Shut Out of Windows 11: TPM Requirement Excludes Many PCs

[Endre]

Wow! I guess they really don't want people to adopt W11.

I have Z370, Z390, Z590 and X299 motherboards. Neither ASRock nor MSI specify what version TPM is supported on their motherboards.

Right now there is a shortage of components. That will probably last until next year at least. To make it worse there are no components locally that have escaped the "At least doubling in price" that's been going on for the last 16 months. And even if I could get parts, TPMs are rare as hens teeth here. Retailers I checked either don't carry v2.0 TPMs, or advetrise them as discontinued. One place I found actually says they will sell me one, with no specs on compatibility, but it's a special order from the manufacturer because the local distributor does stock them. That's quite common in Australia.

Ah, but don't stress. There is absolutely nothing from what I have seen in W11 that would make me want to upgrade anyway. I'm running 1809 LTSC. There has been nothing since then that would encourage me to upgrade either. It's the same flawed OS with a new coat of paint.

At this point I'm wondering why I even upgraded from Windows 7. It was stable and just worked. Windows 10 has been 5 years of bugs, frustration, instability and crashes and loss of control of our own hardware.

I used to be able to refresh two PCs completely every year for A$2000. Now it costs more than that just to do one. This W11 update is a push to sell more hardware, in a time when hardware is hard to get and super expensive.

Shame on you Microsoft - again!!!

I bet that all of the motherboards you’ve mentioned, have the TPM 2.0 module, but it probably needs to be enabled in the UEFI BIOS menu.

After enabling the TPM, you’ll be able to check its version by opening Run and typing: “tpm.msc”.
If it says: “Version 2.0”, you’re good to go.

 

[Colif]

windows version release dates since (and including XP)
XP - Oct 2001
Vista - Jan 2007
Win 7 - Oct 2009
Win 8 - Oct 2012
Win 8.1 - Oct 2013
Win 10 - July 2015
Win 11 -

I could guess October, they seem to like it for some reason.

But that wasn't point of list, MS have released a new OS within 6 years of previous one ever since XP so blaming them for releasing it now, they probably had intended to release it last year, and held it back due to 2020... and the TPM thing is more a case of hardware makers ignoring MS when they said they wanted it on all new boards for 10, and insisting on win 11 and hardware makers going, 5 years isn't enough time...

2020 release of 11 makes sense since the last 3 versions of win 10 have just been bug fixes. I don't know if staying on 1809 is a smart idea but hey/

 

[t.kolson]

More like 60+...it's already happening.

So don't rush out and pay 60 for a chip yet. Let them sit on them and enjoy their wasted money.

Exactly! After people realize that there is no point in rushing to buy the external discrete TPM module the price will return as was before.
In fact:

A) Your PC has a CPU that is included in the Microsoft Windows 11 compatibility list --> You already have the TPM switch to enable it on your BIOS--> you don't need to buy any external module!

B) Your PC has a CPU that is included in the Microsoft Windows 11 compatibility list but you don't have any switch in the BIOS to enable it -->> the problem is fixing the BIOS, contact the manufacturer and complain, there must be in all PCs sold after July 28, 2016 --> you don't need to buy any external module (it would not be useful anyway if there isn't any TPM option in the BIOS to enable it and if there is the option...you are already in point A) or C)

C) Your PC has a CPU that is excluded from the Microsoft Windows 11 compatibility list --> the problem is the exclusion of the CPU --> you don't need to buy any external module, you are excluded in any case. Microsoft will almost certainly only include the Zen1 from AMD and the 7th from Intel (all of these CPUs already have the TPM so you are in option A) or B). For older processors you will still have to use the "usual" unofficial modified version that will certainly be avaible on the web and that will remove any constraints...again...you don't need to buy anything!!

So don't rush out and and don't be robbed by them. If for any reason you want to buy these external chips later (I don't know why, however but maybe you want to have two of them on your system (but you can enable only one of the two...)) since more and more they will not know what to do with these useless chips, buy it...but for less than the 15$ that they paid them!! Let them sit on them! Give these wannabe scalpers an hard lesson this time, you don't miss anything. So soon when people are better informed they will become available a little everywhere again at usual prices.

 

[TJ Hooker]

TPM is not secure, so requiring it is useless

here's one of many articles explaining how vulnerable it is

https://thehackernews.com/2019/11/tpm-encryption-keys-hacking.html

you can watch youtube videos on how to hack tpm,

just useless....

The vulnerabilities listed in that article were fixed. And you can find youtube videos of people claiming pretty much anything.

 

[TJ Hooker]

You don't expect the version of an OS that your machine shipped with in 2005, to be the last version because Apple switched to a new CPU architecture in 2006. You have a right to expect to be supported for a few years at least, especially for the price PowerMac G5's cost when they were new. Apple should have compiled a PowerPC version of OS X for at least 3 years after the switch. Microsoft is now playing Apple's game when it comes to hardware support.

Assuming Intel 8th gen/Ryzen 2K end up being the minimum supported CPUs, there would have still been 8 or 9 years of support for 7th gen/Ryzen 1K (released 2016/2017) given that Win10 will be supported until end of 2025. It's also a little different different than it is for Apple, as MS doesn't control the hardware that Windows runs on (other than a handful of their own, niche devices).

Also, as someone else mentioned, just because older CPUs aren't listed as supported doesn't automatically mean they won't work.

 

[TJ Hooker]

Not even considering BitLocker recovery keys, how many people do actual data backups NOW?

Require BitLocker in a home environment, and there will be many many tears.

Previous to yesterday, almost every single question here about BitLocker was in relation to - "I lost/don't have the BL key How do I recover my data?"

If they aren't doing backups then they are one hardware failure away from losing their data regardless of disk encryption/TPM. Sure, now you have two points of failure (mobo or drive) instead of one, so your MTBF for data loss will be reduced somewhat, but in either case it's a matter of "if" not "when" they'll suffer data loss.