TPM requirement means not all Windows 10 PCs will support Windows 11

One of the big surprises in terms of Windows 11 hardware compatibility involves the requirement for TPM support. The requirements for Windows 11 reveal a system will need to support TPM 2.0, but Microsoft has confirmed that TPM 1.2 will be the "hard floor".

Devices that do not support TPM 1.2 will not be upgradeable to Windows 11 and systems without TPM 2.0 support will receive a warning that upgrade is not advised. The TPM security requirement is certainly a massive change with big implications. It effectively means that a lot of older computers that perfectly run Windows 10 will have no further upgrade path.

How to check TPM support

On one hand, part of the problem is that a lot of older computers physically do not have TPM support. On the other hand, a lot of computers with TPM support have the feature disabled in the firmware. You can check whether your PC supports TPM by pressing Windows+R to open a Run dialog. Type tpm.msc and hit the enter button.

Check if your PC supports Windows 11

You can download the PC Health Check app from Microsoft over here. It will perform a system scan to inform you whether your current hardware and system configuration supports Windows 11. Should your PC not be able to update to Windows 11, you will be able to get security updates for Windows 10 until 2025.

Why TPM is no longer optional

So why is TPM now a big requirement? CRN offers an explanation over here:

“It’s really critical to helping us make certain that that device and that identity is verified,” he said. “That is really important for this zero trust initiative. If organizations start adopting this type of mentality, and leveraging this kind of mindset, we’re going to have much more secure environments.”

The move is timely, given that businesses have gone from having a single office and network to having “hundreds of offices and insecure networks,” said Ryan Loughran, reactive service manager at Valiant Technology, a New York-based MSP.

“Security is so much more important now since you don’t have that single office control that we used to have,” he said. “Hardening endpoints is probably the single most important thing that IT providers should focus on.”