Does Microsoft Windows Defender System Guard Secure Launch work with Dell Latitude Laptops?
Summary: The following article provides information about which Latitude laptops are compatible with running the Microsoft Windows Defender System Guard Secure Launch Software.
Instructions
What is Microsoft Windows Defender System Guard Secure Launch?
Windows Defender System Guard: A group of technologies that ensure that the system cannot be compromised or that you are notified if it is.
Microsoft advises System Guard has three goals:
- To protect and maintain the integrity of the system as it starts up.
- To protect and maintain the integrity of the system after it is running.
- To validate that system integrity has truly been maintained through local and remote attestation.
Secure Launch was first introduced in Windows 10 (v.1809). It leverages a technology known as the Dynamic Root of Trust for Measurement (DRTM).
DRTM lets the system initially freely boot into untrusted code. However, shortly after that it launches the system into a trusted state by taking control of all the Central Processing Units (CPUs) and forcing them down a well-known and measured code path. This allows the early Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) code to boot the system, but then it securely transitions into a trusted and measured state.
Microsoft advises that System Guard Secure Launch simplifies the management of Static Root of Trust for Measurement (SRTM) measurements because the launch code is now unrelated to a specific hardware configuration. This means that the number of valid code measurements are small, and updates can be deployed quicker.
Is it compatible with Dell Latitude laptops?
As a rule:
- Any of the latest generations of Latitude laptops launched since the start of 2019 with the launch of the Latitude 3300 should support this application.
- Any generation of Latitude laptop shipped before the end of 2018 will not support this application.