Back in June last year when Microsoft announced Windows 11 for the first time, the company laid out the minimum system requirements for the new OS. At the time, such strict requirements caused a lot of commotion since even a couple of generations-old CPUs were deemed un-supported for Windows 11. And though the company later revised its compatible CPU list to add some more of Intel models, the other necessities like Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0 – or Platform Trust Technology (PTT) in the case of Intel -and Secure Boot remained unchanged. Some games too, like Valorant, were blocked on systems which did not have TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot so as to enfore anti-cheat measures.
Microsoft later explained in detail how such technologies like TPM 2.0 and Virtualization-based Security (VBS) took the security aspect of Windows 11 to the next level, and also demonstrated successful hacker attack on a system with TPM and other such security features disabled.
In case you are wondering when exactly the Redmond giant started adding in these requirements on Windows 10, Twitter user and prolific leakster Xeno spotted the change within the Build 21327 for the first time. This was available in the appraiserres.dll in the Windows 10 build 21327.
Did you know that Cobalt build 21327 is the earliest public build to mention that a TPM module would block your system from installing “Sun Valley”? pic.twitter.com/loUqZvM78c
— Xeno (@XenoPanther) August 27, 2022
Speaking of the appraiserres DLL file, there’s a workaround available for bypassing the system requirements check on Windows 11 which basically involved deleting this file.