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Lenovo’s iconic crimson red TrackPoint nub, which has been going strong for three decades, is a staple of ThinkPad laptops. However, this year at CES, Lenovo announced that it’s ditching the nub on the ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition laptops.  It’s a surprising move and although Lenovo’s not removing the nub on every single laptop at this time, who knows what the future holds. It’s entirely possible Lenovo may completely phase out the TrackPoint nub in the next couple of years. So, as a way to celebrate the nub, let’s dive into its long and sometimes complicated history. Further reading: Lenovo’s newest ThinkBook laptop ‘unrolls’ for extra screen space The TrackPoint served as an alternative to the traditional mouse The TrackPoint burst onto the scene in 1992 with the release of the IBM ThinkPad 700C laptop, which was originally designed as a data entry tablet for hospitals and health care workers. The nub, which sits in the middle of the G, H, and B keys, allows you to move the cursor on your screen without ever having to lift your hands off of the keyboard. Essentially, it’s a joystick that sits in the middle of the keyboard. It works by applying direct pressure with a fingertip — the more pressure you apply, the faster the cursor moves.  Computer scientist Ted Selker originally developed the pointing-stick technology for IBM, which later became known as the TrackPoint. This was innovative at the time because trackpads weren’t invented yet, so computer users were still relying on traditional mice to navigate the content on their screens. Not only did the pointing stick reduce wrist strain, but it also saves the user “0.75 seconds” (according to a study from Selker), which is the time it takes to shift from the keyboard to the mouse.  Nowadays, trackpads are the norm on laptops. While TrackPoint technology still exists, there’s a steep learning curve. Personally, I find that I have better control over the cursor with the trackpad than with the TrackPoint nub. That said, there’s a whole Reddit community of true TrackPoint fanatics if you’re looking to find your people. IBM adds negative inertia to the TrackPoint The TrackPoint underwent a couple of different revisions under IBM. However, the most notable revisions arrived in the third and fourth iteration of the nub. IBM added negative inertia to the TrackPoint III, which increases accuracy by counteracting the positive inertia with applied force, making it feel less sluggish. The fourth iteration, dubbed the TrackPoint IV, had a press-to-select feature that allowed you to select items on the screen by pressing down on the pointing stick. These days you can disable the TrackPoint altogether if you prefer to use the trackpad. The TrackPoint is also compatible with other operating systems (including Windows and Linux), and you can adjust the cursor speed and acceleration. The nub and its various designs The TrackPoint’s crimson cap went through a series of changes, too. In the above interview with Laptop Retrospective, former IBM designer David Hill explains the evolution of the iconic red cap. The original TrackPoint had a smooth rubber red cap that was dome-like, but it was prone to wear and tear and it had poor traction. The “Cat Tongue” nub, on the other hand, exhibited excellent traction but it was a dirt magnet. It also felt a bit like sandpaper and was uncomfortable to use. Hill even experimented with a design that resembled a bicycle seat in shape. The idea behind this design was to increase the diameter of the nub, but there were concerns that it would hinder the user’s typing experience. Though the design never came to fruition, it’s still an interesting little tidbit of information. Speaking of interesting tidbits of information, the blood red red cap that we know and love almost didn’t happen! IBM’s product safety division had a lot of power at the time. In fact, they said the color red was reserved for the emergency button on their mainframe computers, so it couldn’t be used for the TrackPoint. You want to know how ThinkPad designer Richard Sapper got around this? The nub’s red color was altered slightly and called magenta. However, when the first batch of ThinkPad laptops shipped, the engineers made the TrackPoint more crimson in color. Talk about a loophole, yeah? Lenovo acquired the TrackPoint brand from IBM in 2005 Lenovo purchased IBM’s PC division in 2005 for approximately $1.75 billion, thus acquiring the ThinkPad brand of laptops and the TrackPoint technology that came along with it. This was a big deal at the time because, according to this article from PC Mag, “no Chinese company had acquired a major U.S. company” up until that point. It turns out that Lenovo’s acquisition was pretty damn lucrative. As of October 2022, Lenovo has sold over 200 million ThinkPads. IBM sold its PC division to shift focus from hardware to software. The company was also