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Nothing, and I mean NOTHING should ever be auto sign up. It removes the individuals freedom of choice. Either A) Provide a service the person needs and is willing to, of their own free will, sign up for or B) leave them alone. Its THAT simple.
Fun fact: I never put BitLocker on my PCs but someone gave me a laptop with BitLocker and I don't have the key to unlock it. So if something is fucked and that I need the data on it, I'm effed.
@@thecultofcaged bitlocker encrypts the C: drive, you need the recovery key (its stored in your microsoft account), you can't unlock it in any other ways. You could wipe the drive but that'll result in data loss
What you need to do: 1. Get all your data off the laptop. 2. Reinstall Windows completely (this erases everything related to Windows, including bitlocker) 3. Move all your stuff back, and enjoy!
I'm a computer tech for a school district and I'll be honest...my ability to interact with the users and not come across as a dick or treating them like idiots is what I think my secret to doing a great job is
You ain't wrong. My customers eyes glaze over when I talk to them about why their laptop is broken or their drive is locked or their screen doesn't work. I just don't know how to explain in more simple terms other than "it no work anymore."
I have a pathological need to explain how things are broken. It never fails to just bore someone. Sadly this means they turn around and repeat the same mistake like a week later.
I'm a technician in Italy and BitLocker is exactly one of the many problems that forced me to always ask credentials beforhand. If the customer doesn't want to give them fine, but I always warn about the possible risks.
Yeah except in order to log into their Microsoft account you need to have their phone too in order to deal with two factor authentication Since nobody's going to give you their phone, you still have to call the client and ask them to give you the code that Microsoft texts them. Then of course you have the idiots who refuse to do this because it's been hammered into their head that when a scammer from India asked them for their two factor authentication code of their bank account that they shouldn't do it. It doesn't seem to register with them but there's a huge difference between giving the code to somebody in a local repair shop and giving the code to somebody in a 3rd world country half the world away. As soon as Microsoft ditches SMS based two factor authentication we are completely screwed because the only other option they're going to provide is Microsoft authenticator app. The problem with the Microsoft authenticator app is that you lose all the codes if you get a new phone.. So when it comes time to get their Bitlocker recovery key they need the phone they had 5 years ago or whatever and of course they don't have that. Then they lose all their data
@@Denis7947. I think a lot of this shit comes from the executive level. Sometimes the hidden ways to disable those features feel like a quiet developer rebellion
As an American guy in IT hardware, the model numbers are the worst. When they reuse model numbers or have very similar ones (looking at you, Dell) it becomes a nightmare tracking them in our hardware database.
It would be awesome if they would give them a real name instead of a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo that means absolutely nothing to the average person.
Lenovo did that with consumer laptops (not sure if they ever did this to business-grade devices) and when I enter my model number into the search on their website it offers downloads for a similar looking laptop (but with different hardware) including system firmware. I have to search by serial number to get the correct downloads.
@@effbar2400that's just a laptop line, the actual model code is usually on the box or on the underside of the laptop. That's the difference between digging your way though "msi prestige 15" over the years or knowing that what you're looking for is the m15SCS model. The real issue comes in once you realize the manufacturer of the thing likes to delete their older model's information, making it a real headache (looking at you, lenovo)
That is the reason I use Rufus for make Windows install USB. No personal information scraping, no online account mandatory, no forced BitLocker. Oh heaven!
All it took was one unintended BitLocker activation and a dead boot drive a few years ago to ensure I never logged in with a Microsoft account ever again.
@@Slowdr Despite removing my Microsoft account from a PC I gave my Dad, for some reason OneDrive was still logged in with my account, so now all his documents show up on my main PC every time Windows Update decides to re-install OneDrive 🙃
Well rejoice because drive encryption will be automatically set anyway even without a ms account. Why? Because microsoft configured any post june 2023 22h2+ win 11 iso to automatically set it up with no way of disabling it during setup
@@charginginprogresss yep, figured it by myself when randomly looking at partitions and the drive I never encrypted and in settings the bitlocker wasn't activated, the partition was having bitlocker active. Thanks to the terminal it is no more. How are usual people supposed to decrypt their drives without using a terminal when the settings show bitlocker not active while it is active? Mind boggling.
we should make EU politicians force Microsoft to make BitLocker only opt-in by default. Hope some of those politicians lose their data so they will force that on MS when that happens.
@@Toksyuryel state representatives. Do not try to move the entire US but try to change your state. If other states follow it will become mandatory. This is also how the EU works. Try to make your country move so the EU will see the benefits. The smaller in the government wheel you start the easier the rest of the way will be.
Yeah, the issue with bitlocker being turned on and managed by the TPM is that if you can't get the bitlocker removal code the only option is to format the drive. Which is fine in the corporate world where people are supposed to have their important things backed up. In the private world no one uses a backup and they can't afford to lose their documents.
9:53 "A monke with a screwdriver can fix a computer" this made me think of "Thirty years ago, Niki Lauda told us ‘take a monkey, place him into the cockpit and he is able to drive the car.’ Thirty years later, Sebastian told us ‘I had to start my car like a computer, it’s very complicated.’ And Nico Rosberg said that during the race - I don’t remember what race - he pressed the wrong button on the wheel. Question for you both: is Formula One driving today too complicated with twenty and more buttons on the wheel, are you too much under effort ?"
Take it from an old timer in the PC repair industry. It's pretty much always been like that with stupid shit that we have to waste our time on. Been dealing with that crap myself since 1998 when my dumb ass decided it would be a good idea to get an A+ certification. 😂
@@SalemTechsperts Let's just say that I've diversified my skillset since then, lol. Now I'm more into the server management and web/app development side of things so now I'm the one to blame for the stupid shit techs have to go through. You know - just making my way through the circle of life 🤣
No, it has not "always" been like that. It's just been molasses way longer than it deserves. In 2003 I picked up an A+ cert but in 2002 I was already working with WinPE which turned most of those frustrating day long repairs into morning soup. We need tools like that for disabling BitLocker before repair jobs like this one. That's all there is to it. You can keep your Macrium or whatever backup tools you use. The rest literally doesn't matter.
