I read the article but am not smarter than before. I heard some time ago that windows does encrypt the drive but you need an active online account and the key will be saved online. So do people forget their online passwords and methods to recover that said account? I dont like m$ and am using linux, but people loosing their passwords, being uninformed about their systems and dont so backups is not the direct fault of the operating system.
this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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Setting up encryption has previously been an affirmative step wherein the user opted into being unable to access their data if they lose their password. Because of this users have the opportunity to back up their recovery key you know after they even learn what one is.
Having it happen on upgrade to an existing machine is inherently confusing and its easy to see how it could lead to data loss.
Lose access to your MS account = lose your data forever. No warnings, no second chances. Many people learn about BitLocker the first time it locks them out.
It seems like they just got locked out of their Microsoft account (which stores the bitlocker key). Idk why they can't just reset their password or if this article talks about the times where people couldn't do that due to missing email access or maybe resetting the password deletes the bitlocker keys?
Either way though, the problem is that Microsoft is forcing encryption on everyone and not properly educating them on the consequences like "Backup your decryption key if you care about the data" in a way a normal user actually listens to.
you need an active online account and the key will be saved online
Is there a legit reason for this? Why can't they just encrypt the data with the password used to access the online account?
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I helped my sister deal with this. Bitlocker activated itself, the keys were in her account which she had access to. She had done everything properly but nothing worked to resolve it.
There’s countless forum posts on it since about 2021 if you go looking for it. None of the recovery processes worked so I reformatted and enabled bitlocker at the start. Next time I visit, she’s getting Linux Mint.
Fuck Microsoft. End users shouldn’t be expected to troubleshoot like that.
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I've decided to switch to Linux come october. I have some reasons I wanna wait as long as I can, but come october I'm leaving Windows behind.
I've decided to switch my gaming PC to Linux...a few weeks ago.
No ragrets. My games run faster, I no longer need extra shit to make Windows work the way I want it to work, and I can remote into it however I want without running into artificial roadblocks.
Get started early so you have time to acclimate and address issues. You are going to hate it if you urgently need your computer for something and something unexpected happens.
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When are stockholders going to realize that the current Microsoft CEO is ruining Windows?
They know, read their yearly financial reports. They said for a decade that Windows is not only not profitable, there's no future for it. Microsoft for several years now is a company that sells cloud and opensource services(Linux, Github, etc).
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Something broke.
I blame bitlocker.
I saw this problem coming a mile away
Must have been a massive monitor.
I'm in favor of a heavy handed push towards encryption, I think most people don't realize how important this is (now more than ever), but windows should be guiding and educating on this not requiring, and it should have absolutely nothing to do with an email address or online account.
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