[oneplane]

You can check it in the firmware settings. To know if there is even the option to enrol, check the manual of the device. If there is no manual, check the SKU for the CPU and PCH, only some SKUs have full management enrolment.

Keep in mind that regardless of the status, you can always reset it. In some cases you can also remove most of it, but since the ME also controls a lot of power functions and on laptops might also hinder EC usage if disabled, you might simply not have much choice.

If the ME (or AGESA) is a problem for you, there are two options:

  1. Get a very old machine that doesn't have it
  2. Get a machine that doesn't use Intel or AMD processors

And just in case: ME "enrolment" doesn't actually mean much. It's not some cool remote control thing or remote wipe or something like that; it's mostly just crappy VNC and a janky XML API that only works on the local network. So even if it contains provisioning profiles for some company, it's not like they have 'access' to your laptop. It's not like Apple's DEP or the legacy CompuTrace or Intel AT products. Those two are also not really all that exciting considering they mostly just work like rootkits on specific windows versions. If anything, getting your hands on a provisioned laptop gets YOU access to the company network in some badly configured NACs.

[waste_monk]

> 2. Get a machine that doesn't use Intel or AMD processors

The only other commercially available x86 processors I'm aware of are Zhaoxin, and I would be very surprised if those didn't have something ME-like baked in.

[oneplane]

There are architectures that aren't x86.

[waste_monk]

IMO alternative architectures such as ARM64 are not suitable (yet) for use on general purpose workstations, which is what I assume the OP wants.

Not because these architectures are necessarily deficient in some way, but simply that there is far too many applications that only target X86_64. Last time I tinkered with an ARM based desktop about 90% of what I wanted was there and worked well, but there were too many edge cases for me to feel comfortable recommending it.

It's a network effect thing, and it's slowly changing, but we're not quite there yet.