Windows 10 recently received four new Intel microcode updates aimed at enhancing protection against Spectre Variant 2 attacks. The updates are available for all the Windows 10 versions as follows:
- KB4090007 available for Windows 10 version 1709, aka the Fall Creators Update
- KB4091663 available for Windows 10 Version 1703, aka the Creators Update
- KB4091664 available for Windows 10 Version 1607, aka the Anniversary Update
- KB4091666 available for all Windows 10 versions.
Judging by the frequency Intel and Microsoft roll out new Meltdown and Spectre updates, it is safe to state that the threat is still real. These two vulnerabilities reside in Intel’s processor architecture itself but the company managed to fix it with its 8th-Gen CPU architecture.
So, if your computer is equipped with newer processors such as Skylake, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, Broadwell or Haswell, install these updates to make sure that your machine is immune to Spectre Variant 2 attacks. All these patches are available as standalone updates available through the Microsoft Update Catalog.
Microsoft didn’t add any known issues on the list of known bugs, so the whole download and install process should theoretically go smoothly for all users. However, some Windows 10 Fall Creators Update users may experience install issues, as this user reports:
kb4090007 installation
I can’t get it download. Anyone else with this problem? the catalog is where I am trying to download it from. I have an Ivy Bridge processor, i7-3632QM (its status is not listed on the Intel site’s production schedule for Spectre patches).
The good news is that this is a very rare issue, so most users should be able to get the updates without any problems.
For more information about the Meltdown and Spectre threats, you can check out the following posts:
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