The consumer version of Windows 10 does not offer any encryption solution. Those who want to ensure the privacy of their data can turn to the open source software VeraCrypt.
If you are using a Windows 10 PC, chances are that the data on your hard drive is not encrypted. Microsoft offers an encryption solution called Bitlocker, but only on Windows Pro and Windows Enterprise versions. Vulgar users of the consumer version of Windows have to fend for themselves. This is all the more annoying if you have a laptop PC, which can contain sensitive data and which can be lost or stolen during travel.
So what to do? The simplest solution is to use VeraCrypt, which is simple to implement and very powerful. Here are the different steps to get there. You should already know that you will need to have a FAT or FAT32 formatted USB key on hand.
1) Download and install VeraCrypt
Meeting on the “Downloads” section of veracrypt.fr and download the correct version for your PC, then install it. The software will eventually ask you to disable fast startup, which will require a restart of the machine.
On newer computers that use UEFI boot mode, VeraCrypt cannot encrypt the entire hard drive at once. You must first encrypt the system partition (C :), then the partition that stores the data (D :). If you only have one partition, this second step is obviously superfluous.
2) Encrypt the system partition
2.a) Launch VeraCrypt, go to the “System” menu and select the option “Encrypt system partition / disk…”. After validating an access control, you can choose the type of encryption. Keep the default option, namely “Normal”. For the area to be encrypted, you have no choice, it is the “Windows system partition”. Then choose “Boot” or “Multiple boot”, if you have respectively one or more operating systems installed on your machine.
2.b) In the encryption options, keep the default options, namely AES and SHA-512. It’s largely enough.
2.c) You will then have to choose a good password. It must be long and complex so that it cannot be guessed, but also easy to type, because it will have to be filled in each time the machine is started. And as it will always be done with an English keyboard layout, you will notice that VeraCrypt is automatically switched to that configuration on this screen. But you don’t have to take it into account.
2.d) The collection of random data allows to create an encryption key with a good level of entropy. Move the mouse until the bar is completely filled. The software will then tell you that the keys have been generated successfully.
2.e) The last step before encryption is crucial. This is to create a rescue disk, which will allow you to access the system even if the boot loader is damaged, which can happen after a Windows update. To do this, the software will create in your “Documents” directory a ZIP file that will have to be extracted at the root of a FAT or FAT32 formatted USB key.
2.f) After choosing the “No cleaning” mode, you can perform an encryption pre-test. The system will restart and ask for your famous password. If the test is successful, then you can proceed to true encryption. For our SSD drive, it took us about ten minutes. The encrypted partition will then appear on the main screen of VeraCrypt.
3) Encrypt the data partition
3.a) Launch VeraCrypt, go to the “Volumes” menu and select “Create a new volume…”. In the volume creation wizard, choose “Encrypt non-system partition / disk”. After having validated an access control, you can choose the type of volume. Keep the default choice (“standard”).
3.b) You must then define the location of the volume to be encrypted. Click on “Device…” and select the partition that stores your data. Usually this is the letter D. For volume creation mode, select “Create encrypted volume and format it” if you have no data in your partition. Otherwise, you have to take “Encrypt the partition in place”, which will be slower.
3.c) Subsequently, the software asks you for the encryption options. As before, keep the default choices. After checking the volume size, you will need to choose a good password. For simplicity, you can use the same as before.
3.d) If you opted for formatting, you now become select a file system. First, choose “Yes” to the “Large files” question, because who can do more can do less. The software will then offer you a selection of file systems. Since this is an internal drive, your best bet is to take NTFS. Then, as before, move the mouse to collect random data and click “Format”. Formatting took us about ten minutes.
3.e) Your new encrypted partition is now ready to use. But to use it, it will first have to be mounted. To do this, you must return to the main VeraCrypt screen, select a logical drive letter (for example F) and click on “Automatic mounting”. A pop-up window will ask for the password and a few seconds later you will be able to access the storage volume. This manipulation must be repeated on each restart.