up against some pretty stiff competition and profits from the PC division were declining; selling off the PC division helped improve its financial situation. Lenovo removed the TrackPoint nub from the ThinkPad 11e in 2014 Lenovo removed the TrackPoint from the (now discontinued) ThinkPad 11e back in 2014, which was a surprising move from the company. However, the reasoning was perfectly sound (at least in my eyes!). The ThinkPad 11e was designed for the education market, so the company didn’t want to risk including the TrackPoint nub because it posed a potential choking hazard for younger PC users. Of course, die-hard fans weren’t happy about the missing TrackPoint on the ThinkPad 11e, but the thing that really pissed them off was the removal of the left and right mouse buttons at the top of the touchpad on the X1 Carbon model. This design choice caused a rebellion so great that Lenovo quickly changed course and permanently brought back the left and right mouse buttons on the second generation of the X1 Carbon. Wild, right? The takeaway nobody asked for The TrackPoint is something of a legacy item, a beloved relic of the past. While it was innovative at the time, I’m not sure it’ll survive the rising tide of modern laptop technology and design. Though long-time fans will likely raise their pitchforks and torches at Lenovo’s TrackPoint-less Aura Edition laptops, I can’t help but wonder… is this a glimpse into what’s to come? Will Lenovo finally ditch the TrackPoint nub for good? It’s likely. Very likely. Read...

An education trust collected more than $500,000 in grants, but investigators found no evidence it had done the work it promised. Read...

There’s a lot of stuff happening right now. Here in the US, it seems kind of inescapable. And it surely doesn’t help that a lot of people might be without their short-form social video fix very soon. TikTok, for all its many, many faults, is something millions of people use in the US. That said, a TikTok ban seems increasingly likely. But there is another. There are a lot of others, actually, all initially trying to ape TikTok’s success, now poised to try and fully replace it. My personal poison (only slightly joking) is YouTube Shorts, perhaps because it happens to be built into the thing I already use. I have a lot of beef with YouTube as a platform, but that doesn’t take away from the many talented creators that are on it. YouTube Shorts is filled with a lot of the same garbage littering TikTok. Clips blatantly stolen from movies and TV shows, reactions that add nothing to the original video, AI-generated slop that the uploader didn’t even bother to check. But there’s some genuinely entertaining, interesting, and instructional stuff too. Here are 25 of my favorites to get you started. I’m so sorry, puppets. We’ve all failed you. Food I don’t know how to cook SJohnsonVoiceOvers, AKA SnackDaddy: Stefan Johnson is a professional voice actor, but lately he’s been diving into his love of food, in both the snack/junk and home-cooked varieties. He’ll do earnest and often hilarious reviews of fast food and restaurant products, try out trending recipes, and generally give you some great ideas. It doesn’t hurt that his takes and advice are easy to follow even for amateur cooks like me. Turkuaz Kitchen: Betel Tunc is a cook who loves using traditional methods, ingredients, and tools to make amazing meals. Frankly she’s way beyond me in all of these areas, but I love watching her intense focus in short, bite-sized videos that leave my mouth watering from whatever she ends up with, all set to some chill music with no narration. Check out her full YouTube channel (and cookbook!) if you want more detailed instructions. Jose.elcook: As a recovering Texan, I almost hate this guy, if only because it’s really hard to find good Mexican food in rural Pennsylvania. Jose’s passion for Mexican and other recipes from Latin America shines through in his simple and straightforward delivery, though he’s not at all limited to that niche. Inject that salsa verde straight into my veins, please. Longer recipes and equipment reviews are on his main YouTube channel. CookShowTrevor: This idiot makes pizzas that should not exist, and I say that in full confidence that he would agree with me. Trevor, or at least the caricature that he plays for YouTube, puts pretty much everything on lovingly handmade pizza just to see what happens. Frequently it burns, occasionally it explodes, every once in a while it’s a legitimately good result. I give it the highest honor I can bestow: a seven out of ten. Crafts I don’t know how to do JonPaulsBalls: Get your hand off that HR report, this is a guy named Jon-Paul Wheatley who makes soccer balls. That’s footballs, if you live somewhere civilized. Watching Jon-Paul’s design process from start to finish for balls I never would have imagined is hypnotizing, as is his soothing narration. Watch as he combines modern and old-fashioned methods and materials to