During the announcement this Thursday (24), Microsoft stated that the TPM 2.0 chip () would be necessary to run Windows 11. The component, an acronym for Trusted Platform Modules and little known among users less connected to security features, is present on most modern machines but is usually disabled by default in the motherboard BIOS. Finally, the developer clarified the importance of the feature for the update.
The requirement is intended to “raise the protection baseline” for all Windows 11 users with hardware-level mechanisms. According to the company’s blog, TPM 2.0 is a “critical part” of Windows Hello and BitLocker features. The same component is also an important layer to ensure the integrity of corporate machines.
With TPM 2.0 enabled, the computer establishes more efficient barriers to protect the user and the computer from (simplified or more complex) attacks that go deep enough to reach the hardware and the traces left by data exchange.
One of the roles of the encryption chip is to keep information related to system startup and passwords under lock and key. Windows 11 will also support the mechanisms contained in Microsoft Azure Attestation (MAA), a service that supports TPM certification and other security mechanisms implemented in hardware.
It’s not new.
This same component was already present in some editions of Windows 10, but Microsoft did not bet on this resource for the typical user. In W11, home and business users must rely on it to ensure OS integrity.
Notebooks have had a TPM chip since 2006, and more modern machines have had similar or equivalent solutions for some time now. On Intel CPUs, the protection mechanism is called Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT), while AMD processors rely on fTPM — Firmware TPM, based on software.
How do you check if a PC’s TPM chip is present/enabled? We gave alternatives to allowing it in the BIOS. Performing such an action requires extreme care and should not be performed by anyone who does not know what they are doing, as changes in this area can impact the computer’s operation.
Source: Microsoft
