BitLocker....

[Texas_Signmaker]

If you have Windows 10 or 11, go to your settings and get your bitlocker key. There is an update bug going around that can kick your PC into lock mode and if you don't get your key BEFORE your computer is locked, all your stuff is gone... and I mean EVERYTHING including your factory recovery options. My wife just lost her entire computer.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

So is this like winshingles? It's inside of you?

 

[White Haus]

Seems like Bitlocker is only an option on Windows Pro (somehow we're running Windows 10 home).

Is this a legit concern or a freak accident?

 

[garyroy]

Thank you Tex, we are looking into this in detail.
Researching on Google it seems to be a problem on about 2% of Windows installations.
It also seems to have been happening for the past few years, maybe as early as 2016. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Researching on Google it seems to be a problem on about 2% of Windows installations.

If that's accurate, that's still 2% of the largest desktop market share. That's a big number compared to if it happened to Macs or certainly Linux desktop users. It stings even more if one is apart of that 2% as well. Keep in mind as well, they do have a rolling update schedule, so not all computers are getting the updates at the same time. So while it may be right now it's 2%, that's only because of the slow roll out. I think they changed that since the 1809 update. So that "about 2%" is also misleading as well. It may be only 2% of the installs, but have all the installs received that update or is it a scenario where that 2% is the entire install based that has also gotten that update?

Of course, since MS no longer has their QA team (they got rid of them what 2014, 2015 somewhere around there), not all that surprising that update issues seem to happen with quite a bit of frequency.

Now to be fair, it happens with everyone, why updates are a double edge sword. Linux just had their own with GRUB, but it mainly affected (at least right now) the gamers (yes it is a thing on Linux (not like it is with MS, but it is getting bigger and with some moves that MS is doing, may help things along, but I digress), especially with the rise of Steam). Mac has had their own as well. I seem to recall a Su/Sudo issue that happened.

But it really seems with MS when they do happen, they happen big time. I used to have sympathy for it given all the hardware/software combinations that are in the Windows ecosystem versus Mac, but no longer having an internal QA team and a spotty history with how the Insider's Ring reports and upvotes issues and that is the last line of defense for spotting issues before they are rolled out to the rest of the users, even less so.

 

[Jay Grooms]

Just checked, mine is off on win 11pro. Don't remember if I shut if off or it was that way by default.

EDIT - Just googled it, seems it's on by default. shut it off or back up those keys.

 

[netsol]

If you have Windows 10 or 11, go to your settings and get your bitlocker key. There is an update bug going around that can kick your PC into lock mode and if you don't get your key BEFORE your computer is locked, all your stuff is gone... and I mean EVERYTHING including your factory recovery options. My wife just lost her entire computer.

But in order for bitlocker to be a problem, you have to answer a question THE WRONG WAY

remember how ronald reagan said the most frightening 9 words in the english language are "i'm from the government & i'm here to help" ?

if you substitute Microsoft for "the government" you will see where i am going here.

if you say "i need to protect my data and i want that flock of idiots that brought us windows defender & BING to work on it" then, i stand corrected

as a rule i assume my interests and those of microsoft are not perfectly aligned

but, seriously, this could be worse than a ransomware attack. i suggest everyone check their status and either retrieve their key or, TURN OFF BITLOCKER

 

[WildWestDesigns]

remember how ronald reagan said the most frightening 9 words in the english language are "i'm from the government & i'm here to help" ?

if you substitute Microsoft for "the government" you will see where i am going here.

That was a different time. I think for quite a lot of people, the reverse is true for them now.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

for us not so computer savy folks, what is bitlocker and how do you turn it off?

 

[WildWestDesigns]

for us not so computer savy folks, what is bitlocker and how do you turn it off?

It's been around since Vista I think. Has to do with encryption of drives. Normally I'm all for data encryption, but yea, not really from MS.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Bitlocker encrypts your files and is built into Windows Pro editions. I didn't realize it was enabled out of the box on our new computers and didn't know that I had to get the key for it. If your computer goes into lock mode and you don't have your key, I don't think any hacker in the world could recover your files.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Seems like Bitlocker is only an option on Windows Pro (somehow we're running Windows 10 home).

