Bitlocker or alternative?

E

Executioner

Gawd
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Apr 22, 2015
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I have Windows 11 Home on a Dell G5 5505 Gaming Laptop. I've been reading about Bitlocker, but I'm only interested in encrypting a few folders only suck as MyDocuments etc. Is this even possible? From my reading, it looks like Bitlocker does not have that option as it will encrypt the entire drive.
 
According to gpt, if I copy paste your question:

BitLocker is a drive encryption feature that comes pre-installed on Windows 11 Home 1. It is designed to encrypt an entire drive, such as a system, data, or removable drive 2. Unfortunately, BitLocker does not have an option to encrypt specific folders or files 2. However, you can use other encryption software such as EFS, TrueCrypt, or your encryption software of choice to encrypt a folder or file 2. Alternatively, you can compress the folder or file into an archive and set a password for it 23.

If you want to use BitLocker to encrypt your files and folders, you can create a virtual drive encrypted with BitLocker. This will allow you to encrypt any folder on your system as a separate virtual drive 4. To do this, you need to create a virtual drive in Disk Management and initialize it. Once initialized, you can begin using your virtual drive and add files and folders to it. The virtual drive will be encrypted with BitLocker and will require a password to access 4.
 
You should probably just BitLocker the drive.

Otherwise, you want EFS. It will generate a cert, you need to protect it and pay attention to the million other gotchas. I.E temp files may not be covered so you may accidentally leak data you thought was encrypted, etc.
 
You really want to encrypt the entire drive, not just individual folders. There's sensitive stuff, such as settings files, caches/temp files, etc. stored in multiple locations for the user(s) and the system as a whole. Trying to encrypt all of these individually is a game of whack-a-mole you're not going to win.
 
Another question - I also use Macrium Reflect on a monthly basis to create an image of the C drive. Do I need to turn it off before doing the image? When turning it off, does Bitlocker create another key in the process?
 
I would ask first, what are you wanting to accomplish by encrypting the folders? Whole drive encryption tools like bitlocker protect against physical access to the hard drive. It does not protect against remote attacks. If you are logged into the computer, anyone who has access to your computer at that point has full access to the drive contents. If your concern is that someone may physically access your computer and either use a USB boot drive or remove your hard drive and access your files, then full disk encryption via bitlocker is the way to go.
 
Thanks for all the feedback. I decided to use WinRar with a strong password and encryption. I still may decide to use Bitlocker, but I don't see the option using Windows 11 Home.
 
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