With Windows 11, some PCs may be left behind because of TPM, and it's causing a lot of confusion

Windows 11 Taskbar Icons Surfacepro Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

As we remarked a week agone, Windows 11 turned out to be much more than just a new Start menu. The new store, Android apps, Direct Storage, Motorcar HDR, new touch UX, and new forthcoming features, such as haptic pens, make Windows 11 a significant overhaul of the 6-year-erstwhile Windows 10.

But one particular we did not anticipate when information technology came to major Windows 11-related changes was the apparent cutoff for which PCs can become the gratuitous Windows 11 upgrade. That topic is causing a lot of confusion. Here is what we know and what we don't know most it.

Why have TPM requirements at all?

It is clear Microsoft is positioning Windows 11 as its adjacent major Bone for the upcoming decade. While it is non a clean break from Windows 10, some older PCs will not make the cutting.

The large motivator here seems to be security, as Microsoft explained recently in a blog mail service.

TPM (Trust Platform Module) is zippo new for PCs. It goes dorsum to the mid-2000s as an international standard for a secure cryptoprocessor. Although in that location are software versions, too, like fTPM, TPM is a physical hardware chip used to store encrypted information while also ensuring a secured boot environment.

In the existent world, TPM allows for things like:

BitLocker Bulldoze Encryption
Windows Howdy PINs and biometrics
Windows Defender Organisation Guard
Tamper detection of the PCs hardware
Virtual Smart card
Credential Guard
Secure Kicking

With TPM, BitLocker gets to store the encryption cardinal and your Windows Hello biometrics securely. This ability is why Windows Hi is so protected. Your biometrics, like fingerprints or facial recognition data, exercise non get to the cloud; instead, they become hardware encrypted on your PC so that info cannot be retrieved nor reversed engineered to bypass your PC's login process.

Secure boot is becoming increasingly of import, likewise. From Microsoft's documentation:

Secure boot is a security standard developed by members of the PC industry to help make sure that a device boots using just software that is trusted past the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). When the PC starts, the firmware checks the signature of each piece of kick software, including UEFI firmware drivers (likewise known as Option ROMs), EFI applications, and the operating system. If the signatures are valid, the PC boots, and the firmware gives control to the operating system.

Hello Passort Chart TPM's office in Windows Hello and Microsoft Passport security. Source: Microsoft

Microsoft is drawing a line on security and saying that to utilise Windows 11 PCs going forward, you lot need to have this characteristic enabled.

The good news is TPM 1.ii (more than on that beneath) goes back to 2005. TPM 2.0 goes dorsum to 2022, and nigh PCs are supposed to ship with it, although that does not e'er seem to be the case, peculiarly if you build your own.

I realize that this is all only techno mumbo jumbo for many consumers, but Windows PCs have had a long history of security problems. Microsoft has gone to great lengths since Windows 10 to secure its Bone as much equally possible, and Windows 11 takes a more rigid stance.

What is required for Windows 11?

Check Tpm Windows Win + R and typing in 'tpm.msc' tells you about TPM on your PC. Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

Even the requirements for Windows 11 are a bit confusing as at that place are both "hard" and "soft" floors of cutoffs for the update. Many PC makers are also at present giving guidance on which PCs will get it.

Update: Presently later this article was published, Microsoft removed the hard/soft flooring distinction for Windows 11. The changes seem to merge the two where yous can have merely a 1GHz CPU, but it has to be on the supported listing. TPM 1.2 is no longer mentioned.

The difficult floor is what most people who take older PCs should exist looking at. If your PC does non meet these standards, you lot cannot get Windows xi. In addition, the hard flooring requires "greater or equal" to TPM one.two, Secure Kick capable, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and at to the lowest degree a dual-core processor that is faster than 1GHz.

Those are inappreciably strict requirements for a forward-looking Bone in 2022.

The soft floor requires TPM 2.0 (which started shipping in all PCs around 2022/2017) and needs specific processors. These are devices that are free to update with no caveats.

The soft flooring seems to be what Microsoft's PC Health Cheque app is looking at and where a lot of confusion is happening.

