Kernel patches for all Windows versions headed your way

Yeah, I heard about that recently.

From what I have heard it appears Intel CPU's are more effected than AMD. I got a i3-2120 CPU in my main computer. but so far from what I have heard the performance impact claims after that patch were greatly exaggerated, at least on more fairly recent CPU's i have seen people showing the before and after the patch. like it was maybe 1%-ish, if that. so basically negligible.

While my Desktop computer updated fine to build 16299.192, which includes that CPU flaw fixes apparently, for Windows 10 x64 Pro, my Laptop (HP DV5-1002nr(basically 10 years old)) did not like the update (works perfectly fine on build 16299.125 (the prior update to 16299.192)). basically after messing around with technical support from Microsoft it appears it's a driver incompatibility issue and since HP only officially supports the Laptop on Windows 7 that pretty much means I am screwed when it comes to Windows 10 on that laptop and my options are...

A)Go back to Windows 7
B)Install a Linux OS

and if I am lucky in the future on the next major Windows 10 update...

C)try Windows 10 again on a future major release.

so with those being my options... being Windows 7 support ends 2 years from now and the laptop is more of a backup computer I am basically going with Option B with Mint Linux (Cinnamon x64) as that should still give me some basics I need for using the laptop like web browsing and a decent password manager and maybe a music player and maybe some basic CD/DVD burning stuff. but on the bright side... this is basically the first time I can use more of a proper (proper as in more full featured) Linux OS as in the past on my other two desktop type of computers since they are ancient I always went with those light Linux OS's like Lubuntu/Puppy etc and even though they ran okay enough those computers are simply too outdated at this point in time because the CPU's don't support SSE2 instructions which are required for current web browsers.

but if Linux Mint turns out to be solid enough what ill probably do if I want to try Windows 10 in the future is simply use CloneZilla to image the hard drive and store the image on my main computer and then try installing the newest Windows 10 at that time and see what happens and if it does not work, it will only take about 20min tops to put the laptop back to the way it was with the Linux Mint install like the Win10 install never happened. but lets say that Windows 10 works again, if that freeze issue ever returns, ill likely just be done with Windows 10 on that Laptop at that point as it's simply not worth messing around with it too much and basic updates having driver problems and forcing the OS to revert is simply a major issue.

p.s. with that Linux Mint I noticed it offers encryption when installing which is nice. like you need a password for it to boot anything and then once it boots up you type in your general password for the user and then use the computer. so if someone stole my laptop for example... they can't access any of my data on the hard drive without the password. another little bonus that works in Linux Mint that does not work on Windows 10 with that laptop is... the part of the touchpad that you use to scroll the current window quickly. like say a web page etc. also, while I have not tested it, chances are that would work on Windows 7 since HP officially supports Windows 7 on that laptop but like i was saying, there is only 2 years left of Windows 7 use before there won't be any security patches so I just said screw it and only use Windows 7 temporarily for that once in a while occasion i need to transfer files to my backup portable music device which is Zune 30GB as my Sansa e250 is my primary portable music player of choice as it does not need any fancy BS to work since you can simply transfer files to it using a basic file explorer so Linux Mint should have no trouble with that should i ever decide to use it in the future.

EDIT: after playing around with Mint Linux (i.e. blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3457 ) a bit I found out my password manager program also has a Linux version that works on Mint Linux which is nice as that saves me a lot of time since i can simply import the database from the Windows version of Password Safe (pwsafe.org) into the Linux version straight up and while figuring out how to get my Pale Moon x64 browser working on linux was a little pain to do but once i figured it out it's pretty easy after the initial installation for updating it etc and then i installed a CD-DVD burning program which seems decent (i.e. K3b) and ill probably install a program for some music soon enough. but at this point i probably won't be dumping Linux Mint for Windows 10 on that Laptop as it seems solid and i doubt i got to worry about it just acting up out of the blue like Windows 10 did on it. I installed "linuxmint-18.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso". but with that said, i still got to play around to figure out how to adjust the power options like you got on Windows 7/10 where you can adjust the battery percent meter to whatever battery percent you like before the laptop will automatically hibernate(shutdown basically) as by default Windows 7/10 seems to shut down at either 5-7% battery left but i want to adjust it to 20% as i heard as a general guideline for lithium batteries you don't want to drain them lower than 20% before re-charging as if you do that too often it will shorten the overall life of the battery. but in general ill just keep a eye on it as i can get it to display the actual percent of the battery left on the taskbar with a number instead of just the usual battery icon which is a nice little bonus in Linux where as with Windows 10 you have to hover your mouse over the battery to see the exact percentage of your battery left.

