Two weeks ago, Microsoft announced it would help Intel propagate its latest firmware updates to protect Windows users against Meltdown and Spectre. More specifically, owners of Skylake devices running the Fall Creators Update could manually download the latest Intel microcode updates through Microsoft’s Update Catalog.
Today, the Redmond giant is pursuing this effort and making firmware updates for Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake devices available via the Microsoft Catalog. Again, these updates are only available for devices running the Fall Creators Update. “We will continue to broaden the number of Intel microcode updates available via the catalog as they become available to Microsoft from Intel,” the company explained in a blog post today, and you can check the full list of available Intel updates on this page.
In other security-related news, the company has also expanded the availability of Windows security updates by removing the AV compatibility check on Windows 10 PCs. If you’ve been paying attention, this is something that the company also mentioned in the changelog for today’s Patch Tuesday update. “We continue to require that AV software is compatible and in cases where there are known issues of AV driver compatibility, we will block those devices from receiving Windows updates to avoid any issues,” the company explained.
