any more apps so instead of chatgpt app, I use it online at https://chatgpt.com/

kelper · Jan 16, 2025

It's good at coding questions, but useless at many tasks. I asked it for a list of proper oxymorons and it came up with things like pretty-awful, jumbo shrimp and living dead. Co-Pilot is equally bad and came up with the same ones plus awfully good.

pseymour · Jan 16, 2025

The root problem of gen AI is that it’s fed human knowledge.

Berton · Jan 16, 2025

A tip: I set up a new Lenovo IdeaPad Notebook in Oct. and a new Dell Inspiron Notebook just on Monday, both with Home edition. I have been under the impression only the Pro edition came with Bitlocker but both of these Notebooks set up with the C: drive automatically Encrypted with Bitlocker, showed in Disk Management.

Both setups required a Microsoft Account and did not ask for a Password, just a PIN. No mention was made about Bitlocker and no password given nor asked for.

I was under the impression Bitlocker only came with Pro but could be used on Home. Anyway, I removed it for owner's desire.

rchris · Jan 16, 2025

Berton said:
I was under the impression Bitlocker only came with Pro but could be used on Home.

You're correct that Windows Pro uses Bitlocker; Home version uses something called "Device Encryption." I don't know why or what the difference is.

kelper · Jan 16, 2025

ask ChatGPT, it explains the differences very succinctly.

pseymour · Jan 16, 2025

Device Encryption is BitLocker Light. Same encryption technology, just missing some management features that home users probably don’t care about.

glasskuter · Jan 16, 2025

rchris said:
Home version uses something called "Device Encryption." I don't know why or what the difference is.

Device encryption encrypts ALL your connected drives. Pro users use bitlocker which allows the user to choose which drives to encrypt.
New devices with ~~modern standby and~~ Home version~~(mobile devices like laptops~~)automatically enable device encryption if one uses a MS account.

cereberus · Jan 17, 2025

glasskuter said:
Device encryption encrypts ALL your connected drives. Pro users use bitlocker which allows the user to choose which drives to encrypt.
New devices with modern standby and Home version(mobile devices like laptops)automatically enable device encryption if one uses a MS account.

The modern standby restriction was lifted ages ago. The only restriction is the device has a TPM 2 module which applies to all new oem Windows 11 pcs.

Strictly of course all pcs have an MS account (unless user bypasses this during installation by various techniques).

glasskuter · Jan 17, 2025

Thanks for the correction @cereberus. I corrected my statement to remove modern standby.

cereberus · Jan 17, 2025

glasskuter said:
Thanks for the correction @cereberus. I corrected my statement to remove modern standby.

Even then, it is a bit more complicated.

If you clean install Home on a laptop, device encyption puts the pc into a bitlocker ready state but does not actually encrypt UNTIL user actually activates bitlocker.

To this end, the intial computer drive management screens are a bit misleading i.e. they imply drives are bitlocked when they are not really.

A lot of fuss is made about device encryption but one can simply turn it off after installation and it does not take long to do so.

Frankly device encrryption on a laptop is pretty meaningless as it automatically opens anyway if booted.

It does protect user if drive is stolen but not so much if laptop is stolen.

In the end, one still needs a good strong password/PIN if laptop is stolen.

depawl52 · Jan 17, 2025

Thanks to all for the additional content, but getting back to my original post, and Kelper's reply, it worked perfectly. I can access my (password protected) usb drive from both my Win Pro and Win Home computers.
I'd like to say that I'll now sleep better at night but at my age that's not likely.

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