It’s not a particularly new feature for Windows either: it was actually made a requirement for Windows 10 as well but was not enforced the way it has been for Windows 11. TPM chips have been around for a while but have only been widely used in IT-managed business laptops and desktops. According to David Weston, Microsoft’s Director of Enterprise and OS Security, it helps protect encryption keys, user credentials, and other sensitive data behind a hardware barrier so that malware and attackers can’t access or tamper with that data.

A TPM chip is a chip that conforms to that standard and can either be integrated into a computer’s motherboard or can be added separately into the CPU. TPM, also known as ISO/IEC 11889-1, is an international standard for secure cryptoprocessors, dedicated microcontrollers designed to secure hardware through integrated cryptographic keys. The company’s overall aim is to create chip-to-cloud Zero Trust out of the box. The move is part of Microsoft’s broader push for security by design, a concept that is central to several data protection laws, such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). TPM 2.0 is required to run Windows 11 as an important building block for security-related features.

Microsoft unveiled Windows 11 this summer and, when system requirements for the update were later released, one, in particular, drew considerable attention: the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0.

Windows 11 tpm requirement