How to Enable Device Encryption on Windows 10 Home?

Enable Device Encryption on Windows 10 Home

Are you using and running Windows 10 Home on your laptop or desktop computer? If yes, then this is how you can lock your files using the encryption process. Generally, Windows 10 Home doesn't include the default file security program BitLocker for your system. However, you can still protect your files using "device encryption". So, the essential part is to enable device encryption on Windows 10 Home.

Just like BitLocker, device encryption is a feature of Home edition that is designed to safeguard your data from unauthorized access. Especially in the unexpected cases when your laptop is lost or stolen by someone. Once you enable device encryption on Windows 10 Home, the complete feature gets enabled. As a result, your entire system drive and secondary drives connected to your device are scrambled. Thereafter, only you with the correct password information can access the system data or files.

Do you know the biggest difference between these two encryption services? Well, the device encryption is available for all the editions of Windows 10 but BitLocker can be only used for Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, and also offers some additional management tools. No matter what, this Windows 10 guide covers the complete steps to enable device encryption on Windows 10 Home computer. Please note that the PC should be running the Home edition of the OS.

Quick Steps to enable device encryption on Windows 10 Home

Now, let us check the process to encrypt the entire drive on Windows 10 Home PC. As already known, Windows 10 Home doesn't offer you BitLocker, so you can use the "device encryption" option only. However, you have to ensure that your device meets the hardware requirements.

What are the requirements for Device Encryption?

Below listed are the hardware requirements for device encryption on Windows 10 Home:

• Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2 (should support Modern Standby mode)
• Enabled TPM.
• Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware style

How to check support for device encryption?

In order to see whether your laptop or desktop computer meets the requirements for device encryption, follow the given steps:

Step 1: Firstly, launch the Start menu.

Step 2: Search for System Information and then right-click the top result displayed. Then, select the Run as administrator option.

Step 3: Now, click on the System Summary branch from the left pane of the window.

Step 4: Lastly, find the "Device Encryption Support" item, and if it reads as Meets prerequisites, this means that your computer includes support file encryption.

Once after completing all these above steps, you can move ahead with the steps to enable device encryption on Windows 10 Home entirely to your system. Let's start by enabling the device encryption feature on your Windows 10 Home laptop or desktop computer. 

Step 5: Launch Settings.

Step 6: Under Update & Security, click on Device encryption.

Note: If the "Device encryption" page is unavailable, then your device doesn't support the encryption feature.

Step 7: Now in the "Device encryption" section, click the Turn on button option.

As you complete the steps, Windows 10 turns on the encryption for the current and future files stored on your computer.

Steps to configure TPM on UEFI

If your device has a TPM chip, but it's disabled, then perform the given steps to enable it:

Step 1: Firstly, launch Settings.

Step 2: Click on Update & Security >> Recovery.

Step 3: Under the "Advanced startup" section, click on Restart now button.

Step 4: Now, click on the Troubleshoot option.

Step 5: Under the Advanced options, click UEFI Firmware Settings.

Step 6: In the next step, click the Restart button and find security settings.

Step 7: Now, enable the TPM feature.

As you complete these steps, enable device encryption on your computer running Windows 10 Home and easily protect your files.

How to disable device encryption?

For disabling device encryption on your Windows 10 Home device, follow given steps:

Step 1: Launch Settings and then click on Update & Security tab.

Step 2: Here, select the Device encryption section and click on the Turn off button to confirm.

Step 3: As you complete the steps, the device will follow the decryption process, depending on the amount of data, it can take a very long time.

Though this guide is for Windows 10 Home users, the BitLocker option is also available for devices running Windows 10 Pro with supported hardware.