create the best balls of them all, and give it a try yourself if you want with his personal website. SaraMicsPottery: Sarah Luepker mixes the usual crafting instruction videos with a bit of personal insight and vlogging. I appreciate that she includes her pottery screw-ups in her videos — it makes me feel better about spending six hours on a PC build that won’t boot. Sara’s shorts are less about full instruction than the satisfying tactile process and a lot of commentary, but there are plenty of of things to learn if you dive deep. EoinReardon: I’m even more useless at carpentry than I am at most crafts, and that’s amazing, because my first job was at a sawmill. Eoin Reardon gives me a glimpse into the life I might have had, if I hadn’t quit after six weeks and six stomachfuls of sawdust. Though he’s all about traditional techniques and results, his practical and straightforward techniques could be applied to household jobs. I assume they could, anyway. I fix computers. Tanner.Leathertein: Less about the actual craft of leatherworking and more about educating yourself on leather goods and the designer fashion industry, Tanner’s channel literally dissects handbags, wallets, and other goods to… well, show you the goods. In addition to the cathartic thrill of seeing fashionista items destroyed, he breaks down the value of the components and materials, helping you spot a good deal versus an unconscionable markup (or a plain old fake). GirlWithTheDogs: As a life-long dog owner, I can appreciate that washing and grooming one is not a task for the faint of heart. Vanessa De Prohetis is positively unflappable as she cleans dogs and cats of all stripes (and spots, and stippling… you get the picture). You might find some great tips for DIY pet grooming, but I’m more impressed by how she handles the toughest cases — no dog is too big, no cat is too crazy. Animals I don’t own HaydenKristialandandCo: My grandparents raised racehorses and my parents still raise miniature horses. So I’ve spent decades taking care of them, which is why I really don’t like them. But pro standup comedian Hayden Kristal does, and shares the best and worst of keeping a bunch of horses and donkeys on a Colorado ranch. Her hilarious insights and off-the-cuff takes almost make me want to go back to Texas. Almost. Cleolonglegs: Good grief these Borzoi dogs are goofy. DustyMDouglas: Okay, this is one of the most prolific and popular shorts makers out there. I am basic. But come on, you can’t deny that the voiceovers done in the style of America’s Funniest Home Videos (I am also old), cliché and pun-filled as they are, are often freakin’ hilarious. Other stuff I watch UFDTech: I’d be doing a real disservice if I didn’t acknowledge the work of Brett Stelmaszek and his team, who put out some fantastic and punchy short-form consumer tech videos. UFD Tech covers PCs, phones, video games… pretty much all the stuff that I’m interested in. And yeah, their pointed, no-frills style is definitely an influence around here. Check out their full channel for more long-form videos on topics that don’t fit into 50 seconds. PunkeyDoodles8: Audio from popular videos, with cartoon illustrations and a bit of animation. It ain’t much, but it’s honest work. Who am I kidding, it’s a lot more than I can do. Miniminuteman773: Pro archeologist Milo Rossi has made it his life’s mission to take apart the kind of conspiracy theory bullshit you see thrown around Facebook by amateurs and Ancient Aliens by actual, paid adults. Rossi’s short-form videos are quick and dirty debunks (in both the literal and figurative senses). But if you really want to dig into the ridiculousness of the topic (or alternately, look at some real archeology), check out his full channel. MakeSomeNoiseDO: Dropout.TV is great. It’s the best five bucks I spend every month. And while the all-improv quasi-game show Make Some Noise is often hilarious, a little bit goes a long way — I often struggle to get through the half-hour episodes. I think the skits tend to work better in short form, which is fortunate, because a lot more people can enjoy them for free. ProZD: SungWon Cho got his comedy start in ye olden days of Vine, basically doing TikTok before TikTok was a thing. He’s now a full-time voice actor (you can hear his flexible pipes in everything from the latest Batman and Pokémon cartoons to games like Yakuza), his older geeky YouTube skits make great shorts. Check out his full channel for longer compilations. Jill Bearup: I fell into a deep hole of Jill Bearup’s longer-form content, breaking down movie swordfights from a theatrical perspective using her expertise in stage combat. But her shorts are great too, generally eviscerating fantasy and romance tropes. Her series of back-and-forths between a heroine and the author writer her has been adapted into a full novel, Just Stab Me Now. Jerry Wayne Live: Fellow Texan Jerry Wayne is a standup comedian who’s kind of like Larry the Cable Guy, if that