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Manage BitLocker Control for Removable Storage Media in Windows 7

By Codrut Nistor

Posted in How-to, Windows-7

BitLocker is the feature which needs to be enabled on individual drives in case administrators want to protect the data available on desktop PCs or on laptops. Though administrators can do so quite easily however when it comes to removable storage media things should be taken seriously. This is because removable storage media can be used to steal sensitive information from the office computers. Therefore for security purposes administrators may want to revoke users’ privileges of turning on BitLocker on removable storage media. As an administrator you can do so by following the steps given below:

  1. Logon to the computer with administrator account.
  2. Click on Start button.
  3. At the bottom of start menu in search box type gpedit.msc and press enter key.
  4. On Local Group Policy Editor snap-in under Computer Configuration expand Administrative Templates and expand Windows Components.
  5. Expand BitLocker Drive Encryption and from expanded list select Removable Data Dirves.
  6. From the right pane double click on Control use of BitLocker on removable drives.
  7. On the opened window select Disabled radio button and click on Ok button to accept and confirm your configuration.
  8. Close Local Group Policy Editor snap-in and open Command Prompt.
  9. In command window type gpupdate /force and press enter key to update your computer configuration with latest settings.
  10. Close Command Prompt.