Tech giant Microsoft announced that Windows 11 will require TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chips on existing and new devices.
“The Trusted Platform Modules (TPM) is a chip that is either integrated into your PC’s motherboard or added separately into the CPU,” explains David Weston, director of an enterprise and OS security at Microsoft. “Its purpose is to protect encryption keys, user credentials, and other sensitive data behind a hardware barrier so that malware and attackers can’t access or tamper with that data.”
Microsoft announced the system requirements to upgrade or install Windows 11 and included a new PC Health Check tool that you can use to check if your hardware is compatible with Windows 11.
However, after many people ran the tool, they discovered it was reporting that “This PC can’t run Windows 11,” even on devices that run Windows 10 flawlessly as they do not have a TPM 2.0 installed.
Why You Need A TPM
A TPM is a dedicated processor used to perform hardware-based cryptographic operations to secure encryption keys and defend against malicious tampering of your hardware and the boot process.
TPM processors come in two versions – an older and less secure 1.2 version and a more secure 2.0 version, which is a requirement for Windows 11. Since 2013, Intel and AMD added firmware TPM technology to many of their CPUs that perform the same functionality as a TPM 2.0 processor without the need of a dedicated module.
For Intel Process, this technology is called Intel Platform Trust Technology (Intel PTT), and for AMD, it is called AMD Platform Security Processor.
“Almost every CPU in the last 5-7 years has a TPM. For Intel its called the “Intel PTT” which you set to enabled. For AMD it would be “AMD PSP fTPM”. TPMs have been required for OEM certification since at least 2015 and was announced in 2013,” said David Weston, Director of Enterprise and OS Security at Microsoft.
With Windows 11, Microsoft has brought security to the forefront by requiring a TPM 2.0 or compatible technology (Intel PTT or AMD PSP TPM) to be available.
When a TPM 2.0 is installed in Windows, the operating system can use more robust encryption to secure your Windows Hello PINs, encrypts passwords, and enables more advanced security features, such as Windows Defender System Guard.
