1. A method comprising: generating a system management interrupt (SMI) during a secure launch of a computer system; and initializing, in response to the SMI, a stand-alone trusted platform module (TPM) emulator, which is to include at least one protected secret, in a virtual monitor during the secure launch; issuing a TPM ordinal; emulating a command stream of the TPM ordinal in the virtual monitor; and handling the command stream of the TPM ordinal in the virtual monitor.