Windows: How to get latest CPU microcode without modding the BIOS

Discussion in 'Operating Systems' started by mbk1969, Jan 5, 2018.

  1. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    you have to reboot between enabling and disable it threw inspectre last i checked
     
  2. Chastity

    Chastity Ancient Guru

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    Yep, you need to reboot after toggling/enabling.
     
  3. Darren Hodgson

    Darren Hodgson Ancient Guru

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    Thanks guys. After turning my PC off overnight and back on this morning, I found that inSpectre now tells me I have protection against Meltdown and Spectre flaws. Normally, you get told when you have to restart your PC for things to get enabled but I guess the coders of inSpectre didn't bother with that.

    So if you disable the Spectre protection then does performance return to how it was before I installed the microcode update? In other words, do you only lose a small amount of performance by enabling the protection or is the performance already lost by installing the microcode update itself?
     
  4. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    It should not.
     

  5. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    Microsoft updated pages with microcodes for Win10 (24 July):
    "Intel recently announced that they have completed their validations and started to release microcode for recent CPU platforms related to Spectre Variant 2 (CVE 2017-5715 [“Branch Target Injection”])."

    1803
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4100347

    1709
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4090007/intel-microcode-updates

    1703
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091663/kb4091663-intel-microcode-updates

    1607
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091664/kb4091664-intel-microcode-updates

    RTM
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4091666/kb4091666-intel-microcode-updates
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2018
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  6. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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  7. Alessio1989

    Alessio1989 Ancient Guru

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    For those running Linux: microcode update for the first generation of Intel Core has been released. Not sure how much models which Intel still plans to patch are left. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28039/Linux-Processor-Microcode-Data-File?product=873
    For those running Windows: wait for an update version on Windows update or try to search for a modified BIOS..

     
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  8. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    Or modify BIOS with UBU tool which is capable to utilize microcodes archived in that bundle, which are extracted and examined by another cool guy at win-raid.
     
  9. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    not that I even done any these updates, but I notice asrock has said nothing about these newer "flaws" let alone updates microcodes past the initial flaw, or did intel not plug them yet
     
  10. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    I noticed that all pages were updated (August 21):

    1803
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4346084/kb4346084-intel-microcode-updates

    1709
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4346085/kb4346085-intel-microcode-updates

    1703
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4346086/kb4346086-intel-microcode-updates

    1607
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4346087/kb4346087-intel-microcode-updates

    RTM
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4346088/kb4346088-intel-microcode-updates

     
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  11. stillmatic84

    stillmatic84 Member

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  12. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    Last edited: Aug 22, 2018
  13. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    Im kind confused I just got
    KB4100347
    Which says microcode updates but Aida64 microcode "c2h" match that page microcode "c2"

    inspectre says I am protected from all though, I dont know I will see if I see any diffrence
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2018
  14. -Tj-

    -Tj- Ancient Guru

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    mine says 24h, by windows update link above its just 0x24
     
  15. mbk1969

    mbk1969 Ancient Guru

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    "24h" and "C2h" are the same "0x24" and "0xC2"- just two forms of hexadecimal number format.
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2018

  16. tsunami231

    tsunami231 Ancient Guru

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    guess I protected I will see if I notice any performance difference, They only thing weird I noticed since installed 1803 build of windows that fixed the endless no drivers installed on boot for the f710 gamepad is that the startmenu randomly looked like it was "slowly" geting drawn in
     
  17. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    Sorry guys for this stupid question, but as the linked update for my version (1607) does not show Haswell-E as supported, I can skip it, yes? I mean, can Haswell even do what they're patching here? Or did I miss something?
     
  18. JonasBeckman

    JonasBeckman Ancient Guru

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    You can and it will install the updated components but your CPU might not benefit from the newest exploit fixes and for older CPU's as you can see via InSpectre and it's report there can be a variable performance impact from having the software workaround installed without full hardware support or bios updates which again is mostly for older processor models. :)
     
  19. fantaskarsef

    fantaskarsef Ancient Guru

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    Well I would install it, my CPU's still running at stock, no need to go higher as I get the framerates I desire in the games I need them (basically only Overwatch right now, constant 142fps with all the eye candy at 1440p). I could overclock, I'm not too worried about performance inpact to be honest.
    But since the description of the update didn't mention Haswell, I wondered if there were any fixes for Haswell in there anyway (if not, no need to install the update), as I don't even know if Haswell is vulvernable to that kind of attack since it might not even have the required features to be vulvernable. Hence my question.
     
  20. JonasBeckman

    JonasBeckman Ancient Guru

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    From what I know the updates go back to at least Sandy Bridge if not earlier but it could be that this latest update only applies to newer processor models as these are the only ones vulnerable but chances are it's going to be like the previous updates and Intel is starting with these and then down the line further updates to this KB article will start covering older processor models as well. :)

    Pretty sure framerate isn't going to be affected though and it's access speeds, latency and loading of data such as boot times, HDD and SSD speeds and the like. In-game performance once the update is applied and everything has loaded should remain pretty similar but I have not read up too much about this last round of exploit patches and their impact on overall computer speeds so I could be wrong with these latest patches if they have a more noticeable impact on overall performance than before.
    (Though I do know older hardware without full bios update support or improvements in the hardware itself is going to be affected more.)

    If Microsoft has updated priority of this update then once it covers your CPU hardware a check via the settings app should find and install it too so if that doesn't find anything you can probably skip it and it doesn't apply currently. :)


    EDIT: Updated the post a bit, I'm pretty sure you can skip it if Windows Update isn't finding anything and if you do install it or if Windows itself installs it as part of the monthly rollup or otherwise then you can use the above utility for InSpectre to disable the workaround on a OS level and compare if performance seems off.

    From my own testing of this I've mainly noticed a slight change in boot speed although the OS is up and running pretty quickly after it's reached the login screen same as before.
    (The Intel Optane SSD test somewhere on these forums seemed less than ideal though even if it's still fast it did show a noticeable speed reduction until the workaround was disabled.)
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2018
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