EDIT #2: one thing I forgot to take into account with CloneZilla is that being i opted to encrypt the drive on the Laptop it cannot see the exact amount of data on it which means when i was in the cloning process it literally had to read basically everything on the drive which is going to waste a lot of space and take forever vs if it was a standard installation because then it could see the data and only clone the used blocks. so in other words... unless i remove the hard drive encryption, which i probably won't for extra security, then ill probably avoid cloning the drive with CloneZilla as it will be too time consuming and wasting hard drive space since it's got to read basically every sector on the drive even though only a small portion of it is actually in use. but not much of a big deal as ill just save the important info I need in case i ever need to reinstall Mint Linux on it ill just have to do it from scratch. but there goes using Windows 7 on that Laptop (simply because while it will be easy for me to restore Windows 7 to it in maybe 20min tops, since i don't have a image of Linux Mint, i won't be able to restore that once i am done with Win7. so basically i can't do it as it will be time consuming to reinstall Linux Mint from scratch which is what i would have to do without a CloneZilla image of it) so I won't be putting much music on it at this point but come to think of it, i might still be able to use one of those old PC's that i am using Windows XP on for a basic FTP server on the semi-rare occasion i need to transfer files to those hard drive through the network. ill have to test that Zune software out on it as i think it will work with that. only catch is, it's only USB v1.1 which i think tops out around 1-1.5MB/s so as long as i don't have a lot of music that needs transferring it won't take too long when i need to update it.

EDIT #3: I noticed that with Windows 10 (which I assume Windows 7 would be similar) on my 10 year old Laptop (which had a new battery about a month ago now (basically Dec 2017)) it's definitely better on battery run time than Linux is as while I have not actually measured it you can just tell the battery lasts noticeably longer (I would guess something in the range of double) on Windows 10 than Linux and being the battery life is only around 2hours with Windows (as that should be a close ball park figure on Windows) to begin with that decent hit to a already fairly low battery is a bit too much which pushed me back onto Windows 10 for now. so while Linux can be nice in some situations, it's hard to beat Windows all around. still, if Windows 10 ever does screw up in the future at least I got Mint Linux as a good backup OS.

I might still be in luck with Windows 10 on my 10 year old Laptop (HP DV5-1002nr) as it appears others with AMD CPU's are having the same issue I have... www.neowin.net/news/microsofts-spectre-fix-is-apparently-bricking-some-amd-pcs

but even if MS fixes the issue... I may still consider sticking with Mint Linux as it works well enough for my general usage and touchpad fully works unlike in Windows 10 and as a added bonus, since it's not Windows, I largely don't have to worry about any viruses and the like infecting the computer because it's largely not targeted (i know that does not make it immune but lowers your chances of infection a lot on that alone).

EDIT: apparently here is the official response from Microsoft... support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4073707/windows-operating-system-security-update-block-for-some-amd-based-devi



So assuming that takes effect, then at this point I could restore my CloneZilla image of 16299.125 and supposedly it would no longer offer the 16299.192 update that causes the issue. but ill probably hold off for now and stick with Linux Mint v18.3 as it seems to work well enough for what I use the laptop for and works better than Windows 10 when it comes to the touchpad on the laptop as it functions as expected in Mint Linux where as with Windows 10, while it's mostly fine, the part of the touchpad that allows you to quickly scroll a webpage(i.e. the right side of the touchpad), does not work at all with Windows 10. but outside of that issue Windows 10 function perfectly fine on that 10 year old laptop.

but they mention 'unbootable state'... while that's basically true, Windows 10 consistently goes into automatic repair mode upon the 3rd boot attempt for me and returns it back to 16299.125 and things fine again until it updates to 16299.192 again but apparently they temporarily stopped offering this update for some AMD CPU users as given what it says in the above quote it appears they know exactly which ones will act up and stopped the update for those accordingly.

another little article on the AMD CPU issue... www.neowin.net/news/heres-why-some-amd-systems-are-failing-to-boot-after-installing-microsofts-patches



alpha128



Yeah, if you got a AMD CPU it might be wise to hold off as even on that link that has users reporting issues with Windows 10 there is one guy on there who said this about Windows 7...


but apparently Microsoft supposedly disabled the updates being offered for Windows 10 users but I am not sure if they did the same for Windos 7 users but I would imagine they did given they apparently know which AMD CPU's are effected given their comments I posted above.

