xda-developers: How to check if your PC has TPM for a Windows 11 upgrade

Saturday, June 26, 2021

How to check if your PC has TPM for a Windows 11 upgrade

When Microsoft announced Windows 11 this week, it was clear that this is going to be the first time in a while that the minimum hardware requirements have changed. One thing that seems to have some people stuck is the new requirement for a TPM, which stands for Trusted Platform Module (yes, people that say TPM module are like people who say ATM machine).

How can I tell if my PC is ready for Windows 11?

Microsoft actually makes it pretty easy to know if your PC is compatible. It makes an app called PC Health now, which will tell you if your PC is compatible, and if it’s not, why that is. If it says you’re good to go, then you probably don’t need to move forward.

How to check if you have a TPM

Checking if you have a TPM is really easy.

Hit Windows + R
Type tpm.msc
Hit enter

You’re going to be brought to the TPM Management screen, and it will tell you if you have a TPM, and what version you have. You’ll want TPM 2.0 for Windows 11.

It says I don’t have a TPM, so does that mean I can’t install Windows 11?

Alright, step one is to take a deep breath. There are a few things that you can do here.

First, check in your BIOS for TPM settings. If you’ve read up until this point and you’re scratching your head, wondering how you could possibly not have TPM 2.0 given how new your computer is, it could be disabled in the BIOS. This is especially true if you built your PC.

It actually gets more confusing though. Even if you can’t find TPM in your BIOS settings, you still might have it. It could be called Intel PTT, which stands for Platform Trust Technology. Once you enable it in the BIOS, try the steps above again to check if you have a TPM so you can install Windows 11. You should be good to go.

Sadly, all BIOS setups are different, so I can’t really walk you through finding the setting. It’s usually under an advanced tab somewhere, and in the case of the ASUS one above (not all of them), it’s under Advanced\PCH-FW Configuration.

If there’s no setting, then you probably don’t have a Trusted Platform Module, but if you’ve got a desktop PC, you can probably add one. You can grab a TPM for a bit north of $20, although prices seem to be going up since the Windows 11 news broke. Luckily, you’ve got until this holiday season to get ready for Windows 11, and if all else fails, Windows 10 is still supported until 2025.