The most controversial feature of the upcoming Windows 11 is that the operating system requires that the devices it is installed on are equipped with the TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) security module – also called AMD Platform Security Processor or Intel Platform Trust Technology). According to Bleeping Computer There are a number of features and services in Windows 11 that require TPM 2.0, including Measured Boot, Device Encryption, WD System Guard, Device Health Attestation, Windows Hello / Hello for Business, TPM Platform Crypto Provider Key Storage, SecureBIO, DRTM and vTPM in Hyper-V.
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Must be activated in many
It is also not enough that the PCs are equipped with such a module. It must also be turned on. In many cases, this is clearly not the default setting in the PCs’ UEFI / BIOS settings.
Initially, it is possible for users to activate the TPM 2.0 module in the mentioned settings, but for many this is probably unknown territory. Then it might be easier to install a UEFI / BIOS update that does this for them. Unlike in earlier times, such an update today is often as simple and safe to install as, for example, driver updates from various hardware vendors.
207 motherboards
In any case, Asus has chosen to include the activation of TPM 2.0 in such UEFI / BIOS updates. The company has now joined a list of 207 different motherboards where a UEFI / BIOS update with such functionality is either already available or under testing.
There may be good reasons to install updates now anyway, at least if you have not updated your UEFI / BIOS firmware in a while. Such updates can sometimes remove both vulnerabilities and other bugs, in addition to ensuring better performance.
The need to activate the TPM 2.0 module is probably currently greatest for those who want to install newer test versions of Windows 11. It is not expected that Windows 11 will be launched until well into the autumn, and many will probably wait significantly longer before taking it in use, even if they have hardware that meets the more stringent requirements of the upcoming operating system.
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