I just had someone come in to my work Thursday with an HP laptop that after a recent Windows update Bitlocker kicked in. The best part the client's account was a local one on their Win 10 laptop and they never bothered to save the Bitlocker key to a text file or write it down. They were not happy at all when I told them they were SOL in getting their data back. Ended up restoring the laptop for them, making sure bitlocker was turned off and set em up with an external hard drive with weekly backups and a cloud backup service
@@SalemTechsperts our iMac and macbook never have issues but our two dell laptops we use every out front I end up restoring once every few months. I hate apple for how anti repair they are but I will admit MacOS is way more reliable than Windows
Fun fact since they had a local account, there was no way for them to have the key whatsoever Microsoft is trying with all their might to prevent you from creating local accounts, so they just assume everyone will follow the rules and have a ms account otherwise well screw em Basically as a local account'er, ms encrypts the drives and stores the key in the tpm, without telling you anything. To them, you also have a backup on your non existing ms account that in their opinion, you have. So at every boot you are at the mercy of your tpm and hardware not failing the checksum. If it ever fails, you are boned. You literally have no backup, nor a way to actually view the code from anywhere because the only intended way, the ms account, you do not have it. Only thing you can do is disable and decrypt asap while you still have access, before you eventually might not.
I feel your pain! I too have started to see laptops come in for repair where the drives are locked and the customers goes "WHAT" when I ask them for their bitlocker key. I explain that Micro$oft decided they need it and they go "WHAT", I explain they should have a long string of numbers and letters which is used to unlock their drive or they can't use the drive on their PC and all their data is gone........ and they blame me!! I have spent the last 20 years turning of MS crap that they think is a "good idea" for their customers to have but which the customers have no clue about.
They know it’s not a good idea but they do it so they can say “see, we take privacy seriously, that’s why we enable Bitlocker by default. Now purchase more OneDrive storage and help our stock price.”
@@SalemTechsperts They also force it on to consumers in less than honest ways to appease their shareholders by going hey look how many people are now using "x' product.
@@SalemTechsperts don't forget to search the internet from the start menu using Bing™ to inflate our active user metrics!...what do you mean you were looking for local files, you should be talking to copilot!
I had a person come into my store (imagine a bullseye) thinking that we did Geek Squad stuff. She wanted to return the laptop she bought because of bit locker. It took me an hour and some sanity to help her fix it. I'm glad we were able to get through it and she didn't have to return it
I had a lot of trouble removing onedrive and bitlocker from my newest laptop. I didn't even have device manager and there were a couple of other really useful MS programs that have been removed completely. MS is locking down W11 hard and they don't want people like me messing with it, try getting rid of Defender or even deactivating it completely. MS removed the registry hack that allowed customers to turn it off but there are still ways!!
First Copilot that made me switch to Linux Microsoft activating OneDrive without consent and uploading your files (rapist mentality)... that made me STAY on Linux. I refuse to use an OS that wants to act like a rapist does. FUCK THAT
The worst is that sometimes Bitloocker even break the boot partition, so you have to extract the data, then reset the drive from a linux device then reinstall windows...
How would you reset under linux? I have an ssd thats unable to format if you have any info you can share it'll be great (i tried multiple stuff under linux and nothing worked)
@@LPgmxDan with the command "fdisk -l" you can have a list of drives that are connected, find the one your are searching. Then use the command dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/XX Then do ctrl+c to stop, it will destroy your drive's table so it will thinks it is empty. In the command replace XX with your drive. Usually /dev/sda or sdb or sdc and so on.
@@ynosnava no I tried couple of programs none worked I did try to get info from the chip like anything and it errors with stuff like it's name not even returning could that be the controller is busted? Maybe I am missing something because I can still get files from it Thanks for replying
Hah, not one I bet. I doubt there’s any course that teaches how to do what I do, probably because it’s not worth it when stacked up against the other IT careers.
Putt-Putt was insane, I loved playing the race one just to demolish everyone, and also read the pages with the animals, get filthy rich with the bottles and farm, or the circus one to play trampoline for hours, or the time-travel one to play with the birds on the wal all day
I had similar struggles with my wife's laptop the other day, onedrive was holding her files hostage, and it took literally hours to get them freed. Everything went so much smoother after fedora was in place.
I'm a warranty tech and this one Dell AIO system I did a mobo on made me put the key in upwards of 20 times while troubleshooting bios settings. I was beginning to think Microsoft was messing with me.
I got told part of why I got hired at my latest job, outside of having prior experience in medical IT, is because I come across as nice and pleasant, especially on the phone. "We can teach someone tech; we can't teach anyone how to be nice." On the subject of Bitlocker, that shit made the Crowdstrike recovery process worse at my work, but it's at least necessary on the business level (especially with PHI and stuff) and makes sense there. Home users 99.9999999999% of the time don't need it, and I hate MS for enabling it by default.
Literally two days ago, I disabled the automatically enabled bitlocker on my brother's laptop, in preparation for possibly having to recover data from it in the future. Along with wanting to increase battery life and such and data longgevity on an installation with a LOCAL ACCOUNT, so no online recovery. With how Microsoft knows to force UsE eDgE popups, that they did not make one of those for enabling bitlocker, possibly even dark-patterning into it. Which would be a great opportunity to explain the merits of bitlocker and to force the user to back up the recovery key too. F*ck Microsoft for not doing so.
you just reminded me to disable bitlocker on my brother's pc, look I don't mind Microsoft shit but I prefer that be a optional or prompt feature than be enabled by default
As a fellow support tech/manager, customer service is by far the most important thing I look for in a tech. As you said anyone can fix a computer. But it’s rare to find someone that can fix the computer and empathize with the customer/client at the same time
@@SalemTechsperts Not-so-fond memories of my very last keyboard phone, the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G. Pour one out, and see it vaporized instantly by the insane temps on that garbage phone. Anyway, I'm much happier now typing this on the much simpler named OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren 5G.