Is this a legit concern or a freak accident?

I'd say it's a legit concern. Might be a freak accident and we're one of the small percent that it happened to, but when it happens to you it's 100% a problem. I just wish I knew to take a picture of the key beforehand.

 

[GAC05]

I'd say it's a legit concern. Might be a freak accident and we're one of the small percent that it happened to, but when it happens to you it's 100% a problem. I just wish I knew to take a picture of the key beforehand.

Tex, I looked to see what you were talking about and stumbled across this (maybe you looked already):

BitLocker likely ensured that a recovery key was safely backed up prior to activating protection. There are several places that your recovery key may be, depending on the choice that was made when activating BitLocker:

• In your Microsoft account: Sign in to your Microsoft account on another device to find your recovery key. This is the most likely place to find your recovery key.
  
  You can use the link above, or just go to https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

Tex, I looked to see what you were talking about and stumbled across this (maybe you looked already):

BitLocker likely ensured that a recovery key was safely backed up prior to activating protection. There are several places that your recovery key may be, depending on the choice that was made when activating BitLocker:

• In your Microsoft account: Sign in to your Microsoft account on another device to find your recovery key. This is the most likely place to find your recovery key.
  
  You can use the link above, or just go to https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey.

Thanks. I did try that and it wasn't stored there, on either mine or my wife's account. It showed both my computers registered but no bitlocker key. I'm guessing that you have to choose to back it up online before you get locked out.

 

[GAC05]

Thanks. I did try that and it wasn't stored there, on either mine or my wife's account. It showed both my computers registered but no bitlocker key. I'm guessing that you have to choose to back it up online before you get locked out.

Well, it was worth a shot. You can tell how much I know about this stuff - I didn't know I had a Microsoft account for my win10 laptop until yesterday.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

• In your Microsoft account: Sign in to your Microsoft account on another device to find your recovery key. This is the most likely place to find your recovery key.
  
  You can use the link above, or just go to https://account.microsoft.com/devices/recoverykey.

Not exactly a good thing in the grand scheme of things. Sorry, but give me local accounts.

Well, it was worth a shot. You can tell how much I know about this stuff - I didn't know I had a Microsoft account for my win10 laptop until yesterday.

Well, there is a push to have Windows Accounts, especially on Win 11, in fact, the default is not a local account, but to have a MS account. There is (at least one that I am aware of) way around that, but no promises (like with anything that used to have a workaround, but later plugged up) that that workaround will still exist. Not exactly a fan of that, at all, but for those that just love convenience above all else, it's great to have.

Side loading apps (everyone on Windows has done this at one time, just may or may not have been aware of the term for it) is also something trying to do away with as well, especially on Win 11 (that may or may not make it to Win 10, but it's a thing for Win 11), but it's quite the task for those that already have Win 11 to get it on there when it didn't already come with it. Those that are getting new computers, well, since this isn't exactly new news, probably already on there and enabled by default.

 

[netsol]

for us not so computer savy folks, what is bitlocker and how do you turn it off?

 

[netsol]

"Well, there is a push to have Windows Accounts, especially on Win 11, in fact, the default is not a local account"

and if you don't feel there are enough tech weasels selling your private data, sign in with that microsoft account and do your bing search....

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I signed in with a local account, so I think that's why my bitlocker key wasn't tied to my MS account

 

[WildWestDesigns]

"Well, there is a push to have Windows Accounts, especially on Win 11, in fact, the default is not a local account"

and if you don't feel there are enough tech weasels selling your private data, sign in with that microsoft account and do your bing search....

I don't know if California passed that law yet or not, supposedly to protect children (way to vague to actually have any meaning), but that's going to be no bueno with web browsing in general as well.

I know some on here think that they have nothing to hide, there are things that those same people don't want other people knowing (and it doesn't mean that it is illegal or no no stuff, people have seem to conflate having something to hide with doing bad things).

But guess what though, sign in to your MS account, do a Bing search and watch the glorious ads be served to you pinned right to your start menu. And that's probably the most benign thing that could happen. Let's not forget all of the breaches with companies that are doing all this data mining etc. But I digress and go further and further into my tin foil hat.