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Just for interest’s sake I gave this little utility a try.  I hadn’t installed any Windows Updates for this month so far (Windows 7 Professional). But, I have installed the latest BIOS update – “Update CPU Microcode” – for my motherboard a couple of days ago.

InSpectre said I was vulnerable to both Meltdown and Spectre.

Then, I installed the security only update KB4056897 from MS and now InSpectre says I am no longer vulnerable to Meltdown and Spectre but at the cost of a performance decrease.

Funny thing is, after a refresh, my Windows Experience Index is exactly the same as it was before I installed this month’s security update rollup – 7.7 (everything rates at 7.9 except the processor which is an i5-7600 Kaby Lake) and I haven’t noticed any slowdown in the 15 minutes or so that I tested things.

After that, I restored a Macrium Reflect image taken before I installed the security update so I’m back to being vulnerable again but I’m just going to sit and wait until we get the all clear from Woody.

Just checked and found a new BIOS update (F9b – Update CPU Microcode is the description) for my Gigabyte B250M-D3H motherboard running Windows 7 Professional 64bit on Kaby Lake.

I haven’t installed any of this month’s Windows Updates yet and I’m a bit wary about updating the BIOS at this stage (I don’t have any problems updating the BIOS on this board, I’ve already done it several times since I bought it about 8 months ago).

Might just wait a few days before “taking the plunge”. There may even be another BIOS update issued while I’m waiting. Had lots of them with this board so far – it came with F2 out of the box and I’m running F8 at the moment.

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HiFlyer

MrJimPhelps wrote:

Carl D wrote:

Meanwhile, back here in Windows 7 land, it is (mostly) all clear skies and smooth sailing – no forced updates which seem to break things more often than not these days, no ads (hint to MS – the amount of acceptable ads in a paid for operating system is ZERO), no new version every 6 months which usually involves a complete clean install of W10, etc., etc.

I agree with you on this. By the way, have you thought about what you’re going to do when January 2020 arrives?

Jim, I plan on using a dual boot of Windows 7 offline and Linux (Mint probably) online after January 2020. Assuming my present motherboard, etc. is still working by then.

If I have to get a new setup that won’t let you run Windows 7 (I’m using W7 on Kaby Lake at the moment despite MS’s attempt to block updates earlier this year – I got around that quite easily) I will probably “bite the bullet” and install Windows 10. But, I will keep W10 offline and use Linux online.

I still can’t work out why so many people continue to put up with Windows 10? Apart from the MS fanboys I’ve seen on various forums (who seem to reach a state of rapture every time a new insider build is released – and, at the same time appear to suffer withdrawal symptoms when a new build isn’t released almost daily) I can’t understand why anyone would want to continue to punish themselves with this perpetual beta (alpha??) operating system?

Honestly, you would think after all the telemetry that MS has collected from the millions of unpaid beta testers over the past several years that W10 would be the best/most secure Windows version yet (how many times have we heard that one over the years?).

Meanwhile, back here in Windows 7 land, it is (mostly) all clear skies and smooth sailing – no forced updates which seem to break things more often than not these days, no ads (hint to MS – the amount of acceptable ads in a paid for operating system is ZERO), no new version every 6 months which usually involves a complete clean install of W10,  etc., etc.

I like to use my computer for getting things done, even if it is just playing games – not spend half the day trying to fix MS’s mistakes.

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Elly, HiFlyer, Seff, lanceboil, Cybertooth

This is one of several reasons why I have been using the Simplix update pack for nearly the past year. I know a lot of people are probably suspicious about the fact that it was created by someone in Russia but I and many, many others have never found anything suspicious included in it.

And, one of the best things is – you can keep a clean install of Windows 7 offline until you run the latest Simplix pack which means you’re up to date with security patches from the moment you go online. It even includes Internet Explorer 11 (it isn’t installed by default if you don’t already have it, you need to include it from a Command Prompt).

And, it also doesn’t include any of the telemetry patches or the 7th generation processor blocking update from last April (which is why I’m running W7 on Kaby Lake with all the Windows updates apart from the aforementioned ones). I  sometimes check Windows Update after installing the Simplix pack and usually there’s nothing there apart from things like the infamous KB2952664 and Co. which get hidden again, of course.

