These two features, which are the basis of so many advanced Windows security features, can push the x86 ecosystem along so that, over time, all PCs can eventually ship secure by default. As long as Hyper-V delivers as good or better performance as that hypervisor, there's no performance impact from turning on the security features for Windows on Arm devices like the Surface Pro X.įor the Pro 7+ Microsoft told us that although it's not a Secured-core device, the company feels it has equivalent levels of security thanks to the custom UEFI firmware used in Surface devices.

That's far less of a problem in the Arm ecosystem where there are fewer legacy drivers to worry about and where every device is already running a hypervisor (usually the one Qualcomm provides). And it's always possible that turning on all the Windows security features will mean some badly written driver that you actually need won't work. But you can't, for example, install a new DMA device attached over Thunderbolt on a Secured-core PC until you unlock it with a PIN or biometrics.

Microsoft surface pro 7 spec