One thing in always do for my customers that buy used laptops from me or come in for software installation on a used laptop that they were probably gifted is a clean install of windows on the laptop to remove bitlocker if it's already on it, saves me the stress and time of having to deal with it later if I ever have to do a repair on the laptop
Just the name BitLocker makes my blood boil. Some months ago a costumer left a Dell laptop in our office just to format with a backup of the files, and said that they need it asap, but easy stuff right? Thanks to BitLocker, freaking hell no, it was not easy. This was the first BitLocked PC I've ever dealt with, so when the first message he appeared I tried to resolve by myself, just to not disturb the costumer. 1 day has passed. Gived up, explained the situation to them and what a BitLocker is, and asked for the password that was in the account. Then, they said "You tried the wrong password, didn't you?" (They didn't even left a password for crying out loud 😩). Turns out the costumer was a lawyer, an annoying one in fact. The thing that was supposed to be 1 day and a half long extended to a whole week. We had to pick the BitLocker code in the account, ask for the account password, ask for 2FA help, while being in the edge of annoying a problematic lawyer and causing a bigger trouble. Fuck BitLocker, all my homies hate BitLocker.
I Just spent a two hours the other night upgrading my daughters M.2 from a 256 GB to a 1 TB and Bitlocker put me through HELL!!! Not to mention the DDR 4 RAM that I thought would be upgradeable is now soldered to the mainboard. Just another way for the corporate pirates to screw you into buying a new PC when you think its unrepairable.
As an ex IT guy, it's really frustrating teaching someone how to use a specific software to someone. You teach it to them in a way that a baboon can understand and you even ask them if they understand what you thought them, only to receive a ticket the next day asking you how to use the software you thought them yesterday. It's really a hair pulling situation
Yep. I've dealt with that often in K-12 IT. It was even more egregious when a certain purchasing clerk 'forgot' how to use the financial ERP system the district had for 5+ years. We'd have purchase orders tied up waiting for her approval because she didn't 'understand' how to use the new system and was always trying to work in the old system which still had purchase records, but was no longer actively used. I felt bad for the guy in charge of the technical side of the system since he would get calls from this person almost every week about the silliest of things.
Fun fact : all Microsoft Surface recovery images always enable the bitlocker, and i always disable the bitlocker whenever im trying to make an image using acronis
as a fellow computer tech (same one from seattle) i can confirm, bitlocker sucks, like, a lot, bc half the time i cant get the customer on the phone, and the other half the customer does not know that they have bitlocker, so while i try to get stuff done, bitlocker stops me from completing the repair, to much lost time, and to much lost revenue
i’m so glad i came across one of your shorts and decided to watch the full video you are actually hilarious and incredibly insightful please keep making content ❤
The menu repair: Change HDD to SDD $230 Repair Screen $160 Change the driver to new driver $340 (out of stock) Change the broken things $210-$350 (use by to fix/change by more money) Change Keyborad $200 Change batery $170 (Every Sales on source 10% to 80% on every day)
Totally agree on the standing desk for repairs and building. Saved me from all that back pain from hunching over - especially when I am cabling a new rig.
Recently a family friend died, and as a result of being the designated "tech guy" one of her relative asked me to access his laptop for data retrieval. Needless to say, I faced the dreaded Bitlocker when trying to reset the password externally, and after a couple of hours, the grieving family called it quits (digitally) and just cleaned the laptop. It was an elderly person, so no smartphone to recover those keys either but as you say, default enabling Bitlocker is a pain in the butt
Damn. I’m sorry for your loss. This is a lesson why it’s so important to talk to your relatives and friends to always have a physical file with your passwords in case of the worst. Some people might push back on my opinion but at this point having paper in a safe is the most secure method.
The phone repair place i work at just started doing OEM apple IRP repairs, and to complete said repair the customers "find my" HAS to be turned off. Out of around 20 or so repaurs weve done (irp started sept 1st) every single customer has told us it was turned off, yet not a single time was it actually turned off so they all had to drive back to the store, turn it off, and then wait an hour because they usually have the protection features enabled and those have a 1 hour wait period
Back in my tech days when win XP ruled the world, password protected operating system was just one boot into NTPassword Remover away... I miss those simpler time..
I love how you can tell Andy is a Lewis Hamilton fan, given how he used to have loads of Mercedes merch and wallpapers and such, and now since January he's just switched to Ferrari
I was a Ferrari fan before as well, back in June of 2023 I grabbed a ton of drip when I was in Italy. Then Lewis announced his move and I was already prepared 😂
@@SalemTechsperts like Vettel once said, everyone's a Ferrari fan even if they say they aren't. Guess the stars sort of aligned for you with Lewis' move though, finally gives you an excuse to wear it more often on camera 🤣
As someone that works tech support at a vendor for stuff including Laptops, I can confirm that BitLocker is kind of an annoyance whenever it does come up. Its usually fine with commercial, company ITs, since they usually got their stuff documented well enough that its not a problem, but for private consumers, auto opt-in BitLocker is kinda awful. Im happy that you go out of your way to assist people with understanding what bitlocker is and where to find it, considering all I am really supposed to do at my job is say "It will be in the Microsoft Account you used, when you set up the laptop." Which is not that helpful to, say an 80 year old grandpa, where some updates auto-rolled out, and somehow prompted the BitLocker to freak out.
I have been seeing more and more 22H2 and 23H2 systems with local accounts and fully enabled bitlocker... And it's the clients you'd 100% expect to be problems who yell, " You're a geek, just hack back in!"
It should just be something in the out of the box experience Just somthing like: "Do you want to encrypt your computer. It is more secure, but may piss off repair people if you break your computer"
Also remind that you cannot even backup your drive this way because all you'll copy is just a massive unknown partition which is the entire drive encrypted with bitlocker
This is why tools like winaero tweaker are not optional but manditory if you are stuck with a windows 11 machine it helps you get control back and when I get home I am going to make sure I conpletly gut any bitloccker program on my computer
I love this is not my job tho, but I fully understand the frustration I build my own pc and yeah, I love it, but I had to spend a full week learning how to troubleshoot AND FIX issues that appeared out of nowhere and I'm not lying here I almost cry over it
Had a case of "Bitlocker fun" a while back... we had to call the customer in hopes that she had her key otherwise "my fuck up" was going to be a costly one.
