This new Steam update makes solving anti-cheat problems much easier

A new Steam beta update is making it easier for gamers to check the status of Secure Boot and TPM on their gaming PC, must-have requirements for anti-cheat in plenty of modern games. Instead of having to reboot, gamers who install the new update will be able to check the status of both Secure Boot and TPM from their settings menu.

A large number of major game releases, including Battlefield 6, use kernel-level anti-cheat systems to provide protection against cheaters, using features such as Secure Boot (a requirement for Windows 11)  to make it effective. Most modern PCs, like the ones in our best gaming PC guide, will have the required TPM 2.0 chip that makes this possible. Up until now, you've needed to reboot into the PC's BIOS/UEFI menu to check whether or not both the chip, and the feature, are enabled, but this Steam lets you check it without having to get your hands dirty.

The update, confirmed in recent Steam patch notes, shows that visiting Help > System Information in the beta Steam client will show the information. This small but welcome change should help if you're trying to troubleshoot issues with anti-cheat, especially if you're unsure if either your TPM chip or Secure Boot is enabled on your PC.

You can't use Secure Boot without TPM, so it's important that both are enabled. Secure Boot checks that only trusted, signed software can run as Windows 11 is starting up, while the TPM chip stores the cryptographic keys that make this process possible. This new Steam update will tell you the status of both without restarting, but you'll still need to enter your PC's BIOS to enable both the TPM chip and Secure Boot, which you'll need to do if you want any troublesome anti-cheat systems to work.

We can imagine this change will become available inside the main Steam client release soon. Until then, you can opt into the beta via Steam's settings menu.

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