character was actually a genuine person instead of a city slicker’s idiotic impression. His series of “Truck Astrology” videos demonstrates real and loving knowledge of what pickup trucks and SUVs are supposed to be, and for that, I am grateful. I’d ask Jerry to review my ’03 Ranger Edge if it hadn’t blown its transmission long ago. OceanX: I was that kid in elementary school who was obsessed with Robert Ballard and the Titanic, before the movie came out. So there’s no small amount of envy in my recommendation for this channel, which chronicles the work of a team of oceanographers on a research vessel complete with submersibles and ROVs. They also have general education videos on a variety of topics. Oh yeah, follow PCWorld please Did you know that PCWorld is on TikTok? At least at the time of writing. Including me, Michael, the guy writing this. I record short little summaries of some of the articles that I and my coworkers write, and the video team over in California posts it with neato backgrounds and links. And they do it on YouTube Shorts, too. The PCWorld YouTube channel also has longer dives into all the latest PC news and hands-on coverage of the newest parts, laptops, handhelds, and anything else that strikes our fancy. Subscribe to TheFullNerd while you’re at it — that’s our sister channel for the weekly podcast (live every Tuesday and for most major PC-related events). Read...

The Tigers said in a statement the versatile big man will also complete “education programming and undertake counselling”. Read...

Ten years ago PC gamers were eagerly awaiting Steam Machines, console-style Linux boxes built from the ground up to play PC games. They flopped, due in no small part to Steam operator Valve’s lack of experience working with hardware partners. But in 2025, both Valve and its home-built gaming operating system are different beasts. And Microsoft should be afraid of them. Further reading: How to use Steam Deck as a desktop PC The Steam Deck dominates PC gaming The big story in PC gaming for the last three years has been the Steam Deck. This low-power, portable, relatively inexpensive machine is clearly something the market has been waiting for, exciting gamers and energizing PC makers to pump out imitators, like the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go. But all of these machines lack a crucial component, despite copying the Steam Deck’s hardware to a greater or lesser degree. They rely on Windows, as do almost all consumer PCs not made by Apple. And Windows just isn’t a good experience in this form factor. That’s why Lenovo turned to Valve for its second-gen Legion Go S. Or perhaps more precisely, the Legion Go S Powered By SteamOS (its full and cumbersome title). It’s the first handheld PC officially powered by Valve’s Linux-based operating system, but probably not the last. Lenovo is also making new Windows-based versions of the same hardware, but we’ve already heard that Asus is working on a similar Steam-powered handheld, and Valve itself will let you download and install builds of SteamOS later in 2025. Some tech heads aren’t even waiting, and are already building their own quasi-SteamOS-powered PCs. Lenovo/Valve Despite fumbling its initial debut on console-style Steam Machines, SteamOS has quietly and steadily improved over the last decade, benefitting both from the Linux market’s maturity and Valve’s endless investment into the Steam store and community as a quasi-platform of its own. The X factor in the Steam Deck’s explosive popularity is the Proton compatibility layer, which allows games made only for Windows to run on the low-powered AMD hardware with minimal fuss. It can’t run everything — non-Steam games like Fortnite and the latest AAA polygon-pushers can’t run optimally on the Steam Deck. But it’s good enough for the vast majority of PC games and on a device that starts at $400, you get a lot of grace from gamers who also need to pay for rent and groceries. Contrast this with Windows, the current de facto standard for PC gaming. Yes, Linux fans, I know you’ve been playing some of the same games as Windows users for years, ditto for Mac. But when you think “gaming PC,” you think of a Windows-powered desktop or laptop. Or do you? It’s possible — though hard to pin down, since Valve hasn’t released any numbers — that in terms of single-device volume, the Steam Deck is now the most popular gaming PC in the world. Windows wobbles from 10 to 11 But I digress. Windows is the home of PC gaming, at least for now and the foreseeable future, but it’s not a happy home. As I said previously, handheld gaming PCs that ape the Steam Deck’s hardware but run Windows 11 often find that last point is the biggest pain point for users. They complain of inefficient use of the limited hardware, to say nothing of how Windows just isn’t easy to use on those smaller screens. And companies like Asus, Lenovo, MSI, et cetera don’t have the software chops to make an effective go-between