Ultra TPM

Many contemporary mainboards allow installing TPM (Trusted Platform Module). However, it is optional and we haven’t yet come across a mainboard with this module before. So, let’s use this opportunity and take a closer look at its functionality and features.

The manual says that you have to enable this module into the BIOS for successful initialization. Then you have to install Infineon TPM driver, which is also a must, no doubt about that. After that they suggest that you install Gigabyte Ultra TPM Utility, which may seem unnecessary, but let’s see.

The first step didn’t cause any problems: we enabled this module in the BIOS. The second step also went on smoothly, although we thought that there was a mistake with the size of the driver – over 200MB! However, the list of installed software proved it was no mistake. Infineon Security Platform software suite includes the following:

• Security Platform parameter menu;
• Security Platform initialization wizard;
• Security Platform user initialization wizard;
• Security Platform move wizard;
• Security Platform backup wizard;
• Security Platform change password wizard;
• Security Platform PKCS #12 import wizard;
• Security Platform certificates viewing and selection program;
• Security Platform icon in task manager;
• Security Platform integration services;
• Security Platform services.

Just look at this list! I started configuring this program, made screenshots, but gave up less than 30% down the road. First it is way too overwhelming; second, only sysadmins of large enterprises may really be interested in this level of detail, and they should already know all these things anyway. First you have to set the main password, then user passwords, consider password resetting options, select the appropriate functions… It is hardly doable for a regular user…

Then I finally installed Gigabyte Ultra TPM Utility and saw why it is handy. It kind of sits over the Infineon Security Platform and simplifies the whole configuration process summing it up in two major steps. First you have to come up with a password:

This only step starts and finishes platform initialization.

Then you have to select the letter for your “secret” PSD (Personal Secure Drive), name it, choose a logical disk where it will be located and set the capacity for it.

I left all these at defaults and that was all! Configuration complete!

However, I shouldn’t in fact trusted the default settings too much. The utility reserved the first available letter for my secret drive – F. However, once I connected a flash-drive to my system, I got an error message:

You can quickly fix this problem in Infineon configuration utility, however, it would be better to pick a letter closer to the end of the alphabet right from the start.