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Windows 11 won’t work without a TPM – What you need to know
Windows 11 requires a TPM security processor to install or upgrade to Windows 11. Unfortunately, there has been a lot of confusion about what type of TPM you need and why you need it in the first place.
Today, 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.
Unfortunately, the PC Health Check tool is missing an important feature – the ability to tell you what is not compatible, which has left many people confused as to why their hardware is not eligible to use Windows 11.
For those with hardware purchased over the past couple of years, the likely reason you see this message is that your computer does not have a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) installed.
The TPM confusion
A TPM is a dedicated processor already embedded or added to the motherboard to perform hardware-based cryptographic operations, secure encryption keys, and protect your hardware and boot process from being tampered with.
An example of a TPM that you can purchase and add to an Asrock motherboard is shown below.
When a TPM 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.
With Windows 11, Microsoft has brought security to the forefront by requiring a TPM to be installed.
TPMs currently comes in two versions – the older version TPM 1.2 and the newer TPM 2.0, which includes increased security, better reliability, and more cryptographic algorithms.
However, there is some confusion about whether you need TPM 1.2, which is supported on a far more considerable amount of hardware, or TPM 2.0, which is likely to make a massive amount of existing hardware incompatible with Windows 11.
According to the Windows 11 system specifications page, you need a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0.
A different Windows 11 hardware requirement doc, though, states that the TPM greater than or equal to version 1.2 and a motherboard that supports Windows Secure Boot is the absolute minimum requirement to install Window 11.
As you can see, this is just is leading to more confusion for users who simply want to install Windows 11 when it is released.
What you should do
While TPM 2.0 offers better security for Windows 11, a TPM 1.2 module allows a greater number of computers to become compatible for just $25-$50, compared to buying a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM.
Even better, it is possible that your motherboard already has a TPM 1.2 or TPM 2.0 module installed, and it is simply disabled in the BIOS.
With all of this said, if the PC Health Check tool is reporting that you do not have compatible hardware, first check your BIOS and see if there is a TPM setting that can be enabled.
If not, then go to your motherboard manufacturer’s website and look for compatible TPMs that you can purchase on Amazon, Newegg, or directly from the manufacturer.
Once you have the TPM installed, the PC Health Check tool will likely give you a passing grade, and Windows 11 is now compatible with your hardware.