BitLocker Drive Encryption is a data protection feature that integrates with the operating system and addresses the threats of data theft or exposure from lost, stolen, or inappropriately decommissioned OS drives and computers.
New files are automatically encrypted when you save them to a drive encrypted by BitLocker. However, if you copy these files to another drive or a different PC not encrypted by BitLocker, the files are automatically decrypted.
BitLocker checks the PC during startup for any conditions that could represent a security risk (for example, a change to the BIOS software that starts the operating system when you turn on your PC, or changes to any startup files). If a potential security risk is detected, BitLocker will lock the operating system drive and you’ll need a special BitLocker recovery key to unlock it.
You can choose to unlock BitLocker at startup for the operating system drive with a PIN, with USB flash drive, or automatically with TPM.
This tutorial will show you how to turn on BitLocker Drive Encryption for an operating system drive in Windows 11.