Using Bitlocker on Skylake and Newer Systems - How Can I Use TPM 2.0 on Windows 7?

Using Bitlocker and TPM 2.0 on Windows 7

TPM is a method of storing the encryption key used by Bitlocker to protect the contents of the Windows drive. Typically the new Skylake platform systems and newer have moved from TPM 1.2 to TPM 2.0. This is natively supported by Windows 10.

If you want to use TPM 2.0 on Windows 7 then this is possible, but only with the following:

• You must use Windows 7 x64. 32-bit / x86 versions of Windows 7 do not support TPM 2.0
• You need to install Windows 7 in UEFI mode. This is a BIOS setting that has to be made before you partition the hard drive or install Windows. Systems installed in UEFI mode will have a GPT partitioned hard disk.
• In addition to enabling UEFI mode, you may need to disable Secure boot in the BIOS setup, to enable Windows 7 booting.
• The Windows 7 hotfix for Microsoft Knowledgebase article 2920188 must be installed. If you have all of the latest Windows updates, then this should already be included.

Stonebook Pro and Stonebook Lite

The Skylake Stonebook Pro and Stonebook Lite notebooks support Windows 7 and UEFI mode. This support was added in the 6/9/16 BIOS update. Without this BIOS, the system will not be able to operate in UEFI mode with Windows 7, meaning that TPM functionality will not be available. If you switch from non-UEFI (legacy) to UEFI modes, you may need to remove the partitioning information on the notebooks hard drive to complete your operating system deployment.

Applies to:

• All desktops and notebooks with TPM 2.0 required to run Windows 7