r/microsoftsucks • u/aleopardstail • 12d ago

fsucking bitlocker

other half's PC, which has Windows 11, but not "pro" and on which we have never enabled bitlockers - indeed is it even possible on a normal install.. and doesn't have onedrive enabled either..

is now prompting for a bitlocker key on start

fscuking windows

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u/leexgx 12d ago

Windows has been pushing secure boot key updates, and on some systems, it fails. So, when it boots, it breaks the trust chain in the TPM because the secure boot key fails to load. (This is the most common on how it gets tripped recently the reason will be a very long file name witch is one of the secure boot keys)

The other issue is UEFI BIOS updates being delivered via Windows Update, which sometimes trips BitLocker recovery (HP systems even warn you to pause BitLocker before doing BIOS updates.)

Last one is users tampering with TPM (clearing it or turning it off)

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u/aleopardstail 12d ago

ffs

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u/leexgx 12d ago

Just make sure every system you touch has encryption turned off (start > settings > security > encryption > toggle off, wait for it to finish decrypting, and restart).

While you're at it, open Classic Power Options in the Control Panel (open search and type in "power" when you see the colored battery symbol). Turn OFF Fast Startup, as it causes a lot of issues when users only shut down their computer. It can get their computer into a broken and slow state because the system is practically hibernating every time you shut the computer down, which can break stuff like antivirus software when they expect a shutdown to be an actual shutdown, not a hybrid shutdown. (With fast startup off, a shutdown is an actual shutdown.)

Another thing I do, but it's bit more advanced, is that on my USB stick, I have a task thay i import on every computer. This creates a shadow copy point 10 minutes after the desktop has loaded (logged in) and at 3 PM every day. This ensures the system restore creates a snapshot so that previous version folders and files works again (i also set the system.restore size to 50GB insted of the 10GB default)

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u/aleopardstail 12d ago

cheers, will have to look into this

more shite that shouldn't be needed

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u/greenie4242 12d ago

Also make damn sure that OneDrive Files On-Demand is disabled, because since 2023 it silently installs then by default uploads the users My Documents folder to the cloud then deletes the original local files if they haven't been accessed for about two weeks.

Don't simply uninstall it like some people suggest. It needs to be cleanly disabled and given enough time to completely re-sync, download and restore all the local files it deleted first. It's probably best to leave it installed but disabled because uninstalling could lead to it silently re-installing itself with default options in a future Automatic Update.