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Microsoft secured my files! (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by yesman@lemmy.world to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world
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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 220 points 1 week ago

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

[-] madame_gaymes@programming.dev 90 points 1 week ago

and also Recall

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Rectal is what it's called I believe?

Microsoft Rectal

[-] Lembot_0002@lemm.ee 18 points 1 week ago

Can you remind me what that "recall" is?

[-] FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io 43 points 1 week ago

It logs literally everything you do with screenshots, then sends it to M$ despite their assurances that it would be local only.

Super invasive!

[-] ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world 40 points 1 week ago

Thanks, it was hard to recall

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[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 week ago

It takes a screenshot every five seconds and runs an LLM over it to extract text. Then there's a UI where you can query it for what you did in the past.

It came under fire when they wanted to introduce it last year, because it stored all that data on your disk in unencrypted form. Meaning if anyone manages to run malicious code on your system, they don't need to do the collecting themselves anymore, but can rather just send off any screenshotted passwords or whatever other secret things you might've been doing on your PC at any point in time. In particular, Microsoft had claimed that the data would be encrypted and it wasn't. Didn't even need special permissions to access it.

No idea, if they fixed the encryption now, or if this is just a case of the shitstorm having died down, so they roll it out now. But yeah, even with encryption, the implications aren't great. If your parents or boss or law enforcement want to know what you were doing on your PC, they now have an exact history. And Microsoft could still change their mind and decide to upload all your data at any point in the future.

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[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 31 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Fuck_u_spez_@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago
[-] RandomVideos@programming.dev 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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

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[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 154 points 1 week 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 91 points 1 week 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 44 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 29 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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

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[-] grue@lemmy.world 135 points 1 week ago

[-] ashaman2007@lemm.ee 23 points 1 week ago

🤔 shit... you right

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[-] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 96 points 1 week 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 38 points 1 week 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.

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[-] toastmeister@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week 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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[-] yaroto98@lemmy.org 76 points 1 week 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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[-] Godort@lemm.ee 46 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 30 points 1 week 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 20 points 1 week 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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[-] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 week ago

Disk encryption should absolutely be used, especially on laptops/portable systems.

Otherwise someone steals your laptop and swaps the disk into another system and they've got all your stuff. Including that folder that nobody knows about.

[-] scheep@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

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

[-] spicehoarder@lemm.ee 26 points 1 week 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.

[-] daftpuggi@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago

Give them time to mourn first, but then fuck widows :D

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[-] Ptsf@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week 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 week ago

Windows is the virus.

[-] dohpaz42@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Thank you for the word of warning. Does this affect Windows 10 as well?

[-] yesman@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Does this affect Windows 10 as well

IDK. 10 has bitlocker, so I'd check.

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[-] carrion0409@lemm.ee 17 points 1 week ago

I just leave secure boot/bitlocker off when it comes to my home system. It wasnt something I "needed" when I was dual booting windows 10 and it's not something I'm gonna enable now that I'm using 11.

[-] thomasloven@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

It’s not ”leaving bitlocker off”, though. It’s ”be aware about it and turn bitlocker off manually” since it’s enabled by default in the latest updates.

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[-] Mwa@lemm.ee 15 points 1 week ago

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

[-] Irelephant@lemm.ee 13 points 1 week ago

because people will set hunter2 and be done with it.

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 17 points 1 week ago

How did you get my password?

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[-] HertzDentalBar 15 points 1 week 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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[-] nargis@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[-] Mustakrakish@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

This has been happening to people randomly for years. Ysed to get calls about it all the time, and that was pre-covid

[-] MangoPenguin 14 points 1 week ago

Always have backups! Doesnt matter what OS you use, stuff will break eventually.

I prefer bootable full system images to my NAS for easy restores, and online file backups, both running daily.

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[-] RoyaltyInTraining@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

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

[-] limerod@reddthat.com 12 points 1 week ago

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

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[-] einfach_orangensaft@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 week ago

Windows is still around?????

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[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 12 points 1 week ago

Regarding your last sentence, something similar happened to me with OneDrive. I mocked people thinking surely they enabled something by mistake. Nope. The defaults and general behavior are just that wacky. Glad I'm off Microsoft now.

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this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
1241 points (100.0% liked)

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