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Microsoft.Policies.BitLockerManagement• Machine

Choose how BitLocker-protected fixed drives can be recovered

This policy setting allows you to control how BitLocker-protected fixed data drives are recovered in the absence of the required credentials. This policy setting is applied when you turn on BitLocker. The "Allow data recovery agent" check box is used to specify whether a data recovery agent can be used with BitLocker-protected fixed data drives. Before a data recovery agent can be used it must be added from the Public Key Policies item in either the Group Policy Management Console or the Local Group Policy Editor. Consult the BitLocker Drive Encryption Deployment Guide on Microsoft TechNet for more information about adding data recovery agents. Select "Omit recovery options from the BitLocker setup wizard" to prevent users from specifying recovery options when they enable BitLocker on a drive. This means that you will not be able to specify which recovery option to use when you enable BitLocker, instead BitLocker recovery options for the drive are determined by the policy setting. In "Save BitLocker recovery information to Active Directory Doman Services" choose which BitLocker recovery information to store in AD DS for fixed data drives. If you select "Backup recovery password and key package", both the BitLocker recovery password and key package are stored in AD DS. Storing the key package supports recovering data from a drive that has been physically corrupted. If you select "Backup recovery password only," only the recovery password is stored in AD DS. Select the "Do not enable BitLocker until recovery information is stored in AD DS for fixed data drives" check box if you want to prevent users from enabling BitLocker unless the computer is connected to the domain and the backup of BitLocker recovery information to AD DS succeeds. Note: If the "Do not enable BitLocker until recovery information is stored in AD DS for fixed data drives" check box is selected, a recovery password is automatically generated. If you enable this policy setting, you can control the methods available to users to recover data from BitLocker-protected fixed data drives. If this policy setting is not configured or disabled, the default recovery options are supported for BitLocker recovery. By default a DRA is allowed, the recovery options can be specified by the user including the recovery password and recovery key, and recovery information is not backed up to AD DS When using ‘BitLocker Management Solution’, the key recovery information is saved at the key recovery server location that is configured using the server location policy in the Data Recovery category.

Policy Details

Policy Name
FDVRecoveryUsagePolicy
Registry Key
SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\FVE
Value Name
FDVRecovery
Supported On
At least Windows 7
Policy State Values
Enabled: 1
Disabled: 0
Available Languages
en-us

Configuration Elements

When using ‘BitLocker Management Solution’, the “Save BitLocker recovery information to AD DS for fixed data drives” option should be unchecked

Configure storage of BitLocker recovery information to AD DS:

Type: enum

Allowed Values
  • 1 Backup recovery passwords and key packages
  • 2 Backup recovery passwords only

Allow data recovery agent

Type: boolean

True:1
False:0

Omit recovery options from the BitLocker setup wizard

Type: boolean

True:1
False:0

Save BitLocker recovery information to AD DS for fixed data drives

Type: boolean

True:1
False:0

Do not enable BitLocker until recovery information is stored to AD DS for fixed data drives

Type: boolean

True:1
False:0