Thanks for the well thought response, you made quite a few points, but let me try to clarify where I’m coming from:
Windows 11 requires all computers to have TPM 2.0. It’s a crypto chip used for allowing vendors (re: Microsoft) to add secure keys at a hardware level, which will then allow software to verify that the software, operating system, and hardware are “unmodified”.
In a nutshell this process for allowing software to ensure that the OS and hardware are not compromised nor modified is called “attestation”.
And it’s something Google has (successfully) introduced into Android and they’re now “turning the screws” .
This means that the Windows of the near future, will begin to “limit access” to the OS (ie: kick people out of the kernel), only allowed signed device drivers, etc.
The next step will be restricting “sideloaded apps” and funnel people through the “officially supported apps store”. Once that happens, sideloading will either be removed or crippled.
When it comes to gaming: there won’t be any need for anti-cheat measures, because Microsoft will know (and will disable itself or the app) if you’ve modified the OS or any app/game (this could include installing a game on a newer or older version of Windows)
This is the future of computing. It’s already happening to cellphones. I’d read a great article (that I, sadly, cannot find) that talks about how technology like attestation have software vendors treat the user as an untrustworthy person. The upshot, for the user, is that if they get infected will malware or a virus the OS will know and will react accordingly. The downside, for the user, is that the freedom we have today - to install or configure our OS to our liking will be a thing of the past.
These changes won’t happen overnight, but it has and will be a slow boil.
I hope that it’s fear-mongering.
I tried to justify the technical reasons here, but the tl;dr is it possible for windows 11 to verify that the OS and hardware are “unmodified” (aka “attestation”).
True but attestation is a different beast. It’s just a hardware check that “everything is unmodified”. Any/all software vendors can use it. Windows Defender was a “duplication” of functionality (hence the EU smackdown).
However, as Microsoft has already integrated attention into Windows 11 (restricted to verifying security patches, for the moment) - it’ll be easier for them to repackage attestation into a simple API that software vendors (games/apps/even websites) and use (
if attestation.check('basic') == true; then run; else exit).This “simple” check is what software companies have been wanting for years: a way to guarantee that users are running their software in the way that the software companies want you to be running it (meaning unmodified).
The OPs original question was about removing anti-cheat - which I’m confident will happen and will be replaced with attention (as it already exists for android, John deere, iphones, etc).
Your points about virus scanners is different: I think virus scanners, although technically not necessary (after attestation is mandatory) - they will still exist, simply because virus scanners is a 40+ Billion Dollar industry. Microsoft cannot/will not piss of those companies “just because they can” - it would be in the shareholders best interests for Microsoft to throw the virus scanner companies a bone, allow them an isolated space to do their thing, charge them for the privilege, and require that Microsoft verifies that the virus scanner is untampered.