Microsoft releases Windows 10 Intel microcode updates

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Yesterday, Microsoft released eight optional updates for the current and previously released versions of Windows 10.

With yesterday’s release, Intel patched bugs in 56 different CPUs from the following families:

Amber Lake
Avoton
Broadwell
Cascade Lake
Cascade Lake
Coffee Lake
Comet Lake
Haswell
Kaby Lake
Skylake
Valley View
Whiskey Lake

Intel Microcode updates are not installed via Windows Update and must be installed manually.
Links to the Intel Microcode update for the supported versions of Windows can be found below:

KB4558130: Intel microcode updates for Windows 10 2004
KB4497165: Intel microcode updates for Windows 10 1909 and 1903
KB4494174: Intel microcode updates for Windows 10 1809
KB4494451: Intel microcode updates for Windows 10 1803
KB4494452: Intel microcode updates for Windows 10 1709
KB4494453: Intel microcode updates for Windows 10 1703
KB4494175: Intel microcode updates for Windows 1607
KB4494454: Intel microcode updates for Windows 10

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/new-intel-microcode-updates-for-windows-10-fix-cpu-hardware-bugs/

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Volkstoy, rexr, Ascaris

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I have a Surface Pro 4 with Skylake – U/Y running Win10 1909, so it would appear that this applies to me. However, I seem to recall previous warnings on this site NOT to update microcode, especially when it is offered by Microsoft. Comments?

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I advise using caution with microcode updates, particularly when they are a part of a firmware update, but not shunning them entirely. They can be good or bad.

I like the microcode updates being delivered at the OS level, since it is easily reversible if the microcode ends up being faulty. If you remove the update to Windows that contained the new microcode, it will revert to the one in the firmware the next time you start up the PC.

If a microcode update is a part of a firmware update, it might not be reversible. PC vendors often block downgrades (including my Dell, even though there is an option to allow downgrades in the UEFI, and I have it selected… that should not be). In that case,  if the microcode ends up being bad, you’d be stuck with it unless you can figure out some way to go back even though the OEM doesn’t allow it.

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

3 users thanked author for this post.

Volkstoy, rexr, wavy

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Very Good point Ascaris!! The Microcode gets applied at boot time IIRC!

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Wait!

If there is news on these updates you will see it here soon enough.

cheers, Paul

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Weird.

I looked at the version of the microcode that would be installed for my G3 on the MS site.

The G3’s CPU is listed twice, once specifically (i7-8750h) and once generically (Coffee Lake H-series, mobile), with a different microcode for each (B4 and CA, respectively). It can’t run two microcodes at once, so I have no idea why it is listed that way. I do know I had been using CA for some time, until it was superseded by D6 three months ago.

I checked the date of D6 on Intel’s Github repo, and D6 was indeed released as part of the most recent Intel microcode release for my CPU, on June 9th, 2020. CA was released on November 15, 2019. C6, the prior version, was released only three days earlier, and B4 was released on June 18, 2019.

If Intel released D6 on June 16th, why is MS just now, in September, pushing CA (one version older, from 2019) or B4 (three versions older than D6, and a year older than D6)?

Interestingly, the version for my Acer Swift is not the newest one anymore (the version that was causing lockups all over the place, 0x38), but the previous one, the one I am using now because of the lockups, 0x32.

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Confusing. Nearly all code names are doubled. One has named specific processors, the second one is general. Both metioning different Microcodes update.

There are 81 unique processor families.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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[Alex5723]

KB4497165: Intel microcode updates
Applies to: Windows Server, version 1903, all editions Windows 10, version 1903, all editions Windows Server, version 1909, all editions Windows 10, version 1909, all editions

KB4558130: Intel microcode updates
Applies to: Windows 10, version 2004, all editions Windows Server version 2004

Important

Install this update for the listed processors only.

CVE-2019-11091 – Microarchitectural Data Sampling Uncacheable Memory (MDSUM)
CVE-2018-12126 – Microarchitectural Store Buffer Data Sampling (MSBDS)?
CVE-2018-12127 – Microarchitectural Load Port Data Sampling (MLPDS)
CVE-2018-12130 – Microarchitectural Fill Buffer Data Sampling (MFBDS)

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Alex5723.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Volkstoy

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Maybe I’m showing it’s age, but I couldn’t find anything for an Ivylake i7-3770.

Any suggestions, or should I just sit tight?

