Meltdown and Spectre

[mucowag]

Did the updates very gingerly. One at a time, setting a restore point each time.
So far so good, but have ignored the 2 "optional" updates, which the MS knowledge
base has flagged as both having issues (so why the fuck are they still there?)

W 8.1 AMD cpu.

[deepsepia]

Originally Posted by LiamA

Since this Meltdown stuff came out I've been noticing problems with Windows 7 and Webroot. Every time I turn my computer on it asks if Webroot is allowed to make changes. It's never done that until recently. Until I downloaded some updates the system wouldn't acknowledge that Webroot was running.

The interaction between an antivirus/security app like Webroot and the OS is always a very tricky thing. An anti-virus program is like a cop-- its "allowed to see" stuff that nothing else can see, but its not a "government cop", its a hired contractor cop. I've never liked third party AVs for this reason; whatever they do, its at an OS-like level, but if its from some third party, its not actually part of the OS.

As a result, changes to the OS aren't coordinated with the AV vendor, and patches or other changes can produce weirdness; that's why every helpdesk troubleshoot starts with "turn off your antivirus".