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GolfNovemberUniform ,

It's not a completely bad thing but ehh there are serious disadvantages, especially for gamers. I'm just glad I use Linux and will keep the change in mind in case I need to reinstall Windows on my gaming rig.

Btw TL;DR of the article is:

Windows 11 will automatically enable BitLocker on clean installs and re-installs.

OEMs will be able to enable it even on Windows 11 Home with a special UEFI flag (whatever that means).

BitLocker is a full-disk encryption technology by Microsoft. It provides better security since the data on the drive cannot be read without decrypting it (especially useful if someone steals the device) but the data cannot be recovered in case of forgetting the password or system malfunctions. Also it greatly decreases performance of the drive (by up to 45% on SSDs). This makes it unsuitable for many computer users.

The feature cannot be disabled by native means. If you want to disable it, use Rufus and select the appropriate flag when creating the bootable USB.

dvdnet62 OP ,
@dvdnet62@feddit.nl avatar

The question is will this encrypt other partition that have other OS such as Linux automatically especially for dual boot users?

GolfNovemberUniform ,

Knowing Microsoft's behavior for many years, it might. If I had a dual-boot, I'd make sure I have a backup of all the important data on a separate device

9point6 ,

Bitlocker is a feature that relies on NTFS

Unless you've somehow been working with cthulhu and installed Linux on an NTFS partition, you're probably golden

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

Bitlocker leaves partitions it can't understand and system partitions (like the EFI ones) alone in my experience.

Dual boot users may have trouble accessing their Windows files if they don't configure Bitlocker to allow direct password unlock (I believe Windows 11 uses the TPM, possibly with a TPM PIN for interactive unlocking, which Linux can't use to access the drive). This isn't too difficult to work around, but it's an extra step.

dvdnet62 OP ,
@dvdnet62@feddit.nl avatar

I mean for instance. I dual-boot Linux and W11 atm. For some reason my Windows 11 needs to be formatted back because of the virus or etc or SSD replacement with fresh installation of Windows11 and of course bitlocker will be activated automatically after WIndows have been reinstalled it back from the scratch. Will this affect my other ext4 or Btrfs OS partition? or do I need to back up of my Linux important files on that partition before W11 mess up my Linux?

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

I don't see why it would affect anything but Windows' NTFS partitions. Unless you still use MBR boot, all you'd need to do after a Windows reinstall would be to re-order the boot entries in your UEFI settings. Bitlocker operates on partitions, not full disks.

You should probably still back up your important files, of course, just in case your drive randomly dies...

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

You can just turn off Bitlocker in the Windows settings from what I can tell. It just seems to default to encryption, like every other OS has for the last decade or so.

Can you provide a source for the 45% performance hit? The average consumer CPU can do a couple of GB per second of AES operations these days, so I wonder how you got to that number.

9point6 ,

Yeah it would only be that slow if you don't have a CPU with AES-NI instructions (which were introduced nearly a decade and a half ago)

Flatworm7591 ,
@Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-software-bitlocker-slows-performance

That number was only for random write performance. And if you have an SSD that supports TCG Opal and eDrive standard (IEEE-1667) for hardware based bitlocker encrytion then there is no negative speed impact.

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

No wonder the percentage is that high, the 990 Pro performs extremely well. I doubt the average gamer has an SSD that fast, though. But, on the other hand, the SSD tested has hardware encryption support, so by default the user wouldn't notice anything regardless.

I'd be much more interested in benchmarks of common consumer SSDs in their standard configuration. Hopefully some tech outlet like LinusTechTips will test this at some point; they'd also be able to test real life video game performance, which would be a nice bonus.

GolfNovemberUniform ,

Read the source. I just shortened it

cm0002 ,

like every other OS has for the last decade or so.

No desktop OS does, (Excepting the odd Linux distro I'm sure is out there), not even macOS does.

iOS/Android yes

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

macOS has encrypted the system partition since the T2 chip was introduced. Older hardware doesn't do encryption by default, but you'll need a device over seven years old for it not to come with encryption by default.

cm0002 ,

True, the system partition is, but not where actual user data is. That won't be encrypted unless the user enables FileVault, granted it does ask during initial setup if you sign in to iCloud if you do want to enable it, but it's default is off

Hubi ,
@Hubi@lemmy.world avatar

Since most people sign into Windows with their Microsoft account, does that mean that MS holds the decryption keys for your local hard drive?

9point6 ,

If you configure it to backup your keys to your account, yes.

This (at least used to be) an opt in configuration option

GolfNovemberUniform ,

Idk. I just made a TL;DR. I'm not a Windows expert by any means. There's no point for me in studying it cuz I only use it for gaming and don't even consider it as my main OS

Dexx1s ,

by up to 45% on SSDs

Excuse me, what!?!

I wonder where the average is for the performance reduction. Probably something I'll look into but I'd be pissed if I bought a drive and instantly lost even 20%.

Luckily, I'm not on Windows so I have nothing to really worry about but damn.

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

That's random writes, tested on a particularly fast SSD. Most consumer SSDs won't get to the 550MB/s random writes, hitting closer to 85MB/s.

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