- Best free encryption software for windows 8 android#
- Best free encryption software for windows 8 windows 8.1#
What you need (or, your hardware probably doesn’t support this)Ī year or two from now, this invisible-to-the-user, always-available encryption option will probably be on most new Windows laptops and tablets. OS X (to pick a prominent example) offers built-in disk encryption to all Macs via FileVault, and we’re glad to see the feature slowly trickling down to the consumer-oriented Windows editions. The nice thing about the automated device encryption (beyond the “automated” part) is that it extends to every edition of Windows 8.1, where BitLocker is a Pro- or Enterprise-tier feature in Windows 8 and an Ultimate- and Enterprise-tier feature in Windows 7 or Vista. If someone were to steal the device from you, though, they wouldn’t be able to get at any of your information without your account password or your encryption key, which in this case is protected by your account password. This encryption is essentially invisible during normal use-you pick up the tablet, log in, and use it just as you would an unencrypted PC. Rather than requiring a user or system administrator to enable it, your device’s boot partition comes encrypted out of the box. Windows 8.1’s new device encryption treats your x86-based Windows tablet or laptop more like an ARM-based tablet or smartphone.
Best free encryption software for windows 8 windows 8.1#
Windows 8.1 finally brings this to x86 tablets and Ultrabooks in a feature Microsoft calls “ device encryption.” While it has very specific hardware requirements, the feature is designed to improve local security for Windows users without them ever needing to know about it. These operating systems can all assume that the underlying hardware supports encryption, so they enable it by default in a way that’s entirely seamless and invisible to you as you use your phone or tablet day to day. However, some mobile devices-including those running iOS, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT-don’t require users to take device encryption into their own hands. Once enabled, it protects the data on your device from being accessed by someone who walks away with it.
Best free encryption software for windows 8 android#
Like the FileVault feature in newer versions of OS X or the “encrypt device” feature on many Android phones and tablets, you usually need to enable BitLocker manually to take advantage of it. Since Windows Vista, the upper-tier editions of Windows have supported local disk encryption via a feature called BitLocker Drive Encryption.