When I unboxed my Dell system I created a local account. There is no user with a Microsoft account on the system. My drives are not encrypted and control panel shows that Bitlocker is off for all drives. The system information utility shows “Device Encryption Support Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: PCR7 binding is not supported, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected”.
I don’t know exactly what this means and am concerned that at some future point installing a Dell update could result in automatic device encryption being activated. Since there is no Microsoft account I am concerned that such an event could be catastrophic due to an unknown recovery key being required.
This article from Dell https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000124701/automatic-windows-device-encryption-bitlocker-on-dell-systems mentions a registry key to prevent automatic device encryption but states that it is only effective when preparing a Windows Image, not after Windows is installed. Microsoft’s article at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-device-encryption-overview-windows-10 discusses the registry key without the qualification made by Dell regarding effectiveness.
My bottom line question — how can I ensure that automatic device encryption is disabled?
