That’s right: Physical TPM pin-outs aren’t standard. No need to bother yourself with the struggle to even find a discrete TPM that’s available at a reasonable price and compatible with your system. By the time Windows 11 becomes robust enough to compel an upgrade, you’ll likely be in the market for compatible hardware anyway. Plus, performance issues are still being ironed out, like those on Ryzen systems. You’re not missing out on much yet in Windows 11, either-at launch, there’s not a lot to compel an immediate upgrade.

Windows 10 will also get support for another four years, so you have little pressure to upgrade your hardware in the near future. You get a hassle-free experience with solid security, and major Windows 11 features like DirectX Storage will still come to it. So what should people with unsupported hardware do, if not buy a physical TPM for Windows 11? Stick with Windows 10. That said, the safest way to avoid locking yourself out of your data after hardware changes is to decrypt the drive first, then re-encrypt it again after you’re done. If it’s for BitLocker, don’t rely on just the auto-backup saved to the Microsoft account linked to Windows 11. Regardless of what kind of TPM you have, you should always have a backup of your recovery key on hand. Having a discrete TPM doesn’t sidestep this kind of headache-you can trigger the need for a recovery key even after motherboard firmware changes. And on the off-chance you want a physical module to bypass needing your recovery key for an encrypted drive after a CPU upgrade, stop right there.

Tpm chip windows 11