Microsoft reveals how Spectre updates can slow your PC down

[Akoto]

Source: The Verge

Microsoft is taking the surprise step of detailing how Spectre and Meltdown firmware updates may affect PC performance. The tech industry has been scrambling to issue updates to protect against the two CPU security flaws over the past week, and there have been many reports of potential performance issues. The good news is that for modern PCs running Windows 10, most consumers won’t notice a significant difference. If you’re on an older machine, particularly a Windows 7 or Windows 8 one, then there’s going to be some noticeable performance changes.

According to Microsoft, Intel Haswell processors and older will be impacted the most by a series of firmware updates designed to protect against the Spectre CPU security flaw. Intel has been working with PC makers to ready firmware updates, but it’s fair to say most machines do not have these installed just yet. These updates will impact PC performance, but the level of impact depends on what that PC is doing and how old it is. Microsoft warns that most benchmarks we’ve seen reported “do not include both OS and silicon updates.”

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Windows 10 machines running older processors like Haswell “show more significant slowdowns, and we expect that some users will notice a decrease in system performance,” says Myerson. The same older Haswell machines running Windows 7 or Windows 8 will also experience slowdowns that Myerson says “most users” will notice.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 will be the worst hit simply because these older operating systems have features like kernel-level font rendering that will be impacted by the Spectre and Meltdown mitigations even further than Windows 10. Regardless, Microsoft says on Skylake or newer chips “Intel has refined the instructions used to disable branch speculation to be more specific to indirect branches, reducing the overall performance penalty of the Spectre mitigation.”

Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/9/16868290/microsoft-meltdown-spectre-firmware-updates-pc-slowdown

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This is lousy news, to be sure. I and many other gamers deliberately choose to use older versions of Windows, 8.1 in my case. Fortunately, I think I'm doing alright so far.

Thought this might help some people if you begin noticing odd slowdowns. The whole Spectre/Meltdown thing is, in my opinion, not getting much reporting for being a serious issue worldwide.

[KT2000]

1. I noticed problems

everything is slow and more freezing. Does this mean they are not going to do anything to fix for 7 and 8?

[SergeStorms]

2. Micro-Sloth.....

always in such a hurry to release their "best and newest" OS that they leave gaping holes everywhere. And plan on "updating" your system when you're at lunch, because it will take forever. I hate Micro-Sloth with a passion.

[democratisphere]

4. I hate f'ing hackers that wreck everyone's life and country!

[Cryptoad]

15. I hate everybody!,,,,,

that way I don't have to worry about whether I'm hating the right group of people or not!

[democratisphere]

16. Equal opportunity hater!

Yeah! I like that! Or wait. Maybe I'm supposed to hate that. Let me get back to you on this...............

[SergeStorms]

29. I'm with you!

Hate 'em all, and let Dog sort them out!

[Cryptoad]

31. Hah,,,,, Dawg never wrong!

[Akoto]

33. ...

[William Seger]

6. If it's any consolation, macOS, Linux , iOS and Android all need to be fixed, too

It isn't a Windows bug; it's a CPU hack, and these exploits allow just about any CPU made in the last 20 years to be hacked. Until there is a hardware redesign that prevents it, operating systems will have to implement fixes that slow things down or they will remain vulnerable to being hacked.

[melm00se]

10. The underlying issue

is NOT an operating system issue but rather a flaw in how and when the processor(s) access data.

To resolve this (short of a replacement of the processor, something beyond the skills of most computer users), the operating systems using the processor has to be patched to prevent the operating system "feeding" the processor when the processor (in the case of Spectre) tries to anticipate the next step(s).

This is impacting Windows, Apple, Android, (the darling of some in the tech world) Linux and just about every (if not every) other operating system.

[eggplant]

22. Sorry you hate Microsoft. This wasn't their doing.

Nearly all systems are affected, even Linux and Mac. This is a processor-level failure, that requires OS-level workarounds to compensate.

If you want to blame someone, blame Intel.

[Sedona]

3. Thank you for sharng this!

I have an older Dell Inspiron laptop that was upgraded from W8 to 10 soon after I bought it.

It's had an inexplicable case of the slows for the past few months that I've been unable to resolve. I think might be my bug.

What I can't figure out from the artical at the link is what to do to fix it.

Can a geeky DUer help out this not as geeky Executive Assistant who's productivity is suffering?

[videohead5]

5. Have you scanned

It for Malware?..Malwarebytes is the best and they have a free version.

[Sedona]

8. Yup, nada

[videohead5]

14. Have you

Gone under tools and checked the disk for errors?

[videohead5]

32. Try

Glary's utilities on it.they have a free version.run one click maintenance..that should clean it up.

[eggplant]

23. This has nothing to do with your case of the slows.

The issue here is a design flaw in the processor, not the OS. The fix (which is only now being rolled out) will cause slowdown because it has to work around the processor flaw.

The underlying cause of your slow computer is definitely something else, but it could be anything. Sorry.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Love technology

I am known for using ancient things. Cars, computers, TVs, even kitchen appliances.

When new technology is introduced I like to wait for the bugs to be exposed.

I've dodged air bags, and now SpectreMelt. With my 2009 Linux castoff.

[tammywammy]

9. This is a hardware issue and not OS

Since the issues with Spectre and Melt Down are with the microprocessor chips - both Intel and AMD. Almost all computers have the vulnerability. This won’t be truly fixed until a chip redesign is implemented.

