How to Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Home?

Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Home

Suppose that you are currently having Windows 10 Home edition installed on your system. So, are you looking for any way to install and Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Home system? Bitlocker is basically compatible with Windows 10 Home edition which is not the same as Windows 8 and Windows 8.1.

Option 1: Encrypt the Drive Using Other Windows 10 Professional Computer

We know that  Bitlocker is not enabled on Windows 10 Home but Windows 10 Home can still unlock and read Bitlocker encrypted drives. So, it can be good to use Windows 10 Professional computer for encrypting the drive.

For this, you will have to find a Windows 10 Professional computer, encrypt the drive using Bitlocker and then finally move the Bitlocker encrypted drive to this Windows 10 Home computer.

Option 2: Upgrade Windows 10 Home System to Windows 10 Professional

Although the Bitlocker drive encryption feature is not available in Windows 10 Home but you can Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Home. Though Bitlocker is available in Windows 10 Professional, it's not easy to pay US$99 for buying the Bitlocker drive encryption feature.

Option 3: M3 Bitlocker Loader for Windows

M3 Bitlocker Loader for Windows is one kind of disk encryption software that turns on Bitlocker drive encryption on a hard drive or USB flash drive in Windows 10/8/7 home editions. Once after encrypting the drive, you can open Bitlocker encrypted drive on Mac. 

Step 1: Firstly, Download and Install M3 Bitlocker Loader for your specific Windows computer.

Step 2: Secondly, open M3 Bitlocker Loader for Windows.

Step 3: Now, you have to select the drive you want to encrypt.

Step 4: Click on the Encrypt option.

Step 5: Here, you have to enter the password and then click on Next.

Step 6: Now, save the recovery key and then click on the Next option.

Step 7: So, you can start BitLocker drive encryption for the specific drive in Windows 10 Home.

Steps to Unlock Bitlocker Encrypted Drive on Windows 10 Home

As already discussed many times the Bitlocker drive encryption feature is not available on Windows 10 Home Control Panel. But you can use Windows 10 Home to unlock and write a Bitlocker encrypted drive. Additionally, M3 Bitlocker Loader for Windows also performs this function.

Step 1: In the first step, right-click the Bitlocker encrypted drive in My Computer (This PC) or Disk Management.

Step 2: Then, choose the Unlock option from the right-click menu.

Step 3: Lastly, type the password to unlock the Bitlocker encrypted drive.

In case you don’t know the password, you can click "More options" and click "Enter recovery key".

Here, you can enter the recovery key to unlock the Bitlocker encrypted drive.

Steps to Change the Bitlocker Password for Windows 10 Home

Step 1: First of all, enter or type cmd in the search box and then right-click cmd.exe from the search results shown. Then you have to select "Run as administrator" from the right-click menu options.

Step 2: Next, enter the given command: manage-bde -change password X: (Replace X with the drive letter of your Bitlocker encrypted drive), and then press the Enter button.

Step 3: Fill in the desired new password when asked and then press Enter.

Step 4: Confirm the new password information by typing it again when prompted and pressing the Enter button at last.

Step 5: So, when your password is successfully updated, you are free to close the command prompt window displayed on your screen.

Steps to Turn off Bitlocker Drive Encryption on Windows 10 Home

Believe that you have learned this guide to Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Home. Now, it's time to disable the Bitlocker encryption on your system drive. Here are the steps to follow:

Step 1: Firstly, enter cmd in the search box and right-click on cmd.exe from the search results displayed. Then choose the "Run as administrator" option using the right-click menu.

Step 2: Now as the Command Prompt opens, enter this given command as manage-bde -off X: and then press the Enter button (Replace X with the drive letter of your Bitlocker encrypted drive). Thereafter, Bitlocker drive encryption will get turned off for the specific drive. The data is no longer protected by the Bitlocker drive encryption feature.

However, Bitlocker drive encryption is still not available for Windows 10 Home edition. Knowing that the Bitlocker drive encryption feature is missing in Windows 10 Home Control Panel, there are three quick ways to Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Home edition.

Hope this guide is useful to Enable Bitlocker on Windows 10 Home.