I realize there are no known exploits yet based on what that article said but if the update works, especially since Intel CPU's seem to be mostly fine, I figure why not install it?

the update went fine for me on my main computer (I used the cumulative update file (i.e. 600MB) to update my main PC, which is the file that will upgrade a base 16299.15 installation to the newest build of 16299.192 on Windows 10) which has a i3-2120 CPU as it only failed on the AMD Turion CPU for me. even on Windows 7 it seems to be mostly AMD issues, correct?

but with that said... If you want to play it a bit cautious it can't hurt to wait a bit, especially given that article you linked to said there are no known exploits yet, but chances are there won't be any show stopper issues on your Intel CPU.

hell, if your a bit paranoid and you got a bit of time... you can use CloneZilla (which is free (boots from USB or CD/DVD)) to image your main hard drive to another hard drive (or computer through a samba connection etc) and then install the update from Microsoft and even if the update totally screwed up your windows 7 install you can restore things with that CloneZilla image which will put your computer back to the EXACT state it was at the time you imaged it. but depending on how much data you got on your main hard drive it can take a while to image. but if you don't have too much data on your main hard drive (say maybe something like 40-70GB or so in use) that Windows 7 is installed on it can image your drive fairly quickly (something around 20 minutes or so once the imaging process actually starts) although if you let CloneZilla verify the image it creates that will add a bit of time but that part is faster than the imaging process.

but if your Windows 7 installation is just the typical C drive, which it almost surely is unless you custom partitioned it yourself, you can just image the entire drive with CloneZilla to a image file on another hard drive in your computer or if you got another PC with a hard drive large enough to hold the data of the hard drive you want to image you can use the samba networking option with CloneZilla. you just need to setup a share on the computer you want to store the image on and then know the login information and IP address of that computer and CloneZilla will have no problems using it to store the image through your network (I used the Samba connection option from my Laptop and two older computers to store images on my main PC). but with that said, it will be easier to just image the hard drive to a folder on another hard drive you got assuming it's large enough to hold the image. it compresses the image to so it will take up less space.

here is CloneZilla if your interested... clonezilla.org/downloads.php ; which requires NO installation on your computer to work as it runs entirety from a bootable USB thumb drive or CD/DVD. it's "210 MB (220,200,960 bytes)" in size for the 64bit 'stable' version so chances are if you got any USB thumb drives laying around they are bigger than that. but with that said, it does not matter whether you use the 32bit or 64bit as all it's doing is simply making a exact duplicate of the drive it images to a folder on another hard drive or computer. I just use 64bit though assuming you got a 64bit CPU. basically this one... clonezilla.org/downloads/download.php?branch=stable ; CPU architecture = amd64(i.e. this just means a 64bit CPU as it will work on Intel or AMD) and file type = ISO then click the 'download'.

just some thoughts

p.s. basically if it finishes the cloning process and verify stage your good. basically CloneZilla's interface is not that hard to use but might somewhat confuse some people who know little about computers. but i kinda assume your above the average computer user and in that regard it's not that difficult to follow the on screen instructions to get it to image your hard drive etc.

Fair enough as it does seem like Microsoft is using the general public for beta testing given it's had more than one major issue, especially with Windows 10, so far. it's a wonder they seem to continue to slip up that much considering how much $$$ that company is worth.

but if the newest release is likely fine on a Intel CPU, chances are it's will be okay. I guess you could wait til the next update after that etc if you want because like that article said, at the moment, you don't have to be in a rush to patch the stuff.

also, apparently there's issues with NVIDIA GPU's with Spectre to (i.e. www.neowin.net/news/nvidia-releases-39065-whql-drivers-with-protections-against-spectre ) so I updated my Geforce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB to driver v390.65. I usually don't bother updating my GPU drivers much but this appears to be one of those cases it's worth doing for security reasons.



