First you have to pay attention to one thing, and that is that USB flash drive encryption is a security measure not a failure; If we are going to protect the password with a password from being accessed, it doesn't mean it can't be used ways to break that level of security.
However, we will install a very good barrier so that no one can get the details, which is not to mention. It's like putting an anti-theft on a bicycle: when someone comes with a hairdresser they can break it and take the bike, but they will have to carry the tool on purpose.
How to encrypt a USB flash drive in Windows 10
Windows 10 Pro (Home edition does not have one) includes a tool called Bitlocker, which will allow us to encrypt data via USB flash drive for free. Let's take a look at the steps to follow in order to proceed with encryption, namely works with USB sticks, external hard drives or disk systems (though we'll focus on USB flash drives in this case).
We will only install the pendrive in the free USB port of the computer, and access it in the document explorer. From there, click "Unit Tools" in the top menu and select Bitlocker.
After choosing «Activate BitLocker», a wizard will start that will first scan the drive to see if it is compatible, and then ask us what encryption method we want to use. In this case, the most common thing is to use a password protection, so you have to select this option and enter the password you want twice.
After clicking next, it will ask us how we want to make a backup copy of the recovery key. The recommendation is to print it and keep it in a safe place, but it can also be stored in a Microsoft account or TXT file. After you make the choice we want, click next to continue.
After doing this, the wizard will ask us how much drive we want to write, the ability to choose between encrypting only the location or encrypting the entire drive. Only writing a physical location is slow at first, but it will take longer when we want to make a conversion to a unit, so a recommendation to cover the entire drive.
You will now ask us for encryption mode. The new encryption mode requires some sort of Windows (XTS-AES) and they only recommend it if we're going to use that USB stick on that computer, so it is better to use compatible mode just in case we want to take a USB flash drive with us and be able to use it anywhere.
When we are done, after clicking on Start encryption, the process will start, which will take a few minutes depending on the capacity of the unit.
Once completed, each time we log in to the pendrive on the PC we will ask for the password to be able to access it. If at any time we want to make Bitlocker leave the unit unsecured, we will have to click on the Bitlocker menu first, select "Manage BitLocker" and select "Decrypt drive".