If you really have a 2009 computer and it has an Intel chip you are certainly impacted.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Yes

but I haven't paid up for the latest and greatest only to live with the design bugs it contains

I've put $125 into this bug ... cheap if you can get away with it

And yes Linux has patches for it, one of them implemented already, no noticeable difference yet, and light years faster than the Vista crawler it once was

[Ligyron]

11. So that's what's going on!

This laptop is running on Windows 7. Or is it 8? I have a new laptop coming today so I'll hit both with the Malwarebite, no doubt starting with this one as the Guinea piggy.

[vsrazdem]

13. Now they tell me.

I had my cable company out here twice in the past 2 days about my slowing. I work from home and it got to the point where I couldn't even work because my sound files were so lagging. This happened all of a sudden after an update. I totally cleaned out my computer, and ordered a new modem to arrive today, as they determined my modem speeds were too slow, but I have a windows 7, which is the highest operating system I can go to for my work. Just saw another update this morning. Funny thing is, my daughter told me it was probably something with Microsoft.

[Bengus81]

17. Move along,nothing to see here,according to Intel after their CEO DUMPED millions of $$$ of shares

He now only owns the minimum required--250,000 which is a very small amount for a CEO of a Company like Intel. He also exercised old stock options that let him buy shares for as little as $12+ and then sell them off in the $44-45 range. Think how long it will take to sell off existing stock of affected CPU's after Intel makes the hardware fix and puts those new processors on the market.

I have one rig that is strictly a music machine and runs an i5. On that machine I'll probably turn off the auto updates and leave it as it is. It's not a web surfing rig,no real personal info on that computer and one of the programs to play tunes is pretty CPU intensive. It's running Win 10. I just built that rig about a year ago and don't need it slowed to a crawl.

[lagomorph777]

20. I have an iPad and a little PC entirely for music production

will probably just turn off WiFi on them because performance is critically important on those machines and I rarely connect them to the internet.

[The Wizard]

18. Windows 10

hasn't been accepted the way Windows 7 was. Windows 7 is very intuitive and simple to understand operating system. Windows 10 has issues many average computer users can't comprehend. So that makes 3 of the last 4 Microsoft operating systems have been deeply flawed. I'm seriously thinking of the Apple option for my next computer.

[lagomorph777]

21. I have 10 on one machine and it's not nearly as bad as I had feared.

After the horror stories about Windows 8, I was pretty nervous, but they got it together fairly well for 10.

[Bengus81]

25. Nah,Windows 10 is as easy to use as 7. Built three rigs last year all running 10

The only thing I didn't care for--but is able to be turned off, is all the "info" that MS want's to receive from you if you allow it. Just disable all of it on the install and go. There's a few quirky things just like 7 had vs Windows XP but it's not that bad.

I never used Windows Vista nor Windows 8 or 8.1,glad I didn't.

[tammywammy]

26. Though MS work around is slowing down older conouters

Specter and Melt Down aren’t MS flaws. They’re hardware flaws in the Intel and AMD chips which will require hardware redesigns.

[infullview]

28. No two windows 10 systems are alike

I do some IT on the side and I find it unnerving that almost every Windows 10 system has slightly different user interfaces. How may builds of the POS could there have been!?

As other users have pointed out Meltdown is not an operating system flaw it's a CPU architecture flaw in Intel chips not AMD. Spectre is the AMD exploit and it's very difficult to exploit.

[Bengus81]

19. You can turn off updates in Windows 10--they've hidden it a bit

1. Find and open Control Panel
2. Look for "System and Security" and click on it
3. Down at the bottom click on "Administrative tools" click on it
4. This will bring up your File Manager page. Look to the right for the "Services" file and click on it.
5. You should see a long list of services. Scroll down until you find "Windows Update" and right click on it.
6. Click on Properties to get that box.
7. It should say Display Name and Windows Update. On the "Start Up type" line there will be a box with four choices.
8. Pick to choose disable if you want to go that route.
9. Click apply and OK and your done..........

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Apparently this is killing some of the cloud services

as many are probably using server farms with older processors. Weather Underground is one that has been getting hammered since AWS patched their servers at the beginning of the month.

[dalton99a]

30. Thanks for the info - I was wondering what happened

Such a drastic change

[Bengus81]

34. Gawd..is that what the deal is with WU??

Man....I've used that site forever,every since it was sold it seems like it's a royal POS. I've noticed the huge slow down there,in fact sometimes pages just won't load.

[BumRushDaShow]

36. I found out at their API forum

Apparently after AWS did the patch, the VMs for the WU servers barfed and they have been battling getting them cleaned up ever since. Today seemed to be the longest stretch of stability - at least for the PWSes that I look at.

[Akoto]

35. My AWS service slowed down a great deal, too.

I use the remote desktop a lot. Initially, I had an instance operating with Windows, but it had inexplicably slowed down to a crawl.

Ended up deleting that instance and creating a Linux one. It's not as convenient for me, but it works.

[BumRushDaShow]

37. It sounds like recreating the VM and tweaking the settings for it

is the best way to handle it from what I have researched.

[infullview]

27. Spectre has little risk

Spectre is associated with AMD architecture and is very difficult to exploit. Meltdown is an Intel problem, and is much easier to exploit. I don't know why people keep lumping these things together.

Bottom line: if you use AMD processors you will not see any slowdown.