Microsoft publishes ‘standards for secure Windows 10 devices’

Microsoft has published standards that, according to the company, apply to the most secure Windows 10 system possible. For example, the Redmond company sets requirements for a certain processor and for a trusted platform module.

Microsoft reports that the published standards apply to Windows 10’s latest Feature Update, the Fall Creators Update. In terms of processors, Microsoft recommends a 7th generation Kaby Lake processor from Intel. Bleeping Computer, which noted the page, mentions a tweet from Microsoft researcher Dave Weston, who states that this generation of processors has mbec, which is important for virtualization. AMD also has a 7th generation processor.

In addition, it must be a 64-bit system, because virtualization uses the Windows hypervisor that is only available for 64-bit systems. Other requirements are that iommu and slat are present. A system that meets these standards should also be equipped with a trusted platform module of version 2.0. That is a hardware module that performs encryption processes. For example, Windows uses the module if the user enables BitLocker to encrypt the hard drive.

Finally, Microsoft reports that boot verification must be present, for example via Intel Boot Guard, Hardware Verified Boot from AMD or a similar OEM implementation. It makes further demands on firmware; for example, uefi must be on version 2.4 or higher.