TPM is for the DRM part and to control which software is allowed to run on a machine. Of course, that control will not only block malware, but any software that the powerful corporations don’t want users to run.
Other technologies, like Intel’s management engine, active management techology (and the respective AMD equivalents) are not only full of security holes, but would in general leave computers potentially open to remote access and remote control.

All of this junk is sold to the public as “better security”, and naturally only for our own benefit, right?

Unfortunately, despite many good ideas and great effort, the open source community hasn’t been able to come up with hardware and desktop software that would appeal to a broad range of end users and rival the commercial counterparts in polish, functionality, and industry support. This is largely due to the huge proliferation in the FOSS community concerning the desktop, Focus is on the server, mostly because there is commercial interest behind it, and commercial companies are funding professsional developers to advance e. g. the Linux kernel and related server software.

We’re in a tight spot here considering the recent developments, particularly those who need commercial software for work, or are not tech savvy enough to make a Linux desktop work for them.

I was just fine on Windows NT, until forced to 2000. It wasn’t too bad, I’ll admit. Thankfully I skipped Vista – which was the same kind of hype. Got to WIN7 and was stoked. I watched as people flailed with WIN8 – same kind of hype again, big fumble. Somebody throttled someone and ironed it out to WIN10. Decent.

To expect people, businesses, and schools to update hardware just to run a mediocre update because their hardware “Isn’t [healthy] enough” and you should “consider buying a new [chip compatible] machine” is ridiculous. I teach CS at a small school where dropping $25k because the machines in the lab don’t have hardware based DRM… is, is B.S. Even my Admin laptop, a two year-old Lenovo P51, with 16GB RAM, dedicated 4GB NVidia card, Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz, that can smoke Autodesk Inventor, Revit and Maya cannot be updated because of no DRM hardware??? I’ve got a torch, somebody get a rope… the greed it disgusting.

Hey Reg,

I’ve tried to find out more about TPM but am unable to locate any in-depth assessments, only basic descriptions of its security features. Still, when the likes of Richard Stallman and Bruce Schneier are warning about TPM and its potential for abuse, one has to sit up and take notice.

We should not just be “accepting” this from Microsoft and blindly believe what they tell us. They are clearly trying to force everyone to embrace TPM over the next few years as we are eventually compelled to upgrade to a system that will have these chips built in. When you are forced to do something without any choice in the matter then it is time to start digging in and asking questions.

Who knows what little backdoors this could potentially open onto your PC so that they could scan your PC for any particular information they might be seeking ? They tell us is just to prevent Malware getting in but who knows what else these little beauties are capable of ? Does anyone but Microsoft know exactly what these chips do ? This smacks of the equivalent of a computer “vaccine mandate” to me.

Given the state of US politics at the moment and the fact that Microsoft has become a very “woke” organisation in recent times I wouldn’t be at all surprised we find that it could be used in future by Intelligence Agencies to access computers of anyone they deem a threat or for example, to search for copyright infringements. I wonder if anyone has anyone be able to do a full technical analysis of what these chips actually do, whether they can “phone home” and/or allow access remotely to the PC at BIOS level ? Is anyone capable of doing such an analysis or is the chip totally encrypted to all except Microsoft ?

George Orwell might have been a few years off but his essential warning was correct. 1984 is pretty well here now and my tinfoil hat is firmly on because we are finding more and more that they really are necessary and not just the headgear of choice confined to “kooks” only any longer.

Hey Sherman,

The image at the top of the article is a TPM module. The motherboard MUST include a TPM header, which houses the module. So, if the motherboard includes a TPM header then purchasing a TPM module is an option. If the motherboard does not include a TPM header, then the module would be useless.

Hope that clarifies.

I have the same issue with my Asus P8Z77-V LX socket 1155 mobo. I do believe
the bios would also have to support TPM, and since my mobo is only a socket
1155, it will not support the ninth generation cpu, that is also a W11 requirement.

If you are referring to my comment John, I believe you must have misread. I said “I do NOT disagree”. In other words, I DO agree.

I do not disagree Walter.

Hey Mark,

Yes, that’s the spin, that TPM makes it more difficult to introduce malware. However, TPM can also be used (abused?) to force users to run media files from a specific software and prevent users from sharing.