Microsoft has been trying Retpoline, a new method of fixing Specter 2 from Google, on Windows 10 Insider Builds for some time. It looks like the company added Retpoline to Windows 10 of the 1809 release with the KBNNX cum update of 4482887 in March.
Retpoline promises improved performance compared to the previous fix method used by Microsoft in its operating systems.
According to the company that tested the performance of Windows 10 systems, Retpoline improved the Office application start time by about 25%.
Retpоline technology is not enabled by default even though it is included in the 1 March update. Microsoft plans to implement it in the coming months.
However, if you do not want to wait, we'll see below how you can immediately activate Retpoline, provided you run Windows 10 in the 1809 version and have installed the latest cumulative update.
Of course, before making any changes to your system, it is recommended that you back up.
For Windows 10 users
Open a command line with administrator permissions (search for cmd.exe, right-click the result and select run as administrator).
Run the following commands, and then restart your computer.
reg add "HKLM \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management" / v FeatureSettingsOverride / t REG_DWORD / d 0x400
reg add "HKLM \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management" / v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask / t REG_DWORD / d 0x400
For Windows 10 Server
Open a command line with administrator permissions (search for cmd.exe, right-click the result and select run as administrator).
Run the following commands, and then restart your computer.
reg add "HKLM \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management" / v FeatureSettingsOverride / t REG_DWORD / d 0x400
reg add "HKLM \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management" / v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask / t REG_DWORD / d 0x401
Retpoline Verification
You can use it Get-SpeculationControlSettings PowerShell cmdlet to verify the status of Retpolline. BTIKernelRetpolineEnabled and BTIKernelImportOptimizationEnabled must return True to output.
Microsoft reports that Skylake and the newer Intel processor generations are not compatible with the Retpоline and will return BTIKernelImportOptimizationEnabled as enabled only when you run the command.
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George is still wondering what he is doing here….
