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Back in January Microsoft encrypted all my hard drives without saying anything. I was playing around with a dual boot yesterday and somehow aggravated Secureboot. So my C: panicked and required a 40 character key to unlock.

Your key is backed up to the Microsoft account associated with your install. Which is considerate to the hackers. (and saved me from a re-install) But if you've got an unactivated copy, local account, or don't know your M$ account credentials, your boned.

Control Panel > System Security > Bitlocker Encryption.

BTW, I was aware that M$ was doing this and even made fun of the effected users. Karma.

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[-] Tylerdurdon@lemmy.world 94 points 1 month ago

They also do spyware. They just renamed it "AI."

[-] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 33 points 1 month ago
[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Rectal is what it's called I believe?

Microsoft Rectal

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[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 13 points 1 month ago

Did they change it from "telemetry" to AI now?

[-] Fuck_u_spez_@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 month ago
[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Unless the "telemetry" has been removed, shouldnt there be "added extra" instead of "renamed"?

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 70 points 1 month ago
[-] ashaman2007@lemm.ee 18 points 1 month ago

🤔 shit... you right

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[-] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 63 points 1 month ago

They desperately wanted to eliminate personal computers and replace them with dumb terminals running over the net.

When the public rejected this idea

THIS is their response. They are still insisting on total control of our computers.

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 33 points 1 month ago

They desperately wanted to eliminate personal computers and replace them with dumb terminals running over the net.

I don't know about that.

Dumb terminal concept was more what Chromebook was doing.

Microsoft is doing something even stupider.

[-] CafecitoHippo@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Dumb terminal concept was more what Chromebook was doing.

I mean, for a lot of people they're fine especially if they're priced appropriately. Especially with a lot more software as a service out there. My problem is that all of them have a built in drop dead date on when they're going to stop getting updates and there's not really a great option for the devices post ChromeOS.

ChromeOS certainly can be a good system. I still have my old CR-48 from when I got selected to test the OS and even when it was in its infancy, it was solid. I used it for a lot of my college career because it was better than my Asus eeePC which had Ubuntu on it.

[-] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 month ago

I had an Intel Chromebox that I ran galliumOS on. The problem is locked bootloaders which should be illegal

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[-] toastmeister@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago

Not to mention DRM. They want to own your computer and prevent any kind of modification so that movie producers give them money.

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[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 59 points 1 month ago

Holy shit, they automatically activate it on computers without an account to back the key up to?

That's just malicious

[-] Godort@lemm.ee 33 points 1 month ago

IIRC, they only do this if you're logged in with a Microsoft account.

Bitlocker is disabled by default if you only use local accounts

[-] EpeeGnome@lemm.ee 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I've occasionally seen it activate itself on computers with only a local account, though I've so far only seen it when upgrading in place to 11 with secure boot enabled in the BIOS, and not every time. Fortunately the one time it locked me out was on a freshly cloned drive, so it only cost me redoing the work.

Also, the number of people who I've seen lose all their data because they don't even know they created an MS account during OOBE, and later had a boot or BIOS hiccup, is too damn high!

[-] GoodLuckToFriends@lemmy.today 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I have (had ;'( ) a local account, and bitlocker was activated. I only found out when my motherboard bit the dust, and that triggered the no-TPM bitlocker thingamajig. Goodbye data.

Of course it hits right as I needed the data on that laptop. Fucking murphy and his fancy legal words.

If anyone is in a situation like mine, you might find luck with a little DIY hacking: https://www.techspot.com/news/106166-old-bitlocker-vulnerability-exploited-bypass-encryption-updated-windows.html

[-] yaroto98@lemmy.org 59 points 1 month ago

Just checked my wife's laptop. Local account, secure boot off, windows 10. It had a message telling me to setup a microsoft account to 'finish encrypting the device'. I clicked turn off, and it's currently decrypting the hard drive. Blech.

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[-] Ptsf@lemmy.world 26 points 1 month ago

I've actually had this occur before to a machine I specifically disabled the tpm on so that it wouldn't happen (it was an account less frozen kiosk). I was fuming the entire time I spent rebuilding it.

