dencorso

Because POS operators are oblivious to it. And IT personnel only looks for CPU usage, etc., if and when asked to intervene...

POS systems must use WU, which ignores the Office Compatibility Pack updates, but not so the IE8 cumulative updates...

Problem lies in the MBR, which cannot index more than 4294967296 sectors