Comment by herpderperator

If anyone on Windows wishes to update their CPU microcode without waiting for Microsoft to push it out via Windows Update, you can use this tool from VMware https://labs.vmware.com/flings/vmware-cpu-microcode-update-d... which can update microcode as well.

Windows stores its microcode in C:\Windows\System32\mcupdate_GenuineIntel.dll which is a proprietary binary file and you can't simply replace it with Intel's microcode.dat file (which is ASCII text), so you have to use a third-party tool such as VMware's one.

Simply: 1. Download and extract the zip file in the first paragraph 2. Modify the install.bat file so that the line which reads `for %%i IN (microcode.dat microcode_amd.bin microcode_amd_fam15h.bin) DO (` only contains the microcode.dat parameter (since you obviously don't have an AMD CPU, and the tool is made for both) 3. Download and extract microcode.dat from Intel's website (https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/26798/Linux-Proces...) and place it into the same directory as the VMware tool 4. Run install.bat with admin privileges 5. Hit cancel when it tells you that the AMD microcode files are missing, and you're done

The CPU microcode will be updated immediately (yes, while Windows is running.) The service will also run on each boot and update your CPU microcode, since microcode updates are only temporary and are lost each time you restart. You can check Event Viewer for entries from `cpumcupdate` to see what it has done. It's advised to run a tool to view the microcode version before installing (such as HWiINFO64) so you can re-run the tool after installing and confirming that the version has changed.

I have done this and it works as described. I went from 0x74 to 0xba as shown by the μCU field in HWiNFO64, and I have an i7-6700k.