How to Encrypt Your PC Copy

Hard Disk encryption is included as a feature in Windows 10 Professional version. If you do not have the professional version, you’ll either need to upgrade to it or acquire a 3rd party product. Our recommendation is to use the built in Windows encryption if you have the professional version. If you do not, we recommend VeraCrypt which is free.

Here’s a link with instructions on encrypting windows using the built in encryption feature: https://www.howtogeek.com/234826/how-to-enable-full-disk-encryption-on-windows-10/

Here are links to VeraCrypt:
Home Page: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html
Download: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Downloads.html
Beginner Tutorial: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Beginner%27s%20Tutorial.html

Veracrypt gives you an option to encrypt your entire drive. While encrypting your entire drive is the most secure approach to take, we don’t recommend you do this unless you consider yourself a windows power user. If you make a mistake with this, you could potentially lose all the data on your hard drive.

The simplest thing for most people will be to create an encrypted file container. Follow the instructions in the beginner tutorial for how to do this. Basically you’ll create an encrypted file that you will be able to mount as an encrypted drive using VeraCrypt. You’ll then move all of the files you want secure onto that drive, removing them from where they are now.

If you have questions about this information, Ben Hood is happy to answer them and you can reach him at benh@miracle.org.