New Surface 3 w/ Bitlocker - HD Exclamation- Questions

[amodoko]

Hi guys, just bought a brand new Surface 3 tablet online for a friend's birthday. The box was sealed and everything. When she started to use it, we realized it came with a hard drive that had a yellow triangle with an exclamation point and a lock that was open. I've attached photos so you can see. Why is this there? Should I remove it?

After doing a bit of googling and screwing around with the Surface, I believe it is something called Bitlocker. Does this come with all Surface 3s now? I have my own Surface 3 that does not have that. The only thing I can think of is that the Surface 3 was bought with the intention of being given to a business, so maybe Microsoft pre-configured it for them and added this feature? I really don't have a clue.

Anyways, how do I get rid of this? Or is this something that I should leave? Thanks in advance for any help

 

[amodoko]

Anyone happen to have any information on this? Thanks so much

 

[DMGrier]

Weird is all I can say. Bitlocker is the drive encryption available in Windows 8.1 & 10 Pro or better. I have seen this triangle before on select enterprise machines but not all of them. I have never had a surface but should not be on by default, I work in a enterprise environment and all we deploy a lot of enterprise machines from Dell and I have not seen that yet. I don't think it will hurt anything by being that way and if you are really mobile with your surface then I recommend that you do use the encryption. This would stop anyone in the event you lose or someone steals your surface from being able to get to the data. Also without a wipe and reload makes it hard for the thief to sell to a pawn shop as most pawn shops require you to remove the encryption as if you cannot get past it then they know the product is hot.

 

[amodoko]

Thanks for the reply! Yep, it won't hurt anything at all it seems. However, we have not turned on Bitlocker at this time, but I guess it's nice to have the option to do that if she want's more security. The exclamation mark and everything seems to just designate that we have Bitlocker and we haven't turned it on. Kind of like just reminding us it's "safer" if we do choose to turn it on. I'm assuming this was made with the intention for it to be used in a business environment, as that would make the most sense. Although, some people have said if they bought a newer Surface Pro, that it also had this Bitlocker reminder. Either way, just kind of nice to have the option to use it I guess. I appreciate your response, thanks so much