My Eluktronics laptop is a fun one when talking about model numbers. I just called it the KK1, and so do the tech guys in PA when I'd get in touch with them. Also, yeah, I remember Ernest.
I remember very well playing humongous entertainment games on the ol' windows 95 Putt Putt, Freddie Fish. Pajama Sam. Ernest scared silly scarred me as a youngster even though i loved all the other movies.
Man, i can sort of relate to what you are feeling whenever you want to repair any sort of issue in any computer the comes your way. Funny enough, i started watching your vids at the same time i got my job as IT-service desk. We get the same issues on the daily and some are easier to fix then others and boy it is fun, but sometimes mentally exhausting. I honestly hope that stores like yours to survive so we, the newbies and tech enthusiasts, have someone to actually discuss potential solutions/workarounds and get an honest opinion on the matter. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Former Dell guy here. Yeah, we started having to ask before we start if BitLocker was suspended. 90% of the time, “what’s that?” or “no, never signed up for that,” and then SURPRISE! Horrible for those who don’t have a backup.
My little sister once set a password on her android phone that she immediately forgot. An easy job well done with hard reset i thought. That's how life introduced me to frp protection on new android devices. And yes, she had no idea about her google account either
bro, i had to deal with microsh*ts bitlocker recovery right as i finished cleaning my fans in my laptop, took me several hours to finally find out how to use it. i can agree its annoying but if your smart you can get it dealt with.
And people wonder why I stopped doing repairs. This is one of the reasons why. wasn't worth the hassle. Glad you keep the torch lit. Best of luck to you.
Ernest made my childhood a happy one and I know how you feel with your back, I get spine injections every 6 weeks. Thought going from tattooing to pc building and repair would be better........I was wrong
I didn't know about that default bitlocker enrollment... I guess it's just best to stay on local accounts after all. For anyone wondering how it's nowadays done, you can do it(most of the time) when installing windows not choosing "for personal use" instead choosing "for work or organization" type option and choosing "domain join something", has worked for me, may or may not work for you
bitlocker is still enabled in the guise called "drive encryption" even on local accounts, there is no escape It's the same thing as bitlocker but "less premium" btw, the annoyances are the same.
I work doing RMAs and various other things for a tech company. I agree that tiny things like bitlicker can offset a day's work considerably. Other small things too. It's sucks and it's how trivial most of these things are that make it so frustrating. Edit: typos
It's tricky, as a tech, I have to judge what level of technical know how I think someone may have, so that I don't come across as talking down to them.
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Let’s go
Way before my time, but I loved the Halloween movie the most.
0:35 THE GREATEST TECHNICIAN THATS EVER LIVED
The greatest FlexiSpot product that's ever lived.
What exactly does Lupe do around your shop? Is he just eye candy?
To be honest, like 90% of Microsoft's newer shit that's forced on users should be opt in.
@@xXRenaxChanXx ??? Lmao what? You sure you know what you're talking about?
@@xXRenaxChanXx FDE is not in the slightest "basic security". Inform yourself before blurting some information on the internet.
They just started doing stuff that Apple does for decade... tho missing a point why people go for Windows and not for macs in that...
@@magicac3138 Yes, because 90% of Microsoft's features are dogshit that better served by much better made 3rd party software
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING should ever be auto sign up. It removes the individuals freedom of choice. Either A) Provide a service the person needs and is willing to, of their own free will, sign up for or B) leave them alone. Its THAT simple.
Fun fact: I never put BitLocker on my PCs but someone gave me a laptop with BitLocker and I don't have the key to unlock it. So if something is fucked and that I need the data on it, I'm effed.
Wait you can use the laptop and everything? If you have admin privilege on it you can easily get the password or disable it outright
@@thecultofcaged bitlocker encrypts the C: drive, you need the recovery key (its stored in your microsoft account), you can't unlock it in any other ways. You could wipe the drive but that'll result in data loss
What you need to do:
1. Get all your data off the laptop.
2. Reinstall Windows completely (this erases everything related to Windows, including bitlocker)
3. Move all your stuff back, and enjoy!
@@Crabery just back up the data while you can still boot the drive and then reinstall windows and make sure to disable BitLocker
@@thecultofcaged yes I can use the laptop but when it dies, I'm effed
I'm a computer tech for a school district and I'll be honest...my ability to interact with the users and not come across as a dick or treating them like idiots is what I think my secret to doing a great job is
You ain't wrong. My customers eyes glaze over when I talk to them about why their laptop is broken or their drive is locked or their screen doesn't work. I just don't know how to explain in more simple terms other than "it no work anymore."
Yes, I worked for a school system early 2000s.
@@Holycurative9610”letter machine no work, awooga”
Yep.
I have a pathological need to explain how things are broken. It never fails to just bore someone. Sadly this means they turn around and repeat the same mistake like a week later.
I'm a technician in Italy and BitLocker is exactly one of the many problems that forced me to always ask credentials beforhand. If the customer doesn't want to give them fine, but I always warn about the possible risks.
Yeah except in order to log into their Microsoft account you need to have their phone too in order to deal with two factor authentication Since nobody's going to give you their phone, you still have to call the client and ask them to give you the code that Microsoft texts them. Then of course you have the idiots who refuse to do this because it's been hammered into their head that when a scammer from India asked them for their two factor authentication code of their bank account that they shouldn't do it. It doesn't seem to register with them but there's a huge difference between giving the code to somebody in a local repair shop and giving the code to somebody in a 3rd world country half the world away. As soon as Microsoft ditches SMS based two factor authentication we are completely screwed because the only other option they're going to provide is Microsoft authenticator app. The problem with the Microsoft authenticator app is that you lose all the codes if you get a new phone.. So when it comes time to get their Bitlocker recovery key they need the phone they had 5 years ago or whatever and of course they don't have that. Then they lose all their data
I'm fron italy too, hopefully you don't mount a400 ssds in computers that failed after 3 years...
"Fuck Microsoft" said every single person in the tech business. And that includes Microsoft employees from what I've heard
Its also employees fault bc they came with the idea
@@Denis7947. I think a lot of this shit comes from the executive level. Sometimes the hidden ways to disable those features feel like a quiet developer rebellion
As an American guy in IT hardware, the model numbers are the worst. When they reuse model numbers or have very similar ones (looking at you, Dell) it becomes a nightmare tracking them in our hardware database.
