Linus Tech Tips Discussion

 Microsoft rolls out hardware-accelerated BitLocker in Windows 11 Summary Microsoft is rolling out hardware-accelerated Bitlocker in Windows 11. They say it will improve performance impact due to real-time encrypt/decrypt that feels more pronounced on NVMe drives. As far as I can tell, no existing CPU/platform currently supports it though. So you'll likely have to upgrade to take advantage. They say the upcoming Intel vPro devices featuring Core Ultra Series 3 (formally codenamed Panther Lake) processors will provide initial support for these capabilities with support for other vendors and platforms planned.   A bar chart comparing an average number of cycles per IO between hardware-accelerated BitLocker and software BitLocker as opposed to without BitLocker encryption A diagram comparing a software BitLocker to hardware accelerated BitLocker. Quotes Quote  We know that users desire both security and great performance. Historically, we have strived to keep BitLocker performance overhead within single digit percentage points. However, with the rapid rise in popularity and advancement of Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) drive technology, these drives now achieve much higher Input/Output (I/O) operation speeds. As a result, corresponding BitLocker cryptographic operations can require a higher proportion of CPU (Central Processing Unit) cycles. This makes the performance impact of BitLocker more pronounced, especially on high-throughput and I/O intensive workloads like gaming or video editing. Balancing robust security with minimal performance impact is more challenging than ever. The need to protect sensitive data remains critical, but users also expect their devices to operate at peak efficiency. As a result, the industry has needed to innovate new solutions that ensure both security and speed are maintained even as hardware capabilities advance. To achieve this, we announced hardware-accelerated BitLocker at Microsoft Ignite last month.  Hardware-accelerated BitLocker is designed to provide the best combination of performance and security.   Starting with the September 2025 Windows update for Windows 11 24H2 and the release of Windows 11 25H2, in addition to existing support for UFS (Universal Flash Storage) Inline Crypto Engine technology, BitLocker will take advantage of upcoming system on chip (SoC) and central processing unit (CPU) capabilities to achieve better performance and security for current and future NVMe drives. These capabilities are: Crypto offloading – BitLocker shifts bulk cryptographic operations from the main CPU to a dedicated crypto engine. This capability frees up CPU resources for other tasks and helps improve both performance and battery life. Hardware protected ke