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(Image credit: Microsoft) Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Share this article Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Microsoft has introduced a new form of hardware-accelerated BitLocker encryption in Windows 11 , offloading encryption and decryption to a purpose-built cryptography accelerator baked into future CPUs to improve performance and efficiency. First announced at Ignite 2025 in November, the feature has been added to the latest versions of Windows 11 (25H2) and Windows Server (2025 with the September Update), along with UFS (Universal Flash Storage) Inline Crypto Engine technology. This new tech will undo the performance penalties that Microsoft imposed on its users by forcing them to use software-based encryption by default, offering twice the storage performance in some types of workloads.
According to our testing and support documentation, software-based BitLocker encryption is enabled by default on new installs of Windows 11 Pro. It reduces SSD performance by up to 45% , as encryption and decryption are handled by software running on the CPU. Hardware-accelerated BitLocker is already available for storage devices, with the encryption offload being handled on the storage device itself, be it an SSD or HDD, as long as it is TCG Opal-compliant. Most modern SSDs include hardware-based encryption, in which all encryption/decryption processing occurs directly on the drive with no performance impact.
However, Microsoft, being Microsoft, opted to force-enable the software version of BitLocker for new Windows Pro installs, hurting performance and battery life — you can only use hardware-based SSD encryption if you jump through a complicated series of largely undocumented hoops.
Windows security update triggers BitLocker recovery in some systems
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-forced-slow-software-accelerated-bitlocker-on-windows-but-expects-to-nearly-double-storage-performance-and-improve-battery-life-with-new-cpu-hardware-accelerated-crypto-new-feature-requires-new-cpus-that-arent-available-on-the-market-yet#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.