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Windows 11 Pro slows SSD by 45 per cent

by on23 October 2023


BitLocker encryption issue

A default setting in Windows 11 Pro robs as much as 45 percent of the speed from SSDs as it forces processors to encrypt and decrypt everything.

Pro has BitLocker encryption enabled by default and this causes serious slow downs to SSDs.

While many SSDs come with hardware-based encryption, which does all the processing directly on the drive, Windows 11 Pro force-enables the software version of BitLocker during installation, without providing a clear way to opt out.

Windows 11 Home doesn't support BitLocker so you won't have encryption enabled which ironically means that everything will be faster.

Tom's Hardware did a test to find out just how much software BitLocker impacts performance. One was unencrypted (no BitLocker), software BitLocker (the Windows 11 Pro default), and with hardware BitLocker (OPAL) enabled.

While the software encryption increased latency and decreased transfer rates, hardware encryption and no encryption at all were basically tied.

Toms advice was that if you have BitLocker enabled, you may want to change your settings.

 

Last modified on 23 October 2023
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