Spectre and Meltdown

I have come to the conclusion if you need a secure computer, just never connect it to the Internet.

However, that seems to not be an option for me.

It seems that we have all been exposed to a bad security flaw for a very long time. If you are like me, figuring out what all this means is not too easy. Fortunately, there are some very smart folks who have made explanations easier to understand.

Spectre and Meltdown processor security flaws – explained

Here's what you need to know about Spectre and Meltdown

I am using Windows 10 Pro from HP. I use Windows Defender and Malwarebytes Pro for security.

I followed the instructions from the HowtoGeek and downloaded the tool from Gibson Research Corporation’s InSpectre tool. (The HowtoGeek is my favorite go to site for help!)

The first time I ran the tool I got this:



Windows update had fixed the vulnerability for Meltdown, but not the Spectre problem. For that fix I had to update the BIOS by going to HP’s support and locating the correct file to download and install. HP had this file in Drivers



Once I had updated the BIOS, when I ran the tool again I got this result:



Now I feel safe for the moment, but who knows for how long?

My Default Browser is Firefox

Right now, Firefox is my default browser, but sometimes I switch to Chrome.

It is easy to switch from Firefox to Chrome or even something else.

I just go to Settings and start typing ‘default’ and this box pops up and I select ‘Choose a default web browser.



Then I get this:



I right click on the Firefox icon and select the browser I want from the popup.



Easy! And just as easy to change it back.

Sometimes I find a website that doesn't work so well with Firefox, but maybe Chrome will work better. And once in awhile Edge will work better. (But not very often.)