[-] andybytes@programming.dev 24 points 1 month ago

Windows is the virus.

[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 month ago

Meanwhile in Linux with luls, which I've had since a pre-pre-pre version somewhere back in the early 2000's, I can have multiple keys, all works like sunshine, never had problems.

On windows... So we work with highly sensitive data, and ever since I came in I thought it insane that people working remote don't have that highly sensitive data encrypted. We can't switch Linux yet, so okay, we go for BitLocker.

Boy oh boy oh boy was that a mistake.

50 remote users, 5 get encrypted devices with BitLocker as a trial and within a month, 3 of them already got locked up permanently because apparently it'll pwrma lock itself after x amounts of invalid passwords which is just incredibly stupid. But don't worry, there is a backup key! Yeah, that is lie 48 characters that we'd had to pass by phone and they have to type it flawlessly.

Suffice to say, the remote users will be running Linux soon, like it or not.

[-] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago

Yeah, that is lie 48 characters that we'd had to pass by phone and they have to type it flawlessly.

Wouldn't be so bad if everyone knew their Alpha Bravo Charlies

My one talent: alpha bravo charlie delta echo foxtrot golf hotel India Juliet kilo Lima mike November Oscar papa Quebec Romeo Sierra tango uniform Victor whiskey x-ray Yankee Zulu, typed using voice to text

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[-] HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 month ago

Fuck Microsoft.

I remember back in highschool a buddy encrypted his harddrive, didn't backup his key. He Lost ALOT when I upgraded his comp

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[-] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago
[-] nargis@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Bit late to this thread but I know a few commands that might help if you're stuck:

manage-bde -off C: (or any other drive) This decrypts the volume and turns off bitlocker

manage-bde -lock/unlock

manage-bde -protectors -get C: (or any other drive) This displays your 48-digit key. I suggest you store it somewhere, just to be safe.

Get-BitlockerVolume reveals which of your partitions are encrypted with Bitlocker.

Disclaimer: I am not a terminal nerd, I just had similar problems years ago and went down the rabbit hole, used these commands and turned off bitlocker permanently. I don't use windows anymore, but when I did, it didn't cause any problems with bitlocker after this. If you're concerned about your un-encrypted hard drives, consider using Veracrypt (carefully!) or similar open source encryption software.

[-] Godort@lemm.ee 13 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Not that it helps now, but you can also dump your bitlocker recovery key through powershell and save it independently.

(Get-BitLockerVolume -MountPoint "C").KeyProtector

[-] yesman@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

The control panel dialogue allows you to do this as well. Control Panel > system security > Bitlocker encryption. But it also has the superior option which is to turn it off.

I didn't loose any data BTW. I had my M$ account info, and a backup besides.

[-] dan@upvote.au 10 points 1 month ago

But it also has the superior option which is to turn it off.

Why would you not want to encrypt your files? My Linux systems are encrypted too.

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[-] RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

I can't even adjust bitlocker settings on my laptop's windows 11 home Installation...

[-] limerod@reddthat.com 9 points 1 month ago

Yeah, you need Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, or Education edition.

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[-] spicehoarder@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago

I just installed Manjaro on my daily driver over the weekend. My entire steam library just works. My dev tools all work(better) on Linux, and free office is nice and familiar. Fuck widows.

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[-] scheep@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

This happened to me once and I had to redo my coursework over the weekend...now I use Fedora :D

[-] Mwa@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

Why cant windows copy luks and let you choose your own password

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 8 points 1 month ago

because people will set hunter2 and be done with it.

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 11 points 1 month ago

How did you get my password?

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[-] DimFisher@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I still don't understand why there is no other mainstream os in competition alongside MS except IOs, I wouldn't call Linux mainstream of course, don't you think that's a bit weird?!

[-] spicehoarder@lemm.ee 9 points 1 month ago

Microsoft is almost good as dead. These days, Linux takes just as much maintenance as XP used to. They've got maybe 5 years left until laptops start shipping with alternatives to Windows. My bet is it's going to be SteamOS.

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this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
532 points (96.5% liked)

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