layer for users, even if these devices could spare the performance overhead (they can’t). Michael Crider/Foundry Windows isn’t looking so hot in general, in fact. The transition from Windows 10 to Windows 11 hasn’t quite been the disaster that the initial Windows 7 to 8 transition was. But it hasn’t been great, either. Those big yearly updates seem to reliably bork at least some portion of the userbase’s machines, disproportionately affecting gamers and Microsoft is still struggling to get people to give up Windows 10. Even with a well-publicized end of support coming in under a year, Windows 11 is struggling — and sometimes flat-out failing — to gain market share over its previous incarnation. Microsoft’s has larger general woes in the gaming market, watching the Xbox platform and brand apparently drown even as its Game Pass subscription grows. Game Pass is pretty clearly the company’s attempt at a cross-platform rebirth, the culmination of hundreds of billions invested in buying up developers and publishers to own games as diverse as Minecraft, Call of Duty, and WoW. But you can’t spend-money-to-make-money forever, and gaming isn’t Microsoft’s only business. It’s also desperate to sell Windows machines (2025 is “The year of the Windows 11 PC refresh,” allegedly), Office subscriptions, and AI services to the enterprise. There might be too many cooks in the kitchen and too many mouths to feed, all at once, in one of the tech industry’s oldest and most reliable megacorps. SteamOS reminds me of Android So look at a wobbling Windows platform on one hand, and an ascendant and suddenly spreading SteamOS on the other. Valve has committed to offering SteamOS to manufacturing partners via the “Powered by SteamOS” branding initiative. With the open source Linux as a foundation and relative hardware agnosticism, it’s starting to look a lot like the relationship that Google developed with smartphone makers to proliferate Android across the mobile market. It’s not a complete one-to-one comparison, but Valve told us in an interview that it’s not charging for SteamOS. Huh. Microsoft tried to compete with Android. It failed, miserably, and the company essentially had to abandon the mobile space entirely and settle for providing backend services through apps. Even when Microsoft tried to get an early foothold in the folding device segment with the Surface Duo (also failing), it did so using Android as a basis. My colleague Adam Patrick Murray waxed philosophical about SteamOS powering gaming laptops when he spoke with a Valve engineer at CES. And I think that’s a definite possibility, even if it isn’t Valve’s immediate focus with SteamOS as it moves to conquer the handheld form factor first. But we’re talking about a “free” operating system (those quotes are because you’ll need to partner with Valve in some capacity to get the branding), built from the ground up for PC gaming, and flexible enough to run on some of the lowest-power hardware on the market or potentially the most cutting-edge gaming devices. The parallels to Android are hard to ignore, at least for me, a journalist who cut my teeth on the smartphone boom. But the prospects don’t stop at gaming. With Chromebooks and ChromeOS, Google has proven that regular consumers and even some bigger customers like education aren’t as committed to Windows as they were back in the 90s. Marek Sowa / Shutterstock ChromeOS is still seen as a “budget” laptop solution (much to Google’s chagrin). But a year or two from now, you could see Chrome-powered budget laptops next to mid-range and high-end SteamOS-powered gaming laptops, all sitting next to Windows 11 machines on a Best Buy shelf. And that’ll be after Microsoft has forced an upgrade upon lots of people who didn’t want to give up Windows 10. Consumers are ready for a future beyond Windows Let me be clear: The odds of a massive, immediate shift away from Windows PCs aren’t great. This isn’t a “year of the Linux desktop” rallying cry. But if there is a Linux desktop that exists today, it’s the Steam Deck. And that makes SteamOS a bellwether for greater proliferation of non-Windows devices (if not necessarily “Linux” specifically) in a huge range of form factors. At the start of 2025, Microsoft still has its comfortable stranglehold on the consumer side of the PC market. It weathered “the death of the desktop” predicted during the smartphone and tablet boom — people aren’t getting rid of their personal machines. But Windows’ never-ending dominance as the de facto PC operating system is, if not in doubt, then certainly in question. Microsoft’s attempts to ameliorate the issues that Windows-powered handheld PCs, lacking as they are, shows that the company is aware of the problem it has in that form factor. I wonder what it’ll do if it sees SteamOS jump to gaming laptops…or desktops. SteamOS isn’t necessarily a harbinger of doom for Windows. But it could be. And that should make Microsoft very, very frightened. Read...

