How to Stop the Meltdown and Spectre Patches from Slowing Down Your PC

Did You Know? Inside LAGEOS-1, the Laser Geometric Environmental Observation Survey satellite (a.k.a. Laser Geodynamics Satellite) launched in 1976 to help survey the Earth from space via laser reflection, there is a plaque created by Carl Sagan that includes a numeric and pictographic message to future humans which includes information about the satellite launch date and geographic data about the current layout of Earth. Geek Trivia In English Culture, "Bangers" Are? 4 Cylinder Engines → Gang Members → Heavy Metal Fans → Sausages → Advertisement Try The New and Improved CleanMyPC 1.8.9 with Smart Uninstaller If you want to clean up your PC the easy way, CleanMyPC is a great tool to get the job done easily, and it will even keep your computer clean automatically. The Uninstaller module can find and erase any app completely with no leftovers. The improved module includes the Safety Database to make uninstallation more accurate and safe. Free Download Want to Change Your Email Preferences? At some point in the past you subscribed to the How-To Geek newsletter, but if you'd like to change the frequency or unsubscribe, you can do so by clicking the button. Change my Subscription (or unsubscribe) Today's How-To Geek Articles How to Hide Your Active Status on Facebook Messenger How to Report YouTube Videos and Comments How to Stop the Meltdown and Spectre Patches from Slowing Down Your PC How to Buy Stuff at the Apple Store Without a Cashier How to Check if Your PC or Phone Is Protected Against Meltdown and Spectre Alexa, Why Is Cortana Still on My Computer? How to Use Microsoft Word’s Compare Feature How to Remap an Xbox One Controller’s Buttons in Windows 10 Can You Use Any Charger With Any Device? Today's Review Geek Articles To Combat High-Profile Abuse of Its Platform, YouTube Punishes Small Timers Wyze Camera Review: The Cheapest Home Security System You’ll Ever Find A Non-Comprehensive List of Messenger Features Facebook Could Cut Forget 4K TV, Head to the Cinema Instead Geek Comic Today's Tech Term BRE BRE (short for Business Rules Engine) refers to software that is specifically made to automatically track, manage, and revise an organization’s business processes (policies and procedures) whether they be legal, internal, and/or operational in nature. What We're Reading This section contains what we're reading from around the web, along with commentary from our editors. Think of it like your daily digest of the most interesting things online. Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble Bitcoin is a bubble, but the blockchain is here to stay. [ The New York Times] What It's Like to Be the Parent of a Social-Media Star "As social platforms rise and fall, moms and dads across the country with zero experience in the entertainment industry are seeing their families' lives transformed." [The Atlantic] Facebook's Motivations In depth commentary about why Facebook is changing the news feed. [Stratechery by Ben Thompson] After Ten Years, It's Time to Kill the MacBook Air "If Apple isn't going to give the Air a full, true refresh, then it's time for it to go." [LaptopMag.com] How to Hide Your Active Status on Facebook Messenger If you use Facebook Messenger for any reason, all of your friends who also use the service can tell when you’re active. This makes it kind of hard to ignore people you don’t really want to talk to. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to hide your active status. Read This Article → How to Report YouTube Videos and Comments YouTube is a wild west of content. There are some great videos there, but also some truly awful ones. You can help out by reporting questionable content. Read This Article → How to Stop the Meltdown and Spectre Patches from Slowing Down Your PC The Windows patches for Meltdown and Spectre will slow your PC down. On a newer PC running Windows 10, you probably won’t notice. But, on a PC with an older processor—especially if it’s running Windows 7 or 8—you may see a noticeable slowdown. Here’s how to make sure your PC performs as speedily as possible after securing it. Read This Article → How to Buy Stuff at the Apple Store Without a Cashier If you visit an Apple Store in the hopes of buying a new iPhone, iPad, or MacBook, you have to talk to an Apple employee, since all the expensive products are kept in the back. However, if it’s just an accessory you want, you can buy it without actually interacting with anyone. Read This Article → How to Check if Your PC or Phone Is Protected Against Meltdown and Spectre Warning: Even if you’ve installed patches from Windows Update, your PC may not completely protected from the Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws. Here’s how to check if you’re fully protected, and what to do if you aren’t. Read This Article → Alexa, Why Is Cortana Still on My Computer? Alexa is coming to PCs, according to numerous reports. Acer, ASUS, and Lenovo are all working on computers with Alexa support built in, meaning you’ll be able to ask your PC a question the same way you ask your Echo. Read This Article → How to Use Microsoft Word’s Compare Feature If you’re on a collaborative team of workers, or you’re simply dealing with several revisions of your own work, it’s important to be able to track incremental changes. In Microsoft Word, the ability to compare every difference in two nearly-identical documents is built in to the Compare tool. Here’s how to use it. Read This Article → How to Remap an Xbox One Controller’s Buttons in Windows 10 Windows 10 now allows you to remap an Xbox One Controller’s buttons, just like you can remap the buttons on an Xbox One console. This feature is part of the Xbox Accessories app, which isn’t installed by default. Read This Article → Can You Use Any Charger With Any Device? Every device—smartphone, tablet, or laptop—seems to come with its own charger. But do you really need all these different cables and charging blocks? Can you re-use the same charger for multiple devices? Read This Article → Advertisement How-To Geek Recommends Running Malwarebytes Alongside Your Antivirus for Maximum Protection Running antivirus is still important, but these days the really active threats are from spyware, adware, crapware, and the worst of all: ransomware. That's where Malwarebytes comes in. Malwarebytes not only protects your computer from malware, but does a better job of cleaning up an infected computer than anything else on the market. And it doesn't just work on PCs — they have a Mac version too. Click here to download