You heard wrong, Microsoft isn't ending pirated Windows 11 with TPM, and the new rule only affects enterprise KMS servers
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Microsoft's new TPM rule won't stop your pirated Windows from working
Microsoft published a document on July 22 announcing KMS Hardware-Secured , a new requirement that binds Windows volume activation servers to a TPM chip. A few of our readers have messaged us asking if this is the company finally taking a hard line against pirated Windows 11.
The confusion comes from a few tech publications, which reported the TPM attestation part correctly, but then tied it to Microsoft killing off a piracy method called KMS38 back in November 2025, and predicted that this would be the end of pirated Windows activations for good.
The good news is that Redmond isn’t hunting down pirated Windows copies of regular users. However, the change does affect organizations running their own KMS servers.
KMS is a volume licensing tool for organizations
Key Management Service lets a company activate every Windows PC on its network from one internal server, instead of every machine reaching out to Microsoft individually.
Windows Server 2025 will show readiness alerts for this in August 2026. TPM attestation becomes mandatory once Microsoft ships the next Windows Server LTSC release, and there isn’t a release date for that yet.
Disclaimer: To be clear, we don’t endorse piracy. The goal here is to cut through misinformation.
Why is Microsoft doing this?
Microsoft’s document says attackers have used fake or cloned KMS servers to activate Windows machines they aren’t licensed for, inside organizations that run real KMS infrastructure.
A rogue server, convincing enough to be on a company’s network and answer activation requests the way a real KMS host would, can quietly license machines the company didn’t pay for.
The newly announced KMS Hardware-Secured makes a KMS host prove two things using its TPM before Microsoft lets it serve any activations.
First, the TPM establishes the host’s hardware identity, and Microsoft checks that identity against what it expects.
Second, the TPM confirms the platform hasn’t been tampered with since that identity was established.
A host that fails either check doesn’t get to hand out licenses.
How organizations should prepare, according to Microsoft
For a physical KMS host, Microsoft says to confirm it’s certified on the Windows Server Catalog and that its TPM is installed and enabled. For a virtual KMS host, Microsoft says guidance is still coming in a future post, meaning even Microsoft hasn’t published the rules for that scenario yet.
But there’s nothing to panic here. Admins can check TPM readiness now by running this command in an elevated PowerShell session:
Get-TpmSupportedFeature -FeatureList "Key Attestation"
A machine that supports the feature responds with "key attestation," confirming the capability exists before Microsoft begins enforcing KMS Hardware-Secured.
From August 2026, Windows Server 2025 will show this readiness status. Running slmgr /dlv on a KMS host either returns "This device is eligible to serve as a KMS host with hardware-based security," or "This device does not meet the requirements for using KMS host with hardware-based security."
Event Viewer logs the identical status under Applications and Services Logs > Key Management Service. Nothing here blocks activation yet. Existing KMS deployments keep working exactly as they do today until Microsoft ships the LTSC release that makes the requirement...