You can disable hardware-based encryption for BitLocker on operating system drives using GPEDIT & REGEDIT. Learn how to turn off hardware-based protection in Windows.

To turn off or deactivate BitLocker on your Windows 11 PC, open the Settings app, select the System tab, and go to the About section. Scroll down to the bottom and click on BitLocker.

BitLocker recovery key saved my PC after an update locked me out. Here’s how I used the recovery key from my Microsoft account to unlock encrypted drives.