I have used Macrium Reflect before in the past but as long as CloneZilla is compatible with your system, which it probably is, I like it more as it does not require any installation and gives you a bit more options etc. but then again if your happy with Macrium Reflect then as the saying goes, 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'

but since you mentioned external hard drive, which I assume is USB based, chances are CloneZilla will detect those to as it did with my external docking station (which is USB v3.0) as during the option to clone from hard drive to another hard drive with a image file it will scan for hardware at some point and you press CTRL+C to stop the hardware detection process and it will proceed. pretty easy once you see it all on your screen.

but given your 30min to make image and 1hr verify things... with that it's slower on the verify stage apparently where as CloneZilla is faster on the verify stage than the initial cloning process.

p.s. CloneZilla is Linux based (Debian based(stable release) or Ubuntu based(alt-stable release)). the newest stable works on my main and backup computers fine along with the 32bit version for my computer from 2001 but my computer from 2000 does not work with it (the newest stable or alt-stable releases) and requires a older version and being it's a older version it does not have the selectable version of Samba so I have to manually type in some crap (basically so it uses say v2.1 instead of the default v1 which won't connect to Windows 10 samba share(I think MS disabled Samba v1 in Windows 10 for security reasons)) to get it working on that computer from 2000. but I fairly rarely use that computer from 2000 as usually if i use my ancient computers it's the one from 2001 (basically a 1.2Ghz Athlon with 1GB of RAM vs 500Mhz Celeron with 192MB of RAM(a solid gap in performance between the two but both are ancient as neither support SSE2 which is required for current web browsers for a while now)). my backup computer(which is that HP DV5-1002nr (AMD 2.0Ghz dual core with 3GB of RAM)), which i got used in early Dec 2017 for like $20-25(then bought a battery on Ebay for $21.xx), apparently was new in 2008 and that's decent enough for general usage but it does get a little laggy on websites like Facebook but most sites it runs smooth enough.

SIDE NOTE: currently I got Mint Linux on my laptop but I may still consider going back to Windows 10 if for nothing else than battery life as that's one area Linux seems to be lacking in comparison to Windows is laptop battery life takes a decent hit. I am playing around with some programs that supposedly tweak power usage but I have not used it enough to see if there is any real difference or not. so I am kinda on the fence of whether ill go back to Windows 10 once MS fixes the CPU issue or stick with Mint Linux as I kinda like Mint because it's something a bit different and don't have to worry about viruses (pretty much) and can be a bit of a thing for me to learn a bit more stuff etc. but one thing I noticed that apparently the newest Mint Linux does not have, which is not a deal breaker for me since it's not my main computer, is that it does not seem to support my older GPU in terms of hardware accelerated h264 video as CPU usage playing a 720p video file is roughly 25-30% or so and a 1080p file somewhere in the ball park of 50-60% CPU where as with GPU acceleration on it's probably something about 5%-ish tops. on Mint Linux i used VLC Player, which seems to be a popular video playback program on Windows, and it works well enough but don't support GPU acceleration. Windows 10 works with it on my preferred video playback program on Windows which is Pot Player x64.



Yeah, if you don't have a bunch of data that's basically a good backup as it's solid insurance but it seems most people slack off on general important data backup and then when their hard drive dies then they realize they are screwed then reality sets in especially if it's on stuff like family photos or videos etc that's really going to suck losing.

for my "can't afford to lose" kind of data... I always prefer mixing quality DVD recordable media (i.e. Verbatim or Taio Yuden) into the mix along with having copies on a couple different hard drives. with that in place my chances are next to nothing of losing the data short of a house fire or something. but for my important data but not that high level stuff I just do a basic two copy thing, like one copy on one hard drive and another copy on another as this gives you some level of protection against data loss even though mixing external hard drive into the equation would be that much safer to protect from viruses and the like potentially get onto your PC and I have a fair chunk of that data on external drives that I occasionally connect to my main computers USB v3.0 docking station to make further backups.

