Windows 10: What is Trusted Platform Module? How to check if you have TPM chip?

Ever wondered which devices support Windows Hello, Fingerprint verification, and critical biometric data – and where they store that data? Storing this data on your computer or phone can be risky. This is where TPM or Trusted Platform Module comes [...]

This post What is Trusted Platform Module? How to check if you have TPM chip? is from TheWindowsClub.com.

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Verify Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Chip on Windows PC


Something I came across not long ago, is Firmware-based Trusted Platform Modules (fTPM). Whereas before in order to take advantage of a TPM you needed to have a physical TPM chip soldered to the motherboard, that seems to have changed at some point. You can now have either a Discrete TPM (Physical chip) or Firmware-based TPM.

As per THIS article, fTPM is acknowledged by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) as a perfectly valid form of TPM and seems to perform much the same functions as a physical TPM. For Intel, their fTPM is called Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT). I don't know what chips/motherboards/BIOS support PTT, however due to it being Firmware based (as the name suggests) and not requiring a separate physical chip, it means for some devices it's possible to retrospectively add a TPM to devices that didn't have one before.

Looking through the Intel NUC list, it's not just 6th gen Skylake NUC's that it's supported on, but also 5th gen Broadwell NUC's and 4th gen Haswell NUC's too. So if you have a NUC and you have the latest BIOS, then the chances are you have a TPM 2.0 module even if you didn't think you did. You just need to enable 'Intel Platform Trust Technology' in BIOS. As previously mentioned, I don't know what other manufacturers support/will support fTPM too.


The Intel Platform Trust Technology (PTT) setting in Intel VisualBIOS:





With Intel PTT on in BIOS, Device Manager and tpm.msc show a TPM 2.0 module installed.

 

Verify Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Chip on Windows PC


Maybe an addition, unless you have it somewhere else for the Windows Defender Security Center

 

Bitlocker and Trusted Platform Module problems

We appreciate the screenshot you sent.

This issue usually occurs because the Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
uses the manufacturer driver and not the Windows built-in Trusted Platform Module driver.

To resolve this, you can manually uninstall and reinstall Trusted Platform Module. To do so, see the steps below:

• Open Device Manager on the device on which you are experiencing the issue
• Uninstall the Trusted Platform Module driver.

Give us an update after following the troubleshooting steps provided.