)Windows 11 Pro on Go Slow
Have you noticed your system is running a little slower? It could be down to BitLocker, reportedly slowing Windows 11 Pro Solid State Drives (SSD) down by up to 45%.
BitLocker is the Windows encryption technology that protects your data from unauthorised access by encrypting your drive and requiring one or more authentication factors before it will unlock it. The reason it's pulling so much speed and slowing down the performance is that it's forcing your processor to encrypt and decrypt everything!
However, it's not all doom and gloom. Having BitLocker can be advantageous, especially as laptops can be easily stolen, so encrypting your data should be a high priority. Although it might slow down the SSD, it does mean your data is protected. However, running BitLocker on a Desktop could be disadvantageous and rob you of much-needed performance.
According to a report by Tom's Hardware, "the tests showed that random writes and reads (which affect the overall performance of your PC) get impacted the most, but even large sequential transfers are affected". The report identifies that while many SSDs come with hardware-based encryption, which enables processing directly on the drive, Windows 11 Pro actually force-enables BitLocker's software with no obvious way to opt-out.
To check whether BitLocker is running on your system, you can run a simple command:
- Open Start on the device.
- Type cmd.exe.
- Select "Run as administrator" to launch an elevated command prompt window.
- Paste the command manage-bde -status and press enter. The returned command will tell you if BitLocker is enabled or not. If it is enabled, check the encryption method used – if you see "XTS-AES", software encryption has been applied.
If you decide you want to disable BitLocker, or if you're concerned about data protection or want us to check out your system, please contact us.
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