The hub will be based around the former Forum North headquarters, only partial use since the council vacated the building for its new civic facility. Read...

BitLocker is a crucial Windows feature that helps secure the data on your PC. The full version of BitLocker is only available on Windows 11 Pro, but you can still use it to a lesser degree on Windows 11 Home. (In fact, it’s one of the best reasons to choose Windows 11 Pro over Home.) So, whether you’re on Windows 11 Pro or Home, if you aren’t using BitLocker yet, you should definitely start. Here’s everything you need to know about BitLocker and how to get it set up right now. What is BitLocker? BitLocker is a secure disk encryption solution that’s built into Windows 11. When your PC uses BitLocker encryption, it stores all the files on its internal storage device in encrypted form. Modern Windows PCs normally save the necessary decryption key to the PC’s Trusted Platform Module (TPM) for safe keeping. When you log in and authenticate, the TPM releases the decryption key and you’re able to use your computer like normal. The TPM also checks that your PC hasn’t been tampered with before it releases the decryption key. Since your files are stored in encrypted form, a thief who steals your laptop won’t be able to access them without logging in as you. No one can open up your laptop, take the drive out, and pry into your data — your files would appear scrambled without the decryption key. Why you need BitLocker on your PC BitLocker ensures that only you (or someone with whom you’ve shared your BitLocker recovery key) can access the files on your PC. It’s a huge deal for businesses who want to make sure that confidential data on company systems can’t easily be viewed by anyone. But it’s also useful security for home PC users — especially laptop users — just in case someone happens to get their hands on your PC. The full version of BitLocker lets you use encryption without signing into a Microsoft account, lets you store your recovery key in the way of your choosing, and allows BitLocker to be used on a wider range of PCs. None of these are available via BitLocker on Windows 11 Home PCs. BitLocker Drive Encryption vs. Windows Device Encryption I’ve hinted at this a few times already, but there are essentially two versions of BitLocker. There’s the “full” BitLocker experience that we’re focusing on here, which is called BitLocker Drive Encryption and is one of biggest reasons to upgrade to Windows 11 Professional. Next to that, there’s also something called Windows Device Encryption, which uses a lot of the same technology to encrypt your PC’s storage in a simplified way — at least, in some circumstances. Windows Device Encryption is designed to be totally transparent. If you’re using a modern Windows 11 PC and you sign in with a Microsoft account, then Windows 11 automatically enables Device Encryption to protect your PC’s internal storage and upload the recovery key to your Microsoft account. Your PC’s storage will be protected with BitLocker and automatically unlocked whenever you sign in. If you ever can’t sign in to your PC and lose access to your files, you can get your recovery key from your Microsoft account online to regain access. (It also works if you sign in to a workplace-managed PC. In this case, the recovery key will instead be stored by your organization.) Get Windows 11 Pro for cheap Windows 11 Pro BitLocker Drive Encryption is more powerful and flexible. You can encrypt your PC’s storage without signing in with a Microsoft account, and you don’t have to store your recovery key with Microsoft at all — you can print it out and store it somewhere in your office, all without it ever leaving your PC’s storage. You can also encrypt other drives (including removable USB drives) with a feature named BitLocker To Go. You also have access to lots of extra settings to customize the way the encryption works. For the average PC user, Device Encryption is great — it’s what’s keeping most Windows 11 Home PCs encrypted. The Microsoft account and recovery key upload requirements ensure that you can’t accidentally lose access to your PC’s files, and even if you lose your recovery key, you can always access it online via your Microsoft account. A caveat for Windows Device Encryption At this point, I want to note that some older Windows 11 PCs may not support Device Encryption. It’s up to manufacturers to configure their PCs to work with Device Encryption out of the box. Want to check if your Windows 11 PC supports Device Encryption? Open the Settings app, select Privacy & security in the left pane, and click Device encryption under Security: Chris Hoffman / IDG If you don’t see this option, your PC doesn’t have it. If you want it, you’ll have to upgrade to