It really is a pain
It would be awesome if they would give them a real name instead of a bunch of technical mumbo jumbo that means absolutely nothing to the average person.
Lenovo did that with consumer laptops (not sure if they ever did this to business-grade devices) and when I enter my model number into the search on their website it offers downloads for a similar looking laptop (but with different hardware) including system firmware. I have to search by serial number to get the correct downloads.
Xps 14
@@effbar2400that's just a laptop line, the actual model code is usually on the box or on the underside of the laptop. That's the difference between digging your way though "msi prestige 15" over the years or knowing that what you're looking for is the m15SCS model.
The real issue comes in once you realize the manufacturer of the thing likes to delete their older model's information, making it a real headache (looking at you, lenovo)
That is the reason I use Rufus for make Windows install USB. No personal information scraping, no online account mandatory, no forced BitLocker. Oh heaven!
truth!
Glad I went through the comment section for this
All it took was one unintended BitLocker activation and a dead boot drive a few years ago to ensure I never logged in with a Microsoft account ever again.
Or hitting accept on the "suggested configuration" that moved your documents to the onedrive folders
@@Slowdr Despite removing my Microsoft account from a PC I gave my Dad, for some reason OneDrive was still logged in with my account, so now all his documents show up on my main PC every time Windows Update decides to re-install OneDrive 🙃
@@PopStrikers yes, because it's not your computer.
Well rejoice because drive encryption will be automatically set anyway even without a ms account.
Why? Because microsoft configured any post june 2023 22h2+ win 11 iso to automatically set it up with no way of disabling it during setup
@@charginginprogresss yep, figured it by myself when randomly looking at partitions and the drive I never encrypted and in settings the bitlocker wasn't activated, the partition was having bitlocker active. Thanks to the terminal it is no more. How are usual people supposed to decrypt their drives without using a terminal when the settings show bitlocker not active while it is active? Mind boggling.
we should make EU politicians force Microsoft to make BitLocker only opt-in by default. Hope some of those politicians lose their data so they will force that on MS when that happens.
If you're a EU citizen we just start a Citizens Initiative
If you aren't, start lobbying your government to join the EU
@@ThePlayerOfGames I don't think lobbying the US government to join the EU is going to work. Is there a third option?
@@Toksyuryel move to eu?
@@Toksyuryel state representatives. Do not try to move the entire US but try to change your state. If other states follow it will become mandatory. This is also how the EU works. Try to make your country move so the EU will see the benefits. The smaller in the government wheel you start the easier the rest of the way will be.
@@gercobosch2870 State laws can't override federal ones, unfortunately.
"Trapped in a Subway fixing people's gooch infested bullshit"; bro questioning his life choices.
Yeah, the issue with bitlocker being turned on and managed by the TPM is that if you can't get the bitlocker removal code the only option is to format the drive. Which is fine in the corporate world where people are supposed to have their important things backed up. In the private world no one uses a backup and they can't afford to lose their documents.
9:53 "A monke with a screwdriver can fix a computer" this made me think of "Thirty years ago, Niki Lauda told us ‘take a monkey, place him into the cockpit and he is able to drive the car.’ Thirty years later, Sebastian told us ‘I had to start my car like a computer, it’s very complicated.’ And Nico Rosberg said that during the race - I don’t remember what race - he pressed the wrong button on the wheel. Question for you both: is Formula One driving today too complicated with twenty and more buttons on the wheel, are you too much under effort ?"
Can you repeat the question again?
What? I guess yes perhaps?
Uh, true. I'll go with true...
(only real fans know what this is referencing btw)
Bro knows his interviews
My favorite comment so far
Take it from an old timer in the PC repair industry. It's pretty much always been like that with stupid shit that we have to waste our time on. Been dealing with that crap myself since 1998 when my dumb ass decided it would be a good idea to get an A+ certification. 😂
I don’t know how you’ve done it for so long man.
@@SalemTechsperts Let's just say that I've diversified my skillset since then, lol. Now I'm more into the server management and web/app development side of things so now I'm the one to blame for the stupid shit techs have to go through.
You know - just making my way through the circle of life 🤣
how hard are the exams?
No, it has not "always" been like that. It's just been molasses way longer than it deserves.
In 2003 I picked up an A+ cert but in 2002 I was already working with WinPE which turned most of those frustrating day long repairs into morning soup.
We need tools like that for disabling BitLocker before repair jobs like this one. That's all there is to it.
You can keep your Macrium or whatever backup tools you use. The rest literally doesn't matter.
@@DaemonForce Bro... do you mind? The rest of us are having a hard time griping and complaining with you in here griping about our complaining 🤣
I just had someone come in to my work Thursday with an HP laptop that after a recent Windows update Bitlocker kicked in. The best part the client's account was a local one on their Win 10 laptop and they never bothered to save the Bitlocker key to a text file or write it down. They were not happy at all when I told them they were SOL in getting their data back. Ended up restoring the laptop for them, making sure bitlocker was turned off and set em up with an external hard drive with weekly backups and a cloud backup service
My experience is that Windows Updates are the #1 motivator for people switching to Mac.
@@SalemTechsperts our iMac and macbook never have issues but our two dell laptops we use every out front I end up restoring once every few months.
I hate apple for how anti repair they are but I will admit MacOS is way more reliable than Windows
Fun fact since they had a local account, there was no way for them to have the key whatsoever
Microsoft is trying with all their might to prevent you from creating local accounts, so they just assume everyone will follow the rules and have a ms account otherwise well screw em
Basically as a local account'er, ms encrypts the drives and stores the key in the tpm, without telling you anything. To them, you also have a backup on your non existing ms account that in their opinion, you have.
So at every boot you are at the mercy of your tpm and hardware not failing the checksum.
If it ever fails, you are boned.
You literally have no backup, nor a way to actually view the code from anywhere because the only intended way, the ms account, you do not have it.
Only thing you can do is disable and decrypt asap while you still have access, before you eventually might not.
