Want to turn off device encryption on Windows 11? Encryption helps protect the data on your device so it can only be accessed by people who have authorization. If device encryption isn’t available on your device, you might be able to turn on standard BitLocker encryption instead. Note that BitLocker isn’t available on Windows 10 Home edition.
This seems to be different from one OEM to another – in some cases, this is triggered by a PS script, in others, it’s triggered by a Group Policy.
But regardless of the underlying cause, there are ways to stop Windows 11 from encrypting your OS drive automatically. There are actually 3 different ways that will allow you to go about disabling the automatic driver encryption feature on Windows 1
What is BitLocker Encryption on Windows 11
BitLocker is an encryption feature that can be used to encrypt your hard disk to protect your data against unauthorized access and prying eyes or being stolen. It is a native security feature built into most versions of Windows PCs including Windows 11 Pro, Education, and Enterprise editions, but not available in the Home edition.
Once a drive is encrypted by BitLocker, it can only be unlocked or decrypted with a Bitlocker password or the Bitlocker Recovery Key. And anyone without proper authentication will be denied access even if the computer has been stolen or the hard disk is taken. It uses Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption algorithm with 128-bit or 256-bit keys for encrypting data in the entire drive or only used space of the drive.
What are the Requirements of Device encryption?
To be able to use the Device Encryption feature on Windows 11, the following hardware is required:-
- Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 with support for Modern Standby.
- TPM must be enabled on UEFI.
- Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) firmware.
How to Turn Off Device Encryption on Windows 11?
- Open the Settings app by pressing Windows + I keys from the keyboard.
- When Windows Settings opens, select Privacy & Security from the left sidebar.
- On the right sidebar, click the Device encryption.
- In the Device encryption settings page, turn Off the toggle switch beside Device encryption.
- Once you complete the above steps, Windows 11 will turn off encryption for all the files stored on your computer.
In the future, if you want to turn on the device encryption on your computer, in the above step 4, turn off the toggle switch beside the Device encryption option.
Disable BitLocker Encryption via ControlPanel
If you’re looking for the easiest option out of the bunch, this is it.
You can use the classic Control Panel interface to access the System and Security tab and disable the encryption from the BitLocker Drive Encryption menu. This method is very easy to enforce, but keep in mind that depending on your OEM, you might notice that the encryption feature will re-enable if you disable and re-enable the secure boot option in your BIOS or UEFI settings.
Follow the instructions below to disable the automated BitLocker Encryption via Control Panel:
- Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box.
- Next, type ‘control’ inside the text box and press Enter to open up the classic Control Panel interface.
- Open up the classic Control Panel interface. Once you’re inside the Classic Control Panel interface, click on System and Security from the list of available options.
- Open up the System and Security tab Next, from the System and Security menu, click on BitLocker Drive Encryption.
- Accessing the BitLocker Drive Encryption settings Inside the BitLocker Drive Encryption settings, click on the Turn off Bitlocker.
- When prompted by the User Account Control window, click Yes to grant administrative privileges, then click on the Turn off Bitlocker button at the confirmation prompt.
- Wait patiently until the drive is decrypted. You can confirm that the process was successful by opening File Explorer and checking if the encryption icon is removed from your OS drive.
Once you confirm that the encryption has been removed, restart your PC and check to see if the drive has remained decrypted once the next startup is complete.
Disable BitLocker through Windows PowerShell.
- Search PowerShell in the Windows Start to Search and select the Windows PowerShell program.
- Run Windows PowerShell
- When you open Windows PowerShell as the administrator, you can type Disable-Bitlocker –MountPoint “drive letter:” in it,
Disable-Bitlocker -MountPoint "C:" Note: Keep in mind that ‘C’ is only a placeholder. If your OS drive is different, change the command above to accommodate your own operating system drive. Also, make sure that there’s a space between Disable-Bitlocker, -mountPoint and “C:”, otherwise the command will fail.
- Disable-BitLocker -MountPoint
- Press Enter and the BitLocker drive decryption process will begin. In a short time, your BitLocker protection will be turned off for the drive.
- BitLocker is disable successfully
Final Thoughts
These are some of the easy methods to disable or Turn Off Device Encryption on Windows 11. I hope this will help you with what you have been looking for. If anything does not work, or you have another query let us know below in the comments section.
