I have a Windows 7 ultimate laptop computer, recently I intend to use BitLocker to encrypt the Windows 7 partition. The depressing part is that I can't encrypt this partition directly with a password, Windows requires me to use a USB drive as the startup key, and this situation does not exist when encrypting a data partition. I hate having to carry a USB drive with me and I want to be able to start BitLocker encrypted Windows 7 directly with a password. Can someone tell me if this is possible?
By default, Windows 7 can only be started with the BitLocker recovery key or a BEK file (The BEK file is a key you would save on a USB drive to start Windows 7 computer without having to enter a bitlocker recovery.), only Windows 11/10/8 can be started by entering a password, because using the password to start Windows is not implemented in Windows 7. Is there any way to boot BitLocker encrypted Windows 7 with password instead of using startup key USB drive or BitLocker recovery key? The answer is to use Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere, you can find the complete steps below.
Step 1. Download and install Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere.
Step 2. Launch Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere, right-click the Windows drive letter (usually C:), then click "Turn On BitLocker".
Step 3. In this step, you are asked to choose how to unlock the Windows drive at startup. Please select Enter a password to start the computer.
Step 4. Now you are required to specify a password for encrypting the drive, enter the password and click "Next". You should choose a password having a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, spaces, and special symbols.
Step 5. After clicking "Next", you are asked how you want to backup the BitLocker recovery key. You can save the recovery key to a file or print a copy of it, then click "Next" to move on. Please note that anyone can use the recovery key to gain access to the drive, even if they do not have the password created in the previous step, so please do not disclose it to others.
Step 6. Now a pop-up will appear asking you if you want to reboot into Pre-OS to encrypt the Windows partition. Click "Yes" to continue.
Step 7. Another pop-up will appear asking you if you want to build a WinPE image to continue. Click "Yes".
Step 8. Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere starts building WinPE. This may take several minutes, so please be patient to wait.
Step 9. After successfully builded the WinPE image, Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere will prompt you to reboot the computer, click "Yes" button to allow Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere to reboot your computer.
Step 10. Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere will now reboot and enter Pre-OS to encrypt the contents of the selected drive using BitLocker drive encryption. The encryption process could take a long time to finish depending on the size of the drive, so please be patient to wait. If you don't want to wait until the encryption operation is finished, "Shut down the computer when the operation is completed" option is a good idea. Just check it.
Step 11. After the encryption is complete, click the "Finish" button to close the window.
Step 12. Now you have to enter the BitLocker password before you can start the Windows 7.
To sum it all up, by default, Windows 7 doesn't allow us to type BitLocker password prior to receiving the login screen even if we are using Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise Edition. Fortunately, with the help of Hasleo BitLocker Anywhere, you can boot BitLocker encrypted Windows 7 with password instead of using startup key USB drive or BitLocker recovery key. If you want to use the startup key USB drive to encrypt and start Windows 7, please refer to the User guide: How to Encrypt Windows 7 Partition and Start the BitLocker Encrypted Windows 7 with a BitLocker Startup Key USB Drive?