The only logical outcome of this is for the average user to be so upset at Windows that they end up switching to Mac. Microsoft needs a reality check
@@SalemTechsperts That and to Linux. Jesus christ this is bad design…
I feel your pain! I too have started to see laptops come in for repair where the drives are locked and the customers goes "WHAT" when I ask them for their bitlocker key. I explain that Micro$oft decided they need it and they go "WHAT", I explain they should have a long string of numbers and letters which is used to unlock their drive or they can't use the drive on their PC and all their data is gone........ and they blame me!! I have spent the last 20 years turning of MS crap that they think is a "good idea" for their customers to have but which the customers have no clue about.
They know it’s not a good idea but they do it so they can say “see, we take privacy seriously, that’s why we enable Bitlocker by default. Now purchase more OneDrive storage and help our stock price.”
@@SalemTechsperts They also force it on to consumers in less than honest ways to appease their shareholders by going hey look how many people are now using "x' product.
@@SalemTechsperts don't forget to search the internet from the start menu using Bing™ to inflate our active user metrics!...what do you mean you were looking for local files, you should be talking to copilot!
I had a person come into my store (imagine a bullseye) thinking that we did Geek Squad stuff. She wanted to return the laptop she bought because of bit locker. It took me an hour and some sanity to help her fix it.
I'm glad we were able to get through it and she didn't have to return it
You're a good person to help them
Love it when Windows just activates stuff without my consent cough *bitlocker* couch *OneDrive*
I had a lot of trouble removing onedrive and bitlocker from my newest laptop. I didn't even have device manager and there were a couple of other really useful MS programs that have been removed completely. MS is locking down W11 hard and they don't want people like me messing with it, try getting rid of Defender or even deactivating it completely. MS removed the registry hack that allowed customers to turn it off but there are still ways!!
First Copilot
that made me switch to Linux
Microsoft activating OneDrive without consent and uploading your files (rapist mentality)...
that made me STAY on Linux.
I refuse to use an OS that wants to act like a rapist does.
FUCK THAT
Drive encryption is considered a basic security feature these days. Get over it.
@@StaceyAyodele i installed a tool by the powershell (ctt tool) and that thing removed all the bloatware from my device.
@@xXRenaxChanXx good goy
The worst is that sometimes Bitloocker even break the boot partition, so you have to extract the data, then reset the drive from a linux device then reinstall windows...
How would you reset under linux? I have an ssd thats unable to format if you have any info you can share it'll be great (i tried multiple stuff under linux and nothing worked)
@@LPgmxDan with the command "fdisk -l" you can have a list of drives that are connected, find the one your are searching.
Then use the command dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/XX
Then do ctrl+c to stop, it will destroy your drive's table so it will thinks it is empty.
In the command replace XX with your drive. Usually /dev/sda or sdb or sdc and so on.
@@ynosnava if I remember correctly I did dd and it made no difference I can still pull data from it but format? Nope wipe? Nope
@@LPgmxDan I did it last month and it worked fine, did you dd from zero ?
@@ynosnava no I tried couple of programs none worked
I did try to get info from the chip like anything and it errors with stuff like it's name not even returning could that be the controller is busted? Maybe I am missing something because I can still get files from it
Thanks for replying
How many people in IT Tech School got told that half of doing IT Repairs is Psychology....
Hah, not one I bet. I doubt there’s any course that teaches how to do what I do, probably because it’s not worth it when stacked up against the other IT careers.
Sure seems fun though.
I got into IT because went "yeah career of the future" and I'm in this delusion almost 10y
Putt-Putt was insane, I loved playing the race one just to demolish everyone, and also read the pages with the animals, get filthy rich with the bottles and farm, or the circus one to play trampoline for hours, or the time-travel one to play with the birds on the wal all day
I had similar struggles with my wife's laptop the other day, onedrive was holding her files hostage, and it took literally hours to get them freed. Everything went so much smoother after fedora was in place.
this channel introduced me to fixing my own devices and i have been grateful ever since
I'm a warranty tech and this one Dell AIO system I did a mobo on made me put the key in upwards of 20 times while troubleshooting bios settings. I was beginning to think Microsoft was messing with me.
I got told part of why I got hired at my latest job, outside of having prior experience in medical IT, is because I come across as nice and pleasant, especially on the phone. "We can teach someone tech; we can't teach anyone how to be nice."
On the subject of Bitlocker, that shit made the Crowdstrike recovery process worse at my work, but it's at least necessary on the business level (especially with PHI and stuff) and makes sense there. Home users 99.9999999999% of the time don't need it, and I hate MS for enabling it by default.
Finally, a proper use for standing desks! 🛠️
I love this damn thing 😂
BitLocker is our repair shop is the worst enemy. 🙃
8:55 that is why I don't repair PC'S anymore! And, worse yet, you fix a pc, and some one trys to pay your efforts with a 6 pack of beer!
Literally two days ago, I disabled the automatically enabled bitlocker on my brother's laptop, in preparation for possibly having to recover data from it in the future.
Along with wanting to increase battery life and such and data longgevity on an installation with a LOCAL ACCOUNT, so no online recovery.
With how Microsoft knows to force UsE eDgE popups, that they did not make one of those for enabling bitlocker, possibly even dark-patterning into it.
Which would be a great opportunity to explain the merits of bitlocker and to force the user to back up the recovery key too.
F*ck Microsoft for not doing so.
you just reminded me to disable bitlocker on my brother's pc, look I don't mind Microsoft shit but I prefer that be a optional or prompt feature than be enabled by default
9:29 The greatest technician that's ever lived.
I'm convinced Microsoft has 0 idea who 90% of their users are.
Ernest was the greatest... Master of comedy. I collected all of the DVDs and VHS and converted them to digital format to preserve them.
RIP Jim Varney
As a fellow support tech/manager, customer service is by far the most important thing I look for in a tech. As you said anyone can fix a computer. But it’s rare to find someone that can fix the computer and empathize with the customer/client at the same time
Samsung's monitor model numbers are actually really good because they encode a lot of info about the panel.
What about their phones?
@@SalemTechsperts Not-so-fond memories of my very last keyboard phone, the Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G. Pour one out, and see it vaporized instantly by the insane temps on that garbage phone.