because while hard drives have been cheaper than using recordable DVD media for years now (and not to mention hard drives are faster/less time consuming to use for data backup), I still think in terms of reliability I would trust quality recordable DVD media than a hard drive to be able to restore my data say 20-30 years down the road. but only potential negative effect I see with recordable DVD media is that while it's reliable (I got discs over 10 years old that still scan well etc) it's hard to say whether having access to drives that can read DVD media will still be around in 20-30+ years time. but even if that's true, I would imagine using DVD recordable media for that "can't afford to lose" kind of data (while is slower and a bit more costly than hard drives) will still be a solid choice for at least 10 more years. so at the least I should have peace of mind for at least another decade or so on that "can't afford to lose" kind of data. but it does seem like society is going away from recordable media in general which is why I figure in the not too distant future finding DVD drives you can use in a computer will be more difficult to come by even though right now they are still easy to use and find.

I am sure you get the gist



Yeah, that sounds like that's going to suck for the IT dept.

but I guess on a positive note... Microsoft's screw up's help gives many people jobs or those already there keep their jobs ; like if stuff becomes more idiot proof then I suspect there will be less and less need for IT guys and it seems like that's already happening on some level from what I heard someone say over on the Neowin.net forums not all that long ago talking about this kind of stuff with Tablets and smart phones taking a good portion of the market that used to belong to general computers.

p.s. personally... it will be a cold day in hell before I dump full fledged computers for those crap tablets/smart phones for my primary way to access the internet.

Looks like Microsoft is now releasing the Fall Creators Update (1709 ; build 16299.xxx) of Windows 10 to everyone...

www.neowin.net/news/windows-10-fall-creators-update-is-now-available-to-all-users

but with that recent Windows 10 boot issue on 16299.192 for some AMD CPU's that sure does not make them look good.

"The company also claimed the update had the highest customer satisfaction ratings of all Windows 10 updates to date."

I would basically agree because as time passes they further refine Windows 10.

but at the same time... with those occasional serious issues that turn up, like the recent boot issues with some AMD CPU's(that I got hit with on my backup computer), that sure don't help Microsoft out. I know Microsoft said AMD did not give them the right info needed so this issue would not have turned up in the first place, which is why Microsoft says the issue occurred, but at the same time you would think Microsoft would have tested things a little bit before releasing as it seems if they tested it even a little on a decent range of AMD CPU's they most likely would have caught the issue before it went out for the general public. so in this sense it looks bad for Microsoft to miss a fairly basic/major thing like this as you would think with all of the $$$ Microsoft has it could easily afford to have a testing team that could have easily spotted a major issue like that as it's not like it was somewhat obscure as I would understand if they missed that a bit.

but it makes me wonder given the nature of how Microsoft makes Windows 10 (i.e. giving it feature updates etc about a couple of times a year) if more bugs turning up is a unfortunate side effect to them adding new features etc as it seems like Windows 7 was more reliable in this regard amongst a wide range of computers.

but either way, the main thing is that Microsoft learns from this and hopefully these more major issues will eventually be at a bare minimum.

here is another interesting program (does not install anything)...

www.neowin.net/news/ashampoo-spectre-meltdown-cpu-checker-107

checks your computer to see if it's immune to Spectre/Meltdown. currently says my computer (which is running newest Win 10 build 16299.192 from Microsoft) is still vulnerable to Spectre but, if I understand things correctly(I am NOT 100% sure here though), Intel has to give the microcode updates to the motherboard manufacturer and you need a BIOS update for your motherboard to patch things so it will pass that Spectre check on Intel CPU's.

EDIT: another article... www.neowin.net/news/intels-fix-for-meltdown-and-spectre-had-a-bug-of-its-own

EDIT #2: nymag.com/selectall/2018/01/why-it-took-22-years-to-discover-fundamental-chip-flaw.html ; a decent article related to this stuff

a little quote from above link...



Just to give some idea of how much stuff advanced since then which in turn I imagine becomes more complex.

another quote...


So in the words... maybe that Spectre flaw is not as bad as they make it out to be if it's "very difficult to use"?

I just wonder what someone would have to do exactly to use it against a random person? ; because if you got to be tricked into running say a .exe file then I would not be that worried about it. but if you could get nailed by just visiting a random website then it's a different story but then again if that was the case then that don't seem "very difficult to use".

we shall find out more with time

Thanks... for that information. That link helped me to understand, a few things.