Windows 11 Professional to unlock the full BitLocker experience instead. Requirements for using BitLocker For the most powerful and configurable BitLocker experience on Windows 11, you’ll need Windows 11 Professional or one of the other non-consumer editions of Windows 11 (meaning Enterprise, Education, or Workstation). The only edition it’s limited on is Home. For optimal security, BitLocker also requires a computer with TPM 1.2 hardware or newer. (Remember, BitLocker stores its decryption key in the TPM.) Since one of the most important system requirements for Windows 11 is TPM 2.0, all Windows 11 PCs should support this. Microsoft spells out a few other obscure requirements, like how your hard disk must be partitioned with two drives, including a small system partition designed to boot Windows before decrypting the drive. Windows 11 automatically creates these partitions when it’s installed though, so it’s nothing you really have to worry about. And that’s it. If you’re on Windows 11 Home and want to unlock the full potential of BitLocker, see our guide on upgrading to Windows 11 Pro without reinstalling the operating system. What to know before using BitLocker BitLocker can make data recovery a bit more complicated. If your PC dies and you have to pull the storage device from it and plug it into a separate PC to recover your data, you won’t be able to view the files on it — until you provide your BitLocker recovery key, which is stored in your Microsoft account online (with Device Encryption) or wherever you chose to personally save it (with BitLocker Drive Encryption). Naturally, this is also what prevents thieves from accessing your files. No one is getting access to them without your recovery key. Your BitLocker recovery key is crucial. Let’s say you use BitLocker Drive Encryption to store your files and you later experience a problem with your PC and need that recovery key. If you don’t have it anymore, you’re toast. Those files are irretrievable. If you don’t have a copy of the recovery key, hopefully you at least have backups of those files! Chris Hoffman / IDG BitLocker may also reduce your PC’s storage performance. You’ll see the claim that “BitLocker slows SSDs by up to 45 percent” online, but that isn’t the full story — that’s just the result from one particular synthetic benchmark on one particular PC configuration. The precise performance impact will depend on your PC’s hardware, the workload you’re putting your storage through, and your BitLocker settings. If you have a desktop gaming PC or high-end workstation that sits in a room in your home and you’re more worried about getting maximum performance than someone stealing it and snooping on your files, you may want to leave BitLocker disabled. On the other hand, if you use a laptop for work — or even just personal tasks — then a potential small slowdown is a reasonable price to pay to ensure your sensitive files are protected in case you ever find your laptop lost or stolen. Modern laptops are pretty fast, and you almost certainly won’t notice a difference in productivity applications and web browsing performance when you have BitLocker enabled. Setting up BitLocker on a Windows 11 PC To activate BitLocker Drive Encryption on your Windows 11 PC, you’ll first need to upgrade to Windows 11 Professional if you haven’t already done so. Then, you can open the classic Control Panel and search for “BitLocker” to find the BitLocker settings. From here, you can activate (or deactivate) BitLocker for any drive: Chris Hoffman / IDG Want to use Windows Device Encryption instead? Head to Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption to find the settings for it. (If you don’t see Device Encryption as an option on this page, your PC doesn’t support Device Encryption.) Chris Hoffman / IDG Device Encryption should be enabled by default if you sign in with a Microsoft account. But to ensure it’s enabled, visit this settings page, check that it’s toggled to On, and be sure to sign in to Windows with a Microsoft account (not a local user account). Keep in mind when using BitLocker… When using BitLocker, the most important thing is that you need to keep tabs on your recovery key. If you lose it, you’ll lose access to all the files on your PC — and so you should store it with your Microsoft account online unless you have a good reason not to. If you choose not to store your BitLocker recovery key with your Microsoft account online, you’ll want to store it somewhere else safe and secure. You may want to print it on a piece of paper and store it in a physical safe, for example. It’s also a good idea to have up-to-date backups of your files, whether in the cloud or on a local storage device. Read...

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