Anyway, I'm much happier now typing this on the much simpler named OnePlus 7T Pro McLaren 5G.
@@GSBarlev hahaha
The average user isn't going to bother looking that up, and they sure as hell aren't going to have it memorized beforehand.
One thing in always do for my customers that buy used laptops from me or come in for software installation on a used laptop that they were probably gifted is a clean install of windows on the laptop to remove bitlocker if it's already on it, saves me the stress and time of having to deal with it later if I ever have to do a repair on the laptop
Just the name BitLocker makes my blood boil. Some months ago a costumer left a Dell laptop in our office just to format with a backup of the files, and said that they need it asap, but easy stuff right? Thanks to BitLocker, freaking hell no, it was not easy.
This was the first BitLocked PC I've ever dealt with, so when the first message he appeared I tried to resolve by myself, just to not disturb the costumer. 1 day has passed. Gived up, explained the situation to them and what a BitLocker is, and asked for the password that was in the account. Then, they said "You tried the wrong password, didn't you?" (They didn't even left a password for crying out loud 😩). Turns out the costumer was a lawyer, an annoying one in fact.
The thing that was supposed to be 1 day and a half long extended to a whole week. We had to pick the BitLocker code in the account, ask for the account password, ask for 2FA help, while being in the edge of annoying a problematic lawyer and causing a bigger trouble.
Fuck BitLocker, all my homies hate BitLocker.
I Just spent a two hours the other night upgrading my daughters M.2 from a 256 GB to a 1 TB and Bitlocker put me through HELL!!! Not to mention the DDR 4 RAM that I thought would be upgradeable is now soldered to the mainboard. Just another way for the corporate pirates to screw you into buying a new PC when you think its unrepairable.
As an ex IT guy, it's really frustrating teaching someone how to use a specific software to someone. You teach it to them in a way that a baboon can understand and you even ask them if they understand what you thought them, only to receive a ticket the next day asking you how to use the software you thought them yesterday. It's really a hair pulling situation
Yep. I've dealt with that often in K-12 IT. It was even more egregious when a certain purchasing clerk 'forgot' how to use the financial ERP system the district had for 5+ years. We'd have purchase orders tied up waiting for her approval because she didn't 'understand' how to use the new system and was always trying to work in the old system which still had purchase records, but was no longer actively used. I felt bad for the guy in charge of the technical side of the system since he would get calls from this person almost every week about the silliest of things.
Fun fact : all Microsoft Surface recovery images always enable the bitlocker, and i always disable the bitlocker whenever im trying to make an image using acronis
Maserati out here catching strays.
Lupe's hair looks majestic as hell.
It's an epic mane
I legit wait for long form uploads on this channel, also lupe has the best appearances lol
as a fellow computer tech (same one from seattle) i can confirm, bitlocker sucks, like, a lot, bc half the time i cant get the customer on the phone, and the other half the customer does not know that they have bitlocker, so while i try to get stuff done, bitlocker stops me from completing the repair, to much lost time, and to much lost revenue
I am disappointed to say that this is the first time I have laid eyes upon Lupe's gorgeous locks
i’m so glad i came across one of your shorts and decided to watch the full video you are actually hilarious and incredibly insightful please keep making content ❤
our favourite gooch collector is back
The menu repair:
Change HDD to SDD $230
Repair Screen $160
Change the driver to new driver $340 (out of stock)
Change the broken things $210-$350 (use by to fix/change by more money)
Change Keyborad $200
Change batery $170
(Every Sales on source 10% to 80% on every day)
Totally agree on the standing desk for repairs and building. Saved me from all that back pain from hunching over - especially when I am cabling a new rig.
I never knew how much I was missing out until I did cable management on the standing desk. Absolute game changer
Recently a family friend died, and as a result of being the designated "tech guy" one of her relative asked me to access his laptop for data retrieval. Needless to say, I faced the dreaded Bitlocker when trying to reset the password externally, and after a couple of hours, the grieving family called it quits (digitally) and just cleaned the laptop. It was an elderly person, so no smartphone to recover those keys either but as you say, default enabling Bitlocker is a pain in the butt
Damn. I’m sorry for your loss. This is a lesson why it’s so important to talk to your relatives and friends to always have a physical file with your passwords in case of the worst. Some people might push back on my opinion but at this point having paper in a safe is the most secure method.
The phone repair place i work at just started doing OEM apple IRP repairs, and to complete said repair the customers "find my" HAS to be turned off. Out of around 20 or so repaurs weve done (irp started sept 1st) every single customer has told us it was turned off, yet not a single time was it actually turned off so they all had to drive back to the store, turn it off, and then wait an hour because they usually have the protection features enabled and those have a 1 hour wait period
Thanks!
Thank you!!!
1:08 - I'm a Samsung technician and he got it right. The serial number is because 'Murica. That's the only reason.
for every like i get absolute nothing will fucking happen
Back in my tech days when win XP ruled the world, password protected operating system was just one boot into NTPassword Remover away... I miss those simpler time..
you just delete the hard drive
Ez pz
The goal is to get the data back as well.
Lupe's hair is MAJESTIC.
I never used BitLocker. It was enabled automatically sometimes and I disabled it before it was too late.
Ernest was what i watched a lot of my teens and 2000's growing up. Yes I remember Ernest.
I love how you can tell Andy is a Lewis Hamilton fan, given how he used to have loads of Mercedes merch and wallpapers and such, and now since January he's just switched to Ferrari
I was a Ferrari fan before as well, back in June of 2023 I grabbed a ton of drip when I was in Italy. Then Lewis announced his move and I was already prepared 😂
@@SalemTechsperts like Vettel once said, everyone's a Ferrari fan even if they say they aren't. Guess the stars sort of aligned for you with Lewis' move though, finally gives you an excuse to wear it more often on camera 🤣
As someone that works tech support at a vendor for stuff including Laptops, I can confirm that BitLocker is kind of an annoyance whenever it does come up. Its usually fine with commercial, company ITs, since they usually got their stuff documented well enough that its not a problem, but for private consumers, auto opt-in BitLocker is kinda awful.
