Windows 10 update includes a Spectre fix that plays nice with AMD systems

Microsoft has begun pushing out a Windows 10 update that includes a Spectre fix for AMD systems. Unlike the previous patch, however, this one will not cause older AMD rigs to become unbootable.

That was the unfortunate situation in early January when Microsoft pushed out a patch that caused some older AMD processors to stop booting, such as the Athlon X2 6000+. Microsoft quickly pulled the patch while putting blame on AMD's documentation for the screw up, rather than its own patch code.

"Microsoft has received reports of some AMD devices getting into an unbootable state after installation of recent Windows operating system security updates. After investigating, Microsoft determined that some AMD chipsets do not conform to the documentation previously provided to Microsoft to develop the Windows operating system mitigations to protect against the chipset vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown," the company said.

In the end, it didn't really matter where the blame belonged, only that affected systems would not boot properly. This meant having to use System Restore, if possible, or reinstalling the OS.

Microsoft fixed the issue on January 19 when it made available an AMD-friendly patch for manual download through its Microsoft Update Catalog. Now Microsoft is pushing out the same patch code through Windows Update.

The new update brings the Windows 10 build number to 16299.214. It is being delivered automatically, though users can kickstart the download by going into Windows Update and selecting "Check for updates."

There are several fixes in the newest update, which you can read about in the patch notes.

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).