FOR~GO
(For Geeks Only)
By Joe Callison
31 October 2023
Managing BitLocker
You may have recently seen articles about BitLocker on Windows 11 slowing SSD performance as much as 45% in some applications. The slowdown is due to using software encryption by the operating system. This may eventually be resolved by Windows 11 patches. There are some processors and SSDs with hardware encryption capability, but these have had vulnerabilities requiring patches.
Many computers preinstalled or newly installed with Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education will have BitLocker turned on by default. If you use the software encryption feature of Windows, it is imperative to safely store the Recovery Key. Even then, there have been reported cases of the Recovery Key not working. Having an unencrypted backup of your essential data is still recommended.
A couple of good references for using or disabling BitLocker are below:
How to configure BitLocker encryption on Windows 11 | Windows Central