As I noted in my last post...

Yes, it does seem that the "colossal “sky is falling” routine"... is focusing a lot on general public technical mumbo-jumbo explanations... to "make money from the havoc"...


Just updated my Antivirus today, as a matter a fact... and will keep many other things updated...

I'll do all that, and wait a while before messing with my processor. (I can't afford to have an expensive paperweight!)

Windows 7 Pro 64-Bit
AMD Anthlon II X2 b24 Processor

off topic, but in relation to CloneZilla...

I was playing around with the newest test version of CloneZilla and it added in a new compression option since the newest stable release of the program. the new compression option is 'zstd'/'pzstd'. zstd uses one core where as pzstd use multiple cores which basically means the P compression option will almost always be better because of time savings.

but just some quick test info on CloneZilla on my 10 year old Laptop (AMD Turion x64 2.0Ghz dual core CPU) which CloneZilla shows 14.1GB in size for Windows 10 x64 Pro 16299.125 installation and a little bit of apps etc of which the ones that finish in 9-10min seem to be limited by the network connection speed in which case the ones that compress data better are clearly superior since there is no compression time hit...

-pgzip (which i think is the default mode in CloneZilla assuming you got two or more CPU cores on your CPU otherwise it's just gzip)...
---file size = 6.84 GB (7,345,337,278 bytes)

-pbzip2 (which is what I was using when I wanted to save a bit of storage space)...
---compression time = 23min59sec
---decompression time = about 9-10min (i.e. this is limited by the network speed(i.e. 10-11MB/s) and not the computer(i.e. CPU and/or HDD) itself)
---file size = 6.29 GB (6,762,699,354 bytes)

-pzstd...
---file size = 6.28 GB (6,743,583,921 bytes)

I was using pbzip2 for the extra storage space savings in comparison to the default mode (i.e. gzip(or pgzip)) but it's not worth it anymore considering 'pzstd' gives better compression with much faster speed as pzstd is limited by my network speed (which means it would be even faster than 9min if it was going from say hdd-to-hdd) where as pbzip2 is limited by my CPU speed. so 'pzstd' just flat out better using on this laptop since it's always going to be faster and offers better compression to. so it's a win/win.

for the record... zstd came in with a file size of "6.25 GB (6,720,949,285 bytes)" which while a little smaller than pzstd it's simply not worth the speed loss (due to it only using one CPU core) for barely any file savings over pzstd.

NOTE: i used the 'parallel' option (i.e. the ones listed above with a 'p' in front) where I could as it uses multiple CPU cores if you got them instead of just one with the non 'p' option above. also, the ones above that i did not list compression/decompression times seem to be capped by the network speed (i.e. 10-11MB/s) which seems to come in around 9 minutes in this particular test.

it appears things are limited by the network connection speed with the ones that finish in about 9min. basically I would need to test on my main computer at some point for more of a proper test because that won't be limited by network speed and will be limited by my CPU since ill be doing SSD-to-HDD transfer and I am sure will be able to save data quicker than the CPU can process it at. hence, the CPU will be the limiting factor instead of the network connection like above which is the bottleneck.

so as you can see certain compression options are much better than others and this is on a much older CPU in comparison to yours and you have more cores to (which means your will be much faster although naturally, I would assume your Windows install is well over 14.1GB in size but with your much faster CPU speed it will likely help compensate for your much more data to backup and still keep things from taking too long to finish). even though you might stick with Macrium Reflect with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset, it might be worth using CloneZilla if you image often given the storage space/time ratio 'may' be better than Macrium Reflect (I have not used Macrium Reflect in a while).

p.s. there are other compression methods but I have a feeling the time on most of those is going to suck like LZMA (one of the modes 7-zip uses) which might give solid compression but compression time will likely make it overall worse then the options listed above. but speaking of 7-zip... one weird thing I noticed is while the LZMA/LZMA2 modes generally compress better I have found when compressing some text files that 'PPMd' (on normal compression mode) compresses better than LZMA/LZMA2 at it's highest compression rate. or even with 'PPMd' if i try to increase compression mode to a higher compression rate than normal the resulting file size is actually a little larger instead of being smaller. so 'PPMd' on normal compression mode actually compresses some text files i got more than raising that compression mode to a higher setting.