> And bitlocker's refusal to just encrypt a hard drive without a TPM module present is stupid, especially since it wont let me save the encryption key to dropbox (saving to the same drive being encrypted is not allowed).

???

Do you have Pro or Home? The full Bitlocker in Pro does (or did) allow encryption without TPM. Both my desktop and old laptop did not have TPM and have Bitlocker enabled. It also let me back up the key to the local (Bitlocker encrypted) drive.