Microsoft recently launched a second security update after Intel's "Spectre patch" has been reported to crash. The patch by Intel was an effort to actually fix bugs bothering computers, but it later turned out to be worse. This latest update of Microsoft became a little forceful, especially after the company viewed it as the only means to combat the Spectre patch that turned out worse than what it needed to fix.
The Spectre patch's main problem is that it "spontaneously" reboots software programs of Windows. It also has been buggy, giving users two headaches in what should have been a viable solution to a prior problem. However, the real threat of this buggy patch is that there have been customer reports of data loss or corruption, prompting Microsoft to take action immediately.
The latest update is an out-of-band patch that is targeted to disable the bugs in Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. What it does is that it disables the Spectre patch, also known as the Spectre variant 2, preventing any further harm to the software. Users must download the patch from the Microsoft Update Catalog, as it will not automatically update.
Besides this, the tech giant also released a "new registry key setting" which allows information technology experts to manually terminate the Spectre patches for other affected devices. The downside here is that despite Microsoft's efforts, Intel would need to speed up their updates too in order to effectively end this buggy stretch of the two companies.
This is not the first time Intel made a blunder with its patches, as it had problems recently with both Spectre and Meltdown patches. Besides these controversies, the company is also facing a problem with the U.S. government after Intel revealed the two aforementioned softwares to Chinese tech conglomerates such as Alibaba and Lenovo. The U.S. government was particularly concerned about the potential exploitation of the Chinese government.
Users should stay alert in terms of the effects both the Spectre variant 2 and Microsoft's new update. Microsoft noted that its update quickly kills off the bugs, but also notes that it will only hold the problems at bay until Intel launches a new and safer patch.
