How to Turn on BitLocker on Windows 10/11 Home [2 Ways]

Can I turn on BitLocker on Windows 10/11 Home?

To be honest, you can not turn on BitLocker on Windows 10 or 11 Home computer because Home PC does not include BitLocker encryption feature.

As you know, BitLocker is a full disk encryption feature in the Windows operating system that encrypts the entire disk volume to protect the data stored on the drive from unauthorized access. Individuals and organizations often use BitLocker to enhance the security of their data, especially on devices that may be at risk of theft or loss. Therefore, it is essential to enable BitLocker on Windows.

However, BitLocker is available only in Windows 10/11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. Thus, you may ask: How to turn on BitLocker Windows 10 Home? (Difference between Windows 11 Home and Pro)

Actually, if you're using Windows 10/11 Home and need encryption, besides upgrading to a higher version, you might consider other alternatives such as Windows Device encryption or third-party BitLokcer tool. In the following content, we’ll show you how to use these two ways to enable BitLocker on Windows 10 Home.

How to turn on BitLocker Windows 10 Home?

If you just want to protect your data security only, you can refer to the following way 1; If you really want to use BitLocker for encryption in the Home version, then you can refer to way 2.

Way 1. Enable Device encryption on Windows 10/11 Home

Device encryption, a built-in security feature of Windows, secures your disk by encrypting its contents, protect your data from unauthorized access. Activation of this feature restricts access to your device and its data solely to authorized users. In the unfortunate event of losing your laptop or gadget, the encrypted data remains inaccessible to anyone other than yourself, provided you possess the requisite password.

This ensures that even if your device falls into the wrong hands, your sensitive information remains protected. It's worth noting that Device encryption is automatically enabled on all Windows devices by default.

If you want to encrypt the system drive and protect system files, you can first try to enable Device encryption on Windows 10/11 Home Edition. This method is generally sufficient to protect individual user data and meet basic security needs. You can turn on Device encryption according to the steps below.

First of all, you need to check your Windows version and clear if you're running a 32-bit or 64-bit version of Windows. you can follow this: Click "Start" button > "System" > "About". Then open "About" settings, and find "Device specifications" > "System type".

After confirming the version information, you can turn on the encryption device. You can follow the steps below:

Step 1. Log in to Windows using an administrator account (if you are not currently using an administrator account, you may need to log out and back in to switch accounts).

Step 2. Select the "Start" button, then select "Settings" > "Update & Security" > "Device encryption".

Step 3. Under the "Device encryption" section, click the "Turn on" button.

In this way, you have successfully enabled Device encryption. However, although Device encryption supports all Windows versions, it cannot protect a single disk, but protects the entire system and secondary drives. When Device encryption is enabled, you cannot exclude disks or partition them. 

In addition to this, there are several hardware requirements for Device encryption: (1) Your PC has a TPM (Trusted Platform Module), either TPM 1.2 or TPM 2.0. (2) UEFI Secure Boot and Platform Secure Boot are enabled on your PC. (3) Direct memory access (DMA) protection should be turned on.

Thus, if your computer doesn’t meet these requirements or this inbuilt program can’t fill your need for encryption, you can resort to the next method. Keep reading to know more details.

Way 2. Use reliable tool to enable BitLocker on Windows 10/11 Home

At this part, we recommend opting for third-party software. AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional emerges as your optimal ally in addressing your needs. The "BitLocker" function in this tool allows Windows Home users to encrypt the drives, disks, and external devices. Even on Windows 10/11 Home, you can easily BitLocker encrypt the target drives.

You can follow these steps:

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Click on the "Tools" main tab and select "BitLocker" in the drop-down options.

Step 2. Once clicked, all drives on the system will be displayed in the tool, including operating system drives, fixed data drives, and removable drives. Find the drive you want to encrypt with BitLocker and click on the "Turn on BitLocker" option. (Here we take drive D as an example)

Tip: Currently, it only supports encrypting NTFS partitions. Other partition file systems, for example, FAT or FAT32 cannot be encrypted.

Step 3. Kindly establish and verify a password to encrypt the drive, then proceed by clicking "Next".

Step 4.There are two ways to back up your recovery key, you can choose either "Save to a file" or "Print the recovery key".

Notes:✎...

Do not save the recovery key in the same path as the encrypted drive. For instance, if you're encrypting D:, avoid saving the recovery key on the D: drive itself.

If you choose "Save to a file", please designate a location on your PC to store the recovery key.

If you select "Print the recovery key", it will enable the print function on your PC to print the recovery key.

Step 5. Next, click the "Next" button to begin the encryption process. Then, you'll need to restart your PC to access the Windows PE environment for BitLocker to encrypt the system drive. Click "OK" to proceed.

Step 6. Once the encryption process is finished, you'll see an encryption completion window. You can click "OK" to restart your PC.

The above is how to enable BitLocker on Windows 10 Home. We still recommend that you use highly secure third-party software to achieve encryption. Someone may ask, my Windows supports BitLocker, so how do I enable it? The following sections will introduce it to you.

Further reading: turn on BitLocker on supported version

If you are using a version of Windows 11/10 that supports BitLocker, such as Win 11/10 Pro, you can select the drive you want to lock by turning on BitLocker

Tip: Like Device encryption, you also need to log in to an administrator account to operate.

Step 1. In the search box on the taskbar, type Manage BitLocker, and then select it from the results list. Alternatively, select "Start"> "Settings" > "Privacy & Security" > "Device Encryption" > "BitLocker Drive Encryption".

Step 2. Choose “Turn on BitLocker”. You can select the target drive to enable BitLocker, and then follow the prompts to finish the encryption process.

FAQs

Q: How do I know if BitLocker is enabled?

A: Right-click Command Prompt and select "Run as Administrator". In the command prompt, type manage-bde -status and press Enter.

Q: Can Windows 10 Home read BitLocker encrypted drive?

A: Windows 11/10 Home doesn't provide the ability to encrypt your drives with BitLocker but it can unlock and access drives that have already been encrypted.

Q: Can you encrypt files on Windows 10 Home?

A: File encryption helps protect your data by encrypting it. Only someone with the right encryption key (such as a password) can decrypt it. File encryption is not available in Windows 10 Home.

Q: Can I download BitLocker for Windows 11 Home?

A: Unfortunately, you cannot directly download BitLocker on Windows 11 Home, but you can use third-party software, such as AOMEI Partition Assistant, to help you enable BitLocker.

Conclusion

After reading this article, I hope you can figure out how to turn on BitLocker Windows 10 Home. BitLocker does have better encryption capabilities, but the built-in tools do not allow Windows Home users to use it. Therefore, if you need it, AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional is a good choice for you. Apart from being a BitLocker alternative, it is an all-in-one disk management tool for Windows users.

This software provides multiple additional features to efficiently manage your hard drive. For instance, you can use the “Clone Disk” function to upgrade or replace old or corrupted disk. Furthermore, options like “Delete All Partitions” and “Wipe Hard Drive” enable clearing the disk space, after clearing, you can use the “Merge Partitions” feature for disk space management. In the event of data loss, the “Recover Data” feature stands ready to assist in retrieving lost data.

If you are a Windows server user, you can try Server Edition for advanced features.