BitLocker Gets Major Speed Boost on Windows 11 With New Hardware Acceleration

BitLocker is widely used to protect sensitive data, but faster NVMe SSDs exposed a growing performance problem. Many users noticed higher CPU usage and slower disk operations when encryption stayed fully software-based.

Microsoft now aims to fix that with a major BitLocker upgrade focused on hardware acceleration.

Hardware-accelerated BitLocker explained

Microsoft recently announced new BitLocker improvements that shift encryption work away from the CPU. The company designed these changes to reduce bottlenecks and bring encrypted storage performance closer to unencrypted systems.

The update introduces two key features.

Crypto offloading reduces CPU load

With crypto offloading, BitLocker moves bulk encryption tasks from the CPU to a dedicated cryptographic engine on the system-on-chip.

This change:

• Frees up CPU resources
• Improves system responsiveness
• Reduces power consumption
• Extends battery life on laptops

Hardware-protected keys improve security

BitLocker also gains hardware-wrapped encryption keys when supported by the SoC.

This approach:

• Protects keys from CPU and memory-based attacks
• Builds on existing TPM security
• Pushes BitLocker toward removing keys from CPU and RAM entirely

Big performance gains in benchmarks

According to Microsoft’s internal benchmarks, the new BitLocker implementation delivers major improvements, such as faster sequential read and write speeds, and better random read and write performance.

This results in up to a 70% reduction in CPU usage compared to software-only BitLocker. In many scenarios, performance comes close to running without BitLocker enabled.

Availability and system requirements

Initial support launches on Intel vPro devices and requires Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, Windows 11 version 24H2 or later, and XTS-AES-256 encryption, enabled by default.

Microsoft plans to expand support to more capable PCs over time.

More Windows improvements on the way

Microsoft continues to refine Windows security and AI features. The company recently added new AI agent launchers in the KB5072043 update, further signaling ongoing platform enhancements.

Via Neowin