This guide explains how to remove the "Change BitLocker password" context menu for a drive. The method works in Windows 11 and Windows 10, and is pretty useful when you never use the item and aren't going to. For example, you may solely use the Settings app for that task. In this case, the extra command makes the menu bloated for no reason. However, there is a simple Registry tweak to help you get rid of the Change BitLocker password entry.
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Windows provides the ability to encrypt a drive using BitLocker. This built-in feature helps protect your data in case that your device is threatened or data on a disk ejected from your computer is compromised. The operating system allows you to enable BitLocker protection for both fixed and removable hard drives.
The convenience of BitLocker is that for protected data drives, it allows you to set a password to unlock the drive. To change this password, the user must first unlock it, preventing password hacking and data theft.
However, BitLocker will add a ton of new commands to the protected drive, including the option to change the password. If you prefer a well-organized context menu, you can remove the Change BitLocker Password item from the context menu for data hard drives, but still keep the ability to change your BitLocker password in the Settings app.
Here's how.
Remove Change BitLocker Password from Context Menu
To hide and remove the Change BitLocker Password entry from the right-click menu of a drive, do the following.
- Press Win + R on the keyboard to open the Run dialog, and type regedit. Press Enter.
- In the left panel of the Registry Editor app (regedit), navigate to the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\change-passphrase key.
- Right-click the change-passphrase section, and select New > String value from the menu.
- Name the new value ProgrammaticAccessOnly, and leave its value data empty.
- Now, right-click your BitLocker-protected drive in File Explorer. The Change BitLocker Password menu item disappeared.
That's it. To undo the change, simply right-click the ProgrammaticAccessOnly value you have created under the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\change-passphrase key, and delete it.
This will immediately restore the hidden entry for the drive.
💡 Note: The ProgrammaticAccessOnly value is a special Registry flag that hides the context menu command from the user, but allows the software to use it on demand. Simply speaking, this only change the appearance, while on the software side everything works as before without a harm. It is the safest way to clean up the right-click menu available in Windows.
ℹ️ The reviewed method hides the Change BitLocker Password for all users. It requires you to have Administrator's privileges. But in some situations you may want to hide it only for your personal account, and retain it visible for the rest of users in the operating system. In this very case, the tweak will be slightly different. Also, you do not need Administrator rights to hide to the entry.
Hide Change BitLocker Password from Right-Click Menu for the Current User
- Right-click the Start button, and select Terminal from the menu. 💡Tip: The same menu opens with the Win + X hotkey.
- In the PowerShell (Ctrl + Alt + 1) or Command Prompt (Ctrl + Alt + 2) tab of Terminal, paste the following command:
reg add HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\change-passphrase /v ProgrammaticAccessOnly /t REG_SZ /f, and press Enter.
- Finally, right-click a BitLocker-protected drive in File Explorer. The Change BitLocker Password entry is now hidden for your user account only.
That's it!
If one day you change your mind, you can restore the hidden entry with the following undo command:
reg delete HKCU\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\change-passphrase /f
Voila, the item will be immediately restored.
Finally, I have prepared REG files for everything described in this post.
Extract them to any folder of your choice, and double-click either Remove Change BitLocker Password For All Users.reg or Remove Change BitLocker Password For Current User.reg , depending on what you want. Confirm the User Account Control and Registry editor prompts, and you are good to go.
The undo tweaks are also included.
That's it!
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