“This is the first time I’ve seen the site “alive” since about the 21st. And I had about half a dozen new posts to catch up on” – wdburt1

I’ve noticed that I have to hit the Refresh/Reload button on my browser (Pale Moon) to bring the site up to date lately. It doesn’t seem to update itself ‘automatically’ for some reason?

Same thing happens on my old Samsung tablet using the default browser that came with it so it doesn’t seem to be specific to Pale Moon.

Back to topic – I’ve just checked my 11 year old HP laptop (Windows 7) and there’s no trace of the “HP Touchpoint Analytics Client” but I’m not surprised since I haven’t had any HP software installed on this old machine for years now.

–

Just checked the Gigabyte website and found a new BIOS update for my B250M-D3H motherboard running an i5-7600 Kaby Lake processor.

The information says “Update Intel ME for security vulnerabilities” so it looks like I’m covered.

When I built the PC back in July the motherboard only had the F2 BIOS (bought the board in April). Since then I’ve updated it to F6 then F7 and now F8. At least the BIOS updating is easy these days… just copy the BIOS files to a USB stick and update using Q-Flash.

I think I’ve mentioned this once or twice before but I’ve been using Windows 7 Professional 64 bit on Kaby Lake with a Gigabyte B250M-D3H motherboard for the past couple of months and I also have it fully up to date with Windows updates – well, minus the telemetry updates and the deliberate 7th generation processor blocking update from April.

And, the Windows 7 motherboard drivers work perfectly with Kaby Lake despite the instructions saying that they were only supposed to be for 6th and not 7th generation processors. I’m guessing Gigabyte were worried (and probably rightly so) that they were going to lose a lot of sales if the drivers only worked for Windows 7 with 6th generation.

The other possibility is that the W7 motherboard drivers were only fully tested for 6th generation but fortunately (for me at least) they work properly with Kaby Lake as well.

I still haven’t got around to trying out the Windows 10 FCU on a spare SSD just yet (had a busy week).

But, looking at all the problems that people seem to be having, I’m not being inspired with confidence.

Well, at least it will be a clean install so hopefully I won’t have too much trouble. It will just be a matter of swapping out the SSD (back to W7) if anything goes pear shaped.

This ransomware business is getting totally out of hand these days.

Unfortunately, many people will continue to be targets for this because they seem to have the attitude that “it will never happen to me” or they’re just blissfully unaware of the danger.

I consider myself to be ‘immune’ because I have 2 solid state drives in my PC tower – the first one has Windows and the second is a ‘data’ drive with pictures, videos, Windows Macrium images, etc.

In addition, I always keep several Macrium images of the Windows drive on a separate external USB hard drive (which is powered off when not in use) and I have an extra SSD which is an exact duplicate of my data drive and it is updated weekly. I also have another spare SSD which can be used to swap out the Windows SSD if needed.

Plus, all of my data is backed up on another external USB hard drive which is also powered off when not in use. And, everything is also on my trusty 11 year old HP laptop which is still running perfectly (especially after putting an SSD in it a couple of years ago).

If I’m hit by ransomware, it is just a matter of swapping out the 2 SSD’s in the PC tower and restoring a Macrium image of the Windows drive. The laptop is also backed up regularly with Macrium.

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SueW, GoneToPlaid

Kirsty wrote:

Registering will give you added options, like the Thanks button, and quoting replies ? Give it a try!

Thanks, Kirsty (and everyone).

Registration went very smoothly.

I’ll be installing the Fall Creators Update for Windows 10 shortly. At least by using a spare solid state drive if anything goes wrong I’ll be able to just reconnect my Windows 7 drive and be back up and running within minutes.

I’ll have to remember to disable that Fast Startup nonsense in Power Options for Windows 10 if I do go back to Windows 7 otherwise the first thing that happens is chkdsk will run when 7 starts. Actually, from memory, I’ve always disabled that in 10 anyway.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Elly, Jan K., Noel Carboni