Encryption, how to use it for your data and live peacefully

Encryption in Windows is a bit complicated. First, there are differences between Windows Home and Windows Pro: Pro users have at their disposal an effective encryption tool called BitLockerwhile for the Home edition there is a more immediate alternative, simply called Device encryptionwhich can be found by selecting Update and security and then Device encryption from the Windows Settings panel.

However, this option is not suitable for everyone: it requires some level of hardware security support from your desktop or laptop computer. It is a rather complex procedure and we do not have the space to analyze it in detail, but on The Windows Club you can find a comprehensive explanation. Look in the Start menu for a tool called System informationright-click and run it as administrator: from here you can see if the your computer supports this function or not through voice Device encryption support.

Assuming your hardware meets all the requirements and that Device Encryption is visible, you can click on the feature to see if your system drives are encrypted – they should be by default if you sign in to your computer with a Microsoft account . This means that anyone who accesses your hard drive without authorization will not be able to see the data on it, which will be encrypted and therefore protected. If for some reason encryption isn’t turned on, you can enable it by flipping the switch to Activate.

As for external drives and USB sticks, in the pro version of Windows you can use BitLocker – just right click on the drive in File Explorer, select Show more options, Turn on BitLocker and set a password. For those who own the Home edition, however, this option is not available: to encrypt external drives you need to use a third-party toolwhich we will discuss later.

Integrated options for macOS