Indeed, the more meaning effect here may non be TPM requirements, but the fact that any Intel CPU older than 8th Gen does not make the cut for Windows 11. Unfortunately, that includes a lot of Surface devices, including Surface Studio 2 and Surface Pro 5. That caveat does not mean those computers can't run Windows eleven; it merely ways Microsoft does not support them running Windows 11. It is an important distinction.

Gaming PCs and TPM: present (but not enabled)

CLX Ra Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

Ane result that will exist difficult to navigate for the unabridged upgrade procedure is that many gaming PCs accept TPM on the motherboard (it is a physical fleck, after all), simply information technology is non enabled. For instance, this was the instance on my CLX gaming PC, which initially failed Microsoft's check for Windows xi compatibility.

Secure Boot Dan Clx Bios Enabling Secure Boot on a 2022 gaming PC. Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Cardinal

The solution was to go into the BIOS and enable secure boot and Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT). It took xxx seconds, and my PC is now Windows 11 compliant, which is reasonable considering it is a brand new 2022, $seven,500 computer!

As y'all can see, the trouble is some PCs have the hardware, but it is non enabled. Microsoft's Health Check app does non authorize why your PC does not encounter the requirements, although we take heard Microsoft volition update the app soon to address that. It is also non clear that you tin do a software check to run across if your PC has TPM 2.0 in the event the module is present just disabled.

Here's the more significant effect: Does Microsoft want to transport thousands (millions?) of people into their PC BIOS to start fiddling with security features? Once more, you tin can see how that leaves room for a lot of bug.

At to the lowest degree for new PCs that sell Windows xi pre-installed, this won't be a concern.

What happens if your PC does not have TPM 2.0 or a modern processor?

Pc Health Check App Update Processor Sorry, your CPU is no good. But, is it actually? Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central

We don't know. Microsoft says:

Devices that do non meet the hard flooring cannot be upgraded to Windows xi, and devices that meet the soft floor will receive a notification that upgrade is non brash.

It sounds like if your figurer has TPM 1.two (which is incredibly one-time) and at least a 1GHz processor, you can still become Windows 11; it is just "not advised."

Tpm Chip Amazon Gigabyte GC-TPM Trusted Platform Module. Source: Amazon

But what that procedure looks like is non known at this time. We expect Windows eleven to start rolling out in October through early 2022, similar previous Windows updates. And then my hunch is users tin can still take the Windows 11 upgrade, but there may be some warnings near information technology non being recommended.

To be clear, Windows xi runs well on older hardware. It is not like older Intel 6th Gen processors cannot handle the OS — far from information technology. This discussion is all about security.

For those who build their gaming PCs, if your motherboard does not have TPM 2.0 y'all tin purchase the module ($xxx) and install it yourself. Merely make sure your motherboard does not already have information technology since many modern motherboards do, even if information technology's not enabled.

Will Microsoft stick with Windows 11 requirements?

If I had to guess, Microsoft might modify some of these requirements and even the diction around Windows 11 equally nosotros accelerate. Right now, the scope of the "TPM trouble" is non known, when it comes to how many PCs are out there with TPM in a disabled land.

Microsoft has four months to figure out how to accost the consequence. It could either relax requirements or permit affected users take Windows 11 even after advising them against it.

In some ways, this debacle is unfortunate only not uncommon. Apple and Google routinely cutting off hardware for new operating systems. My late 2022 Google Pixel 2 will non go Android 12 fifty-fifty though it can absolutely run it. Microsoft doing the same in the proper name of security is necessary to push standards forward, especially in an age of ransomware, where TPM plays one function in an increasingly growing security infrastructure.

How to check if your PC has a trusted platform module (TPM)

I think the bigger looming issue is non even TPM, but processor compatibility. Microsoft has done this in the by, just these are known as "soft blocks." For example, Windows 10 21H1 does not officially back up Intel 4th Gen "Haswell" fries, but you can still run Windows ten on those processors without issue. Microsoft appears to be doing the same here. There will be soft blocks for non-compatible CPUs, but you can nevertheless install Windows 11 on a Surface Pro 5; information technology but won't exist "supported."

Regardless, I think information technology is evident that Microsoft needs to get clearer messaging effectually this update as there volition be a lot of confusion in the future.

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