How to Disable BitLocker in Windows 10 (remove bitlocker)

If the BitLocker encryption is causing unnecessary problems, follow these steps to turn off, remove, or disable BitLocker in Windows 10.

For most Windows users, BitLocker is one of the best and free ways to encrypt drives and their content. To start using BitLocker, all you have to do is enable BitLocker on the target drive, set a password, backup BitLocker recovery key and you are good to go. The actual BitLocker module will take care of the full encryption and decryption of the drive as and when needed. Of course, when not needed, you can decrypt the drives and disable BitLocker.

While BitLocker makes it easy to protect data with strong encryption, it has its own quirks too. For example, considering the functionality and how BitLocker works, it doesn’t play nice with other software, isn’t compatible with dual-booting, and might even cause problems with Windows 10 upgrades. The upgrade problems are especially persistent if you chose to encrypt the C drive.

No matter the reason, if you no longer need BitLocker drive encryption, you can disable it with just a few clicks. Follow any of the below methods to fully disable BitLocker in Windows 10.

Jump to:

• Disable BitLocker from Control Panel
• Disable BitLocker Command (cmd)
• PowerShell Command to Turn Off BitLocker

Disable BitLocker from Control Panel

You can turn off BitLocker directly from the control panel itself. Here’s how.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type “Control Panel” and press Enter.
3. After opening the control panel, set the View By to “Large icons”.
4. Next, find and click on the “BitLocker Drive Encryption” option.
5. Find the drive with BitLocker turned on and click on it.
6. Click on the “Turn off BitLocker” option.
   
7. When prompted for a password, type it and press Enter.

As soon as you confirm the action, BitLocker will decrypt the drive and turns itself off. That is all.

Disable BitLocker Command (cmd)

You can execute a single command to quickly disable BitLocker in Windows 10. Before executing the below command, make sure to note down the actual drive letter of the encrypted drive. You can find the drive letter in the File Explorer.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type “Command Prompt“, right-click on it, and select “Run as administrator“.
3. After open CMD as admin, execute the below command. Replace “X” with the actual drive letter of the encrypted drive.
   manage-bde -off X:
4. When prompted, type the BitLocker password and press Enter.

Once you authenticate with the password, Windows 10 will decrypt the drive and turns off BitLocker.

PowerShell Command to Turn Off BitLocker

PowerShell too has a dedicated command to fully turn off BitLocker in Windows 10.

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type “PowerShell“, right-click on it, and select “Run as administrator“.
3. After open PowerShell admin, execute the below command in it. Replace “X” with the actual drive letter.
   Disable-BitLocker -MountPoint "X:"
4. When prompted for a password, type it in and press Enter

As soon as you enter the password, Windows will decrypt the drive and disables BitLocker on that specific drive.

That is all. It is that simple to fully disable BitLocker in Windows 10. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.