Personal data encryption in Windows 11
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Loading... - Khalish Jasmay
- 10 Feb 2023
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There’s a new, more secure way to encrypt files in Windows 11, but it’s only an option for building secure applications, not a replacement for BitLocker.
Windows 10 already has two flavours of encryption — BitLocker and Windows Device Encryption — and as of the 22H2 release, Windows 11 Enterprise and Education adds Personal Data Encryption.
BitLocker and Device Encryption are effectively the same full disk encryption technology, but there are management tools for BitLocker (which is only available in Windows Pro, Enterprise and Education) that let admins control whether one or more drives on a system are encrypted, as well as backing up and recovering the keys. Device Encryption is included in Windows Home and encrypts all the drives on the PC, with no option to exclude secondary drives. The name is different because calling it BitLocker would make people think they were getting the same management tools and options.
Personal Data Encryption doesn’t replace either of them because it doesn’t encrypt a whole drive; instead, it protects individual files and folders using 256-bit AES-CBC encryption keys that are protected by Windows Hello for Business, but only through applications that are built to use it.
File encryption in Windows
You could already encrypt a selection of files in Windows by:
- Selecting them in File Explorer.
- Right-clicking and choosing Properties.
- Clicking the Advanced button in the Attributes section of the General tab.
- Checking the ‘Encrypt contents to secure data’ checkbox.
That uses the Encrypting File System built into Windows, but it has several drawbacks. Read More…
