Access Windows 7 BitLocker Protected Content In Vista & XP Using BitLocker To Go Reader

Posted October 20, 2009 – 7:31 pm in: Windows 7, Windows 7 Guides

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We have already blogged how to use Windows 7’s BitLocker To Go feature to encrypt a USB drive. If you have a machine running previous versions of Windows, then you might want to access protected drive and contents in your Vista or XP.

Microsoft has just released Windows 7 BitLocker To Go Reader for Vista and XP and is ready to download. The BitLocker To Go Reader is an application that provides users read-only access to BitLocker-protected FAT-formatted drives on computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista.

BitLocker protection on removable drives is known as BitLocker To Go. When a BitLocker-protected removable drive is unlocked on a computer running Windows 7, the drive is automatically recognized and the user is either prompted for credentials to unlock the drive or the drive is unlocked automatically if configured to do so.

Computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista do not automatically recognize that the removable drive is BitLocker-protected. With the BitLocker To Go Reader users can unlock the BitLocker-protected drives by using a password or a recovery password (also known as a recovery key) and gain read-only access to their data.

Download BitLocker To Go reader