KB4088875, KB4088878 make Windows 7 Spectre & Meltdown bulletproof

2 min. read

Published on March 15, 2018

published on March 15, 2018

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As usual, March Patch Tuesday brought a bevy of useful updates to all the Windows 10 versions. Windows 7 received two important patches that fix a series of browsing issues as well as additional Spectre and Meltdown protection.

As Microsoft explains, both Windows 7 Monthly Rollup KB4088875 and security update KB4088878 provide cumulative Spectre and Meltdown protections for 32-Bit (x86) and 64-Bit (x64) versions of Windows. It is worth mentioning that the KB4078130 update is not included in this package.

As a quick reminder, the Redmond giant rolled out KB4078130 to disable mitigation against Spectre Variant 2.

Apart from enhanced Spectre and Meltdown protection, these two patches also add security updates to the Microsoft Graphics component, Windows Kernel, Windows Shell, Windows MSXML, Windows Installer, and Windows Hyper-V.

Update KB4088875 also brings additional Internet Explorer fixes, including:

Addressed the issue where Internet Explorer is unresponsive when a Browser Helper Object is installed.
Updates legacy Document Mode cell visibility in Internet Explorer.
Fixed the issue where Internet Explorer stops working in certain printing scenarios.
Addressed the issue where Internet Explorer stops working when using F12-based developer tools.

Download and install KB4088875, KB4088878

You can install KB4088875, KB4088878 through Windows Update. Simply go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and check for updates.

Of course, you can also download the stand-alone update package from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

For more information about these updates, you can check out Microsoft’s Support pages.

Keep in mind that both these updates bring some issues of their own, including SMB server issues and stop error issues.

Have you installed KB4088875 and KB4088878 on your Windows 7 computer? Tell us more about your upgrade experience in the comments below.

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More about the topics: patch tuesday, windows 7

Madalina Dinita

Networking & Security Specialist

Madalina has been a Windows fan ever since she got her hands on her first Windows XP computer. She is interested in all things technology, especially emerging technologies -- AI and DNA computing in particular. Prior to joining the WindowsReport team, she worked in the corporate world for a number of years.