Enabling a TPM Chip in Windows 7

Now, I have just discovered that built into my PC I have a TPM chip. And I discovered this totally by accident!  I was doing some reading up on BitLocker and DirectAccess (here is a post on how to configure BitLocker on an operating system drive and here is a post on configuring DirectAccess) and stumbled across a command that would tell you about any available TPM chips on your PC. I figured I'd give it a go and see what happened and hey! I've got a TPM chip!
A TPM is a Trusted Platform Module, and it is the international standard for a dedicated microprocessor called a secure cryptoprocessor, which is designed to secure hardware by integrating cryptographic keys into devices. 
To find out if there is an available TPM chip on your PC, click start, click run, and then type in the box tpm.msc. If you have an available TPM chip you will see something that looks like this.

To initialize the TPM you need to right click on the TPM Management on Local Computer option in the sidebar and select Initialize TPM.

You will be prompted to restart your computer and follow the instructions given.


When prompted you will need to press F1 to accept changes. When your computer has restarted you should this pop-up. Select for the password to be automatically created.

You will then need to select whether you would like to print the password or store it on a memory stick. Mine will be stored on a memory stick.

Once the password is saved you will need to click Initialize.

You will then have to wait while the chip is initialized.


Once the chip is initialized you will be able to make use of features such as BitLocker and DirectAccess.