Im happy that you go out of your way to assist people with understanding what bitlocker is and where to find it, considering all I am really supposed to do at my job is say "It will be in the Microsoft Account you used, when you set up the laptop." Which is not that helpful to, say an 80 year old grandpa, where some updates auto-rolled out, and somehow prompted the BitLocker to freak out.
the greatest technician that's ever lived never misses
That "Yep", Lupe did at the beginning speaks metaphysically to me.
Microsoft: we don’t know 💩💩💩
I didn't even know you made longer videos until you mentioned it in a short. I just wanted to say these are hilarious and I love these longer videos.
I work with people in IT and I'm pretty sure half of their workload is doing BitLocker recovery.
Sounds about right
It's bitlocker recovery, account unlocks, or password resets
I have been seeing more and more 22H2 and 23H2 systems with local accounts and fully enabled bitlocker... And it's the clients you'd 100% expect to be problems who yell, " You're a geek, just hack back in!"
And that's why ladies and gentlemen, Linux is the greatest OS that ever lived
I wouldn't say it's the greatest, but right now, it's definetly better than windows 11
Still lots of softwares that cant run on linux.
Nah. DOS is the greatest. Simplest and indestructible
They won’t log your porn
I think I'll stick with Temple OS thanks
2:15 this alienware needs an oil change
I use a hardware key. If I were to ever bring my computer into a shop, I'd for sure give them the key to actually work on the computer.
While doing Windows Defender Offline Scan, Microsoft required me to get BitLocker key. It's such a bummer.
It should just be something in the out of the box experience
Just somthing like:
"Do you want to encrypt your computer. It is more secure, but may piss off repair people if you break your computer"
Also remind that you cannot even backup your drive this way because all you'll copy is just a massive unknown partition which is the entire drive encrypted with bitlocker
Ernest GOES TOO HEAVEN - his last great movie!
Joke's aside: do you and Lupe remember his commercials, and if so what was he promoting!
This is why tools like winaero tweaker are not optional but manditory if you are stuck with a windows 11 machine it helps you get control back and when I get home I am going to make sure I conpletly gut any bitloccker program on my computer
I love this is not my job tho, but I fully understand the frustration I build my own pc and yeah, I love it, but I had to spend a full week learning how to troubleshoot AND FIX issues that appeared out of nowhere and I'm not lying here I almost cry over it
Man I went sad when remembering Ernest. Such a great person, like Robin Williams. As always, thanks for the long format videos. Always enjoy it.
Ernest really was a funny guy. Goes to camp was my favorite movie I think. Never forgotten the 'chicken pot pie' joke with the chefs.
Hahaha Scared Stupid was my personal favorite!
Had a case of "Bitlocker fun" a while back... we had to call the customer in hopes that she had her key otherwise "my fuck up" was going to be a costly one.
I love watching these videos in bed and relaxing
My Eluktronics laptop is a fun one when talking about model numbers. I just called it the KK1, and so do the tech guys in PA when I'd get in touch with them. Also, yeah, I remember Ernest.
I remember very well playing humongous entertainment games on the ol' windows 95 Putt Putt, Freddie Fish. Pajama Sam. Ernest scared silly scarred me as a youngster even though i loved all the other movies.
Gee, I'm glad it's raining
There's always something to be thankful for
I'm awfully glad it's raining
Cause no one sees your teardrops when it pours
I remember Ernest! Dad loved him when I was growing up!
Man, i can sort of relate to what you are feeling whenever you want to repair any sort of issue in any computer the comes your way. Funny enough, i started watching your vids at the same time i got my job as IT-service desk. We get the same issues on the daily and some are easier to fix then others and boy it is fun, but sometimes mentally exhausting. I honestly hope that stores like yours to survive so we, the newbies and tech enthusiasts, have someone to actually discuss potential solutions/workarounds and get an honest opinion on the matter. Thanks and keep up the good work!
O man I remember those 2 gaming titans up top. Toshiba Qosmio and Gateway FX.
Former Dell guy here. Yeah, we started having to ask before we start if BitLocker was suspended. 90% of the time, “what’s that?” or “no, never signed up for that,” and then SURPRISE! Horrible for those who don’t have a backup.
This guy is the world's funniest and the greatest technician ever.
Dang, even a squirrel would have issues keeping up with all the subject changes per second in this video.😂
My little sister once set a password on her android phone that she immediately forgot. An easy job well done with hard reset i thought. That's how life introduced me to frp protection on new android devices. And yes, she had no idea about her google account either
bro, i had to deal with microsh*ts bitlocker recovery right as i finished cleaning my fans in my laptop, took me several hours to finally find out how to use it. i can agree its annoying but if your smart you can get it dealt with.
Earnest Goes to Jail is a cornerstone in what would become my sense of humor.
Small tip: If you also use paste or pad on the PCH, it can keep it cool and much less prone to throttle. Not needed but it's a small improvement.
I always see mixed messages about this. Maybe I should try it with and without
@@SalemTechsperts With my personal experience, I've seen small improvements and less spikes in temperatures.
And people wonder why I stopped doing repairs. This is one of the reasons why. wasn't worth the hassle. Glad you keep the torch lit. Best of luck to you.
Ernest made my childhood a happy one and I know how you feel with your back, I get spine injections every 6 weeks. Thought going from tattooing to pc building and repair would be better........I was wrong
I didn't know about that default bitlocker enrollment... I guess it's just best to stay on local accounts after all. For anyone wondering how it's nowadays done, you can do it(most of the time) when installing windows not choosing "for personal use" instead choosing "for work or organization" type option and choosing "domain join something", has worked for me, may or may not work for you
bitlocker is still enabled in the guise called "drive encryption" even on local accounts, there is no escape
It's the same thing as bitlocker but "less premium" btw, the annoyances are the same.
I work doing RMAs and various other things for a tech company.
I agree that tiny things like bitlicker can offset a day's work considerably.
Other small things too. It's sucks and it's how trivial most of these things are that make it so frustrating.
Edit: typos
It's tricky, as a tech, I have to judge what level of technical know how I think someone may have, so that I don't come across as talking down to them.
That's why I always check and disable bitlocker before I start working on a PC or a laptop.
Prometheus and Bob print out? Hell yeah!