Windows 10: Surface Pro 6 and Win 10 Home with bitlocker enabled out of the box?

So I bought a brand new Surface Pro 6 today, Win 10 Home is the default OEM operating system installed.

However I noticed that bitlocker is enabled.


According to the windows 10 comparison page only devices with Windows 10 Pro are entitled to have bitlocker as a Windows 10 feature.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/compare

How is it possible for Microsoft to enable a feature on their devices that they do not allow on anyone else's devices that run Windows 10 "Home" to have?

Does this mean that everyone with Surface Pro should disable bitlocker or should Microsoft Surface division as an OEM correct the licencing internally with Microsoft Windows division and upgrade everyone with a surface pro to Windows 10 "Pro"

:)

 

Not Able to Enable Hardware Based Bitlocker Encryption On Surface Pro 4 (Windows 10 Pro)

Ok, I have a feeling that this is a larger Windows 10 issue, but I am experiencing this with the Surface Pro 4, the ideal test hardware for anything Microsoft, right?

Here is what we are trying to accomplish:

Encrypt our Surface Pro 4's (win 10 Pro) using Hardware-Based Encryption

Why?

A) Because it is faster for the SSD to perform the encryption rather than the process, since the SSD is already encrypted

B) Better battery life (because the processor is not encrypting the volume)

C) Performing software encryption on an already encrypted volume defeats many of the internal optimizations that SSDs have built in (leading to slower performance)

How?

We have taken stock Surface Pro 4s, straight from the box. No applications or updates have been installed, we have not added to a domain. The only modification we have made is to the Local Group Policy:

Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Bitlocker Drive Encryption/Operating System Drives

*Require additional authentication at startup (Enabled, default options)

*Enable use of BitLocker Aauthentication requireing preboot keyboard input on slates (Enabled, default options)

*Configure use of hardware-based encryption for operating system drives (Enabled, default options)

What's Wrong:

When I go to enable Bitlocker, I am being provided the prompt to encrypt Used Only, or Whole Drive. From all of the literature I have read, this prompt indicates Software Encryption. When I select Full Drive, it takes a while (over 10 minutes) to encrypt.
Again, from my reading, Hardware

Encryption should be immediate (as everything is already encrypted).

Question:

What am I missing? Is there an issue with Hardware Encryption that I have not been able to identify on the Surface Pro 4? Is this an OS issue? Are there any other troubleshooting steps that I can take a look at? Again, these are stock units, fresh out of
the box from Microsoft.

Sources (these are just some, all have been verified using additional sources that repeat the information):

Slower Performance- Hardware Accelerated BitLocker Encryption: Microsoft Windows 8 eDrive Investigated with Crucial M500

Hardware Accelerated BitLocker Encryption: Microsoft Windows 8 eDrive Investigated with Crucial M500

Steps to enable encryption- How to Enable BitLocker Hardware Encryption with SSDs

How to Enable BitLocker Hardware Encryption with SSDs • Helge Klein

Technet on Why to Hardware Encrypt - Encrypted Hard Drive

Encrypted Hard Drive

GP Settings to Enable Hardware Encryption - Enabling Hardware Acceleration of BitLocker

Site Unavailable

Tags Bitlocker, Encryption, Windows 10 Pro, Hardware Encryption, 1511

 

Re-enable bitlocker on Surface Pro 3 (Windows 10)

Hi, I turned off bitlocker on my Surface Pro 3's main drive and now I want to turn it back on. But it comes with a message that I can not do so because it's a system drive. How do I re-enable bitlocker on my surface pro 3's main (OS) drive?

thank you in advance.

 

Surface Pro 3 from Win 8.1 Pro to Win 10 Pro: Bitlocker fails to turn on in Win 10

The question is: is it something wrong at this point in time (mid-August 2015) with the combination Surface Pro 3 + Windows 8.1 Pro (preinstalled) + upgrade to Windows 10 Pro (offered online) + Bitlocker?

The story is:

I have a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 with Windows 8.1 Pro (8GB RAM, 256 SSD), and Bitlocker turned on on drive C: (Windows partition). I received the notification about Windows 10 being ready for upgrade. Before starting the upgrade I turned Bitlocker off.

The upgrade went very well, the system fully functional after the upgrade, all documents and applications in place.

Then I wanted Bitlocker back on in Windows 10 Pro. The process fails when trying to save the key. I have three options on the screen: save to Microsoft account, save to file, or print. None of them works, I get a red x with the message the key cannot be
saved. The button "Next" stays inactive, cannot continue. My printer is fully functional, I'm logged on with my Microsoft account credentials, I have a USB flash drive plugged in. I tried two different USB drives, no change.

Few notes:

- at the beginning of the process there is a message about the recovery becoming unavailable unless I reactivate it manually and move it to the system drive;

- running reagentc /info after Bitlocker failure shows Windows RE status disabled.

In the end I downgraded to Windows 8.1 Pro from the recovery. Again the process went flawlessly, I found everything back in place. Then I turned Bitlocker on and it worked as expected, I was able to save the key in a file then print it.

For comparison, I upgraded a work laptop (Win 7 Pro OEM, HDD instead of SSD, TPM 1.2) to Win 10 using a DVD with the downloaded ISO for Windows 10 Pro. Then I enabled Bitlocker. No problems, it worked, and Windows RE status is enabled at the end of the process.
The reason I used the DVD is the Win 10 upgrade is not offered yet for this specific brand/model (I subscribed for the online upgrade, but I didn't get the "upgrade ready" message).