The Meltdown and Spectre were some of the most devastating vulnerabilities found in the history of computers. Their presence was on the hardware level. Using software patch, you can mitigate the vulnerabilities. However, without processor microcode update, most of the older CPUs were left vulnerable. Learn more about Meltdown and Spectre.

If you’re using an old Intel processor, good news for you! A new tool is now available for automatically applying the latest microcode for all the older Intel processors. The Intel Microcode Boot Loader is a must-have for everyone.

Intel Microcode Boot Loader

In the case of Windows 10 and Server 2016, Microsoft released the microcode updates via Windows update. Unfortunately, older operating systems were left vulnerable as Microsoft no longer supports them. This is where you can take the aid of Intel Microcode Boot Loader. In the case of motherboard vendors, they released BIOS/UEFI update for their latest products only.

Earn “Regeneration” Bandit is the creator of this awesome tool. It utilizes the BITS (Intel BIOS Implementation Test Suite) and the Syslinux bootloader for auto detecting and applying the most current microcodes for the Intel processor.

Using the tool

Get the latest Intel Microcode Boot Loader. The package contains the latest microcodes for 392 Intel CPUs, from 1996 up to 2018.

Connect a USB flash drive and format it with the FAT32 file system.

Then, extract the contents into the USB flash drive.

Run the “install.exe” file for making the drive bootable.

Then, configure your BIOS/UEFI to make this drive as the 1^st device to boot. Each time it boots, the tool will configure the system to use the latest microcode for the processor.

Note that each time you need that protection, you have to boot using the USB flash drive. The tool applies the patch at the system startup.

Here’s a nice demonstration of the tool’s usage.