TPM EXPOSED
Buy a Windows computer today and it’s all but certain to contain a TPM. That’s a Trusted Platform Module – an unassuming component that performs a standard set of security functions. Those are defined by the Trusted Computing Group, an industry body with more than 100 members, including AMD, Dell, Google, Intel, Lenovo and Microsoft, working together to improve security across computing devices and applications.
The group has been around in various forms since 1999, but it was in 2009 that it published the first TPM standard (curiously presented as version 1.2). This was quickly adopted across the industry, thanks partly to support built into Windows Vista. In 2015, the TPM 2.0 standard brought extra features, and remains the state of the art for trusted computing.
Despite its ubiquity, the TPM has always been an optional component. It’s been up to computer manufacturers whether to include one in their designs, and up to users whether they want to enable or disable it in their BIOS settings. With Windows 11 however, the mood has changed: Microsoft has declared that the latest edition of its operating system will only be supported on systems where TPM 2.0 is present and enabled.
That’s a controversial decision. Windows 10 didn’t require a TPM, and it’s possible to use Windows 11 without one. Microsoft even provides a hack that lets you install its latest OS without a TPM – see . If you take this route, however, your PC will be classed as