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[Alex5723]

Ivy Bridge. Not Ivy Lake.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/65719/intel-core-i7-3770-processor-8m-cache-up-to-3-90-ghz.html

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Alex5723.

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I think we should all sit tight. As to your specific issue, are you sure you are using the latest version of CPU-X, which is 1.93.0? I had the same issue until until updated.

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Is it asking too much to have Intel explain what these microcode updates fix?  Do they have to do with some of the processor vulnerabilities by hackers, researchers and thieves?

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Yes. I sit corrected Ivy Bridge. Apparently 0X21 is the version listed on the intel site.

So this may be a silly question, but how can I check what microcode is actually in use?

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[Alex5723]

How to Find the Microcode Version Currently Running on your Processor

The free portable specPortable will also display CPU revision.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Alex5723.

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CPU-Z will give you that information.  Look in particular in the CPU and Mainboard tabs.

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit 20H2

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Just last month I downloaded the bios update from the HP Support Assistant for my Kaby Lake Refresh U 4+2 processor.

When I run the Intel utility to check the microcode version, it says I have CPU Revision D6 which I have read is also referred to as OxD6.

But on this intel page, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4558130/intel-microcode-updates

it says the new update will install OxB4 which sounds older.

Any thoughts on this?

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HP seem to have already added a newer version to the firmware than what MS currently updates Windows’ microcode database with.

The latest is version is 0xE0 for that CPU anyway.

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Would it not be preferable to wait for the vendor, in my case Gigabyte, to push out microcode updates?

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There is no guarantee Gigabyte will release an update, especially for older boards.
MS is attempting to keep you safe as it does with Windows itself – kudos for the effort IMO.

cheers, Paul

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No, there would not be any reason to wait for an updated firmware.

If you are concerned about the issues that are addressed with the microcode update, you might as well get it when MS makes it available and gain that benefit right now rather than waiting for the hardware vendor to release a firmware update. If your board vendor later releases the update in firmware form, you can install that too. The MS microcode update will just cause the OS to check it at boot time, and if the microcode from the firmware is already up to date, it won’t do anything with it, and will just proceed with the boot.

Personally, as I mentioned above, I prefer my microcode updates to be delivered by the OS, because I know they can be easily reverted if the microcode ends up being faulty, as it is in the case of my Acer Swift.

With a motherboard that was purchased as a component, odds are that you would be able to downgrade firmware versions, but that’s not always so with prebuilt PCs (like most laptops). My Acer laptop does not permit downgrades, so if they had released the newest microcode as a firmware upgrade and I’d flashed it, I would not have any way (short of hacks that can be risky) to get rid of it. The newest microcode causes the Swift to lock up hard quite often, sometimes several times a day, requiring a force-off and a reboot. Because the microcode update was done by the OS, though, I was able to revert it quite easily, and the former stability returned.

FWIW, Microsoft is evidently aware that the newest microcode for my Swift’s N4200 SoC is bad, as their newest microcode update (the one that triggered the initial post in this thread) delivers 0x32, the second-newest microcode Intel released for my N4200, not 0x38, the newest (and faulty) one. The previous MS microcode update contained 0x38. If MS knows 0x38 is bad, it’s safe to say Intel does too, yet they (Intel) have not released a newer one.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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ever since spectre and meltdown, these microcode patches have had more BAD PR than good. I do not want any of them and will block if given the choice. Never heard of an attack in the wild yet- have there been any? I s’pose if they can do it in the Lab it must be out in the wild? I used Steve Gibsons utility to remove the patch on my laptops and have not had a meltdown nor spectral visit yet. So perhaps these are just 1 in a million chance encounters that they rush to put a band aid and bubble gum or baling wire on everyone’s pc (since intel is on practically every computer made in one form or another. No thanks. Fix the chip and stop releasing new pc’s until you do! Meantime I’m just doing fine- until I’m not. Then we shall see. I am sure I haven’t patched every hole in my software and hardware  playing w/ these things since 1984 and haven’t had an attack yet .

Moderator note: Edit for content. Please follow the –Lounge Rules–

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Does anyone notice their computer runs slower with microcode fixes? Mine seems to significantly. I have an Intel Core I7 6700-Skylake installed in a Gigabyte Z170 Designare. Fortunately, I’m able to easily flash the bios backwards or forwards.

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After posting the above, I realize it seems a silly question. I meant to add the question, how are people dealing with it? Are they affected enough to not accept the updates.

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