If I’m a IT director, CTO, etc., who’s looking at a refresh cycle on some chunk 
of my machines in 12 months or 24 months, that might make me hold off ordering 
50K vulnerable PCs until the 24 month period instead. Skip one cycle, double up 
on the next.  Even if I only shift one refresh cycle, that’s a huge chunk of my 
inventory that is no longer vulnerable for whatever my cycle time is.  If you 
do 20% per year, that means those new unprotected PCs are in your system for 4 
years.

Maybe it won’t matter for those who need to add hardware, but it’s the ones 
with options that would be in the mix.

While they aren’t a determining factor from a numbers perspective, home users 
who’ve been thinking about an upgrade, might put it off for a year or so hoping 
there will be a fix. I suppose if they can actually fix the whole issue with a 
microcode update it wouldn’t matter.

--
There are 10 kinds of people in the world...
         those who understand binary and those who don't.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

From: listsad...@lists.myitforum.com [mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com] On 
Behalf Of Jonathan Link
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 1:57 PM
To: ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com
Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for 
workstations?

Seems unlikely...  I mean, if you need a computer, you need a cpu, right?

On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 1:24 PM, Melvin Backus 
<melvin.bac...@byers.com<mailto:melvin.bac...@byers.com>> wrote:
That’s going to put a real dent in chip sales I suspect. I know I’d personally 
be holding off any purchases until new non-vulnerable chips are available if I 
have any choice.

--
There are 10 kinds of people in the world...
         those who understand binary and those who don't.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

From: listsad...@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com> 
[mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com>] 
On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 1:10 PM

To: ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com>
Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for 
workstations?

If they have, I’m not aware of it. I expect it’s too late even for the next-gen 
chips, given how long it takes to design a new chip and fab it.

Maybe some time in 2019?

From: listsad...@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com> 
[mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com] On Behalf Of Heaton, Joseph@Wildlife
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 11:11 AM
To: ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com>
Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for 
workstations?

My question to that statement, is:  Have any of the chip manufacturers given a 
timeframe of when new, fixed, processors will be released?

From: listsad...@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com> 
[mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com] On Behalf Of Michael B. Smith
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 6:26 PM
To: ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com>
Subject: RE: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for 
workstations?

Not going to happen. It’s going to require new processors.

Everything being released is a mitigation, not a “fix”.

From: listsad...@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com> 
[mailto:listsad...@lists.myitforum.com] On Behalf Of Ed Ziots
Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2018 4:27 PM
To: ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com<mailto:ntsysadm@lists.myitforum.com>
Subject: Re: [NTSysADM] Are the Meltdown/Spectre reg keys needed for 
workstations?

It would be nice if intel and amd released.processor or bios.firmware update 
to.fix the flaw.once and all.

On Jan 9, 2018 2:24 PM, "Michael Leone" 
<oozerd...@gmail.com<mailto:oozerd...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Here's something (more) I am confused about. Suppose I have Win 7 and Win 10 
workstations, and I have properly patched the OS. Do I *also* need to issue the 
2 (or is it 3) registry entries?

I *thought* the registry entries were only for servers, but I have seen other 
statements that say that the Meltdown/Spectre fixes are *not* enabled until you 
issue the registry entries.

So without the reg entries, you are effectively unpatched? The patches are 
there, but dormant?

(neither of my home PCs have BIOS updates issued - one is for a very old Dell 
Optiplex 755 that I only use to connect to a NAS, and the other is one I 
assembled from parts back in 2011. Neither has has had a BIOS upgrade released 
in years. Ah, the joy ....)


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