A few days ago, we repeated the information that indicated the automatic enabling of BitLocker and with it the encryption of disk drives in Windows 11 when installing the next version of 24H2, which is now being tested in the beta phase. Although this is a very interesting security feature for mobility professionals and the business segment, its operation has not worked on consumer versions of Windows (on which so far), can be a big problem.

We have already talked about this on other occasions encryption in Windows 11 reduces the performance of storage drives and with him the team in general. And it makes sense when handling encrypted data. Considering that Windows 11 doesn’t perform well when we add BitLocker to it, imagine…

In addition, if it is activated automatically without the user’s knowledge, it may happen that he will not have the necessary decryption keys and therefore will not be able to access the encrypted drives, whether SSD or hard drives. No problem, big problem.

How to block Windows 11 encryption

There are several ways to disable BitLocker encryption during Windows installation, either by manually editing the Windows registry during installation or by using third-party applications that leave installers ready. We review them:

Windows registry

• On the screen of selecting the region you want to use, press the hotkeys ‘Shift + F10’ or ‘Shift + Function + F10’ and type regedit to launch the Windows registry.
• Open Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\BitLocker and right-click on the BitLocker folder.
• Select New > Dword Value (32-bit) and rename it to PreventDeviceEncryption.
• Open the newly created value and change the value data from 0 to 1.
• Close the editor and command line and continue with the OOBE installation.

Rufus

A simpler and more permanent solution for any type of Windows 11 installation is to edit the official ISO image. A burning application that you know well because we recommend it whenever we have the opportunity (best for creating Windows installation media) is Rufus.

• Download Rufus from its official site.
• Download the Windows 11 image from the Microsoft website.
• Connect the USB drive, select the image and click Start,
• Rufus will ask you to select some options to improve the user experience. At the bottom, you’ll see the one that pertains to us in this entry: “Disable automatic BitLocker device encryption.”
• Finish creating the installation media as usual.

Note that this encryption lock in Windows 11 disables the automatic enablement of BitLocker during system installation, but does not prevent you from using it in the future.