Microsoft BitLocker Reviews

We encrypt devices and disks that have the potential to be taken off-site, such as laptops, tablets, USB sticks, and USB disks. Basically, we encrypt any medium that has to be taken off-site. If we're giving out a USB stick to somebody, it is BitLocker encrypted. If somebody has to use a memory stick, the only way it gets out is if it is encrypted. 

We use the version that is native to an operating system.

It is free and native to the OS. We don't have to worry about upgrades or maintaining the product. You encrypt the disk, and you save the recovery key. That's it. The person puts their password in, and after that, it is up to them. If they forget their password, they have to bring it in to get it unlocked.

User profiles can be improved so that people can create their own passwords. It has one password per machine, which is a problem. We would prefer each user to have his or her own boot password. Each user can have a username and password or biometrics, such as fingerprints and iris scanner, integrated into the boot process, but I really can't see that coming anytime soon, if ever.

I have been using this solution for six or seven years.

It is stable.

It doesn't really need to scale. You use it as you need it and manage it with group policies. 

There is no need for support.

We've used a few different disk encryption products, and we've kind of settled on BitLocker because it is native to the operating system. It is simple, and there is no maintenance on it.

We also use Symantec at the moment, but we are retiring Symantec. We had trouble getting all the machines back into the office to change the disk encryption. We have a few left with Symantec. With Symantec, the version that we had was pretty old, and I wasn't sure if it would actually even work with some of the later builds of Windows 10. In terms of maintenance, with Symantec, every time there is a new build of Windows 10, you either have to defer the update while they update with Symantec, or you can install it and hope for the best. It is not a very satisfactory situation where you might have to wait six months before you can go up onto the latest build of Windows.

It wasn't complex. It just took me a while to figure it out and make it do what I wanted it to do. Everything is documented, and you just follow the documentation.

It is deployed on all new computers, and it is part of the build. It doesn't take very long. It takes only 10 or 15 minutes. While the disk is encrypting, you can do other things.

I deployed it on some of the computers. BitLocker is maintained as part of the operating system. If there are any updates to Bitlocker, they come out as operating system updates.

It is free. It is enabled as part of the operating system. Once you have an operating system license, you're licensed for Bitlocker.

I would recommend this solution. It is quick and neat, and it does the trick.

I would rate Microsoft BitLocker a seven out of ten.

The solution needs to have better protection and improve its pricing. 

I have been using the solution for five to ten years. 

The tool is stable. 

My company has five users. 

The solution's tech support is fast. 

Positive

The solution's setup is straightforward. We required a team of three people to manage the tool's deployment. 

The solution is expensive.

I would rate the product a ten out of ten. 

I use the solution to log into my admin-protected computer.

The most valuable feature is the authentication process which is very fast.

My overall experience is based solely on one point: the gateway to the admin site. Even though my password is correct, I often have to make multiple attempts to log in. Microsoft BitLocker can help streamline the login process so that it works on the first attempt.

I would like the next release to include a fingerprint unlock feature, as I am currently required to use the PIN provided by my organization.

I have been using the solution for two years.

The solution is stable.

We have between 300 to 400 people using the solution in our organization.

I give the solution a seven out of ten.

I recommend the solution to others.

On-premises

Our primary use case is data encryption and protection.

The price of this solution should be more competitive.

The first level of technical support needs to be improved.

We have been using the Microsoft OS at the endpoints for five years.

We have not seen any bugs or glitches, so the stability is good.

The scalability is good. We have approximately 500 users in a variety of roles and positions.

We have been in touch with technical support many times and we are not satisfied, to be honest. Their first-level support is pathetic. The people at the first level of support refer you to articles that do not pertain to the problem at hand.

When it comes to level-two and level-three support, it is good.

We have also used a similar solution by Kaspersky.

The suitability of this solution depends on the feature requirements of the organization and what they are looking for.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

On-premises

1. Bitlocker is easy to use. You start the wizard by right-clicking the drive and selecting “Turn on Bitlocker”. 2. Bitlocker encrypts the content of any drive and makes your data secure and safe. 3. The option of using either strong passphrase or smartcard to encrypt/decrypt the drive bring flexibility in terms of choice 4. Bitlocker recovery key can either be printed and stored in a secure place or stored in a drive. 5. In a Windows server environment, the combination of Bitlocker and Group Policy enforces the encryption of removable drives across the network. 6. It is free to Windows users provided your OS supports it.

1. Although, drive encryption could be running in the background, it took a long time to encrypt a drive. 2. Bitlocker is available to Windows Ultimate / Enterprise edition only. Other edition of Windows should enjoy this facility My job functions involve writing scripts that I mostly apply to client’s computers both standalone and networked. I store most of these scripts in a flash drive to reduce the task of writing it at the client end. My major challenge was in securing the flash drive. In the past I had a case where a staff member wiped most of his important files, by unknowingly clicking on one of the scripts in the flash drive he collected from me. This incident almost caused me to lose my job.

In order to avoid such an experience in the future, I was forced to search for a free tool that would help me encrypt my drive. Bitlocker was all we needed. To be sincere, I am not disappointed deploying the tool. All my drives are now encrypted. There is no fear of losing my job as a result of unauthorized access to my flash drives, and any other drives. Bitlocker also enabled us to encrypt the drive hosting the operating systems of our mobile users. All that the PC needs, is to be Trusted Platform Module (TPM) compliant, or rather, have a USB stick that contains the keys. This provides additional security to the systems.

We use this solution to encrypt the data on three hard drives.

The following areas need improvement:

• The encryption takes a long time to complete, and our system runs very slowly while it is encrypting.
• If you lose the data, or it becomes corrupted, then there is no backup for it. There is no way of recovering it.
• There are no clear guidelines for using this product.
• Technical support for this solution is poor.

Trial / evaluation period (six months).

The product is stable.

There is no technical support that assists with understanding BitLocker.

I have used different solutions, personally, but that was while I was at my previous company.

The initial setup for this solution is straightforward. We needed to change the group policy setting.

I handled the installation myself.

We have two people working on the maintenance of the solution.

I would rate this product a five out of ten.

This solution is used for encryption.

It's a straightforward solution for encryption.

It is easy to use.

It has multiple options for many uses.

The console GUI could be better.

The initial setup could be simplified.

I have been using Microsoft BitLocker for two years.

Microsoft Bitlocker is a stable product.

It's a scalable solution. It is easy to scale. 

Technical support is helpful, but the response time is slow.

The initial setup was a bit complex.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I would rate Microsoft Bitlocker a seven out of ten.

We do a lot of data analysis for various companies with things like customer and product profitability models and cost modeling in terms of transport. A lot of operational business-type data analysis.

The ease of use is the most valuable feature. The ability to import data to build your frontend on top of the data is very simple and very useable. 

The visualization could be better. I don't have any complaints about the usability of the stability of it and he licensing is quite reasonable actually.

I have been using this solution for eighteen months. 

The stability is good. 

I haven't really tested it on a large scale. We use it on a relatively small scale, around10-20 users. 

The initial setup is straightforward. 

I would rate it an eight out of ten. Not a ten because the frontend could still be a little easier to use. There's still a level of effort in creating things. It could be easier. 

I would recommend it. From what I have seen, the setup is really easy and the ability to get up to speed is really quick. I would recommend it as being a really good tool if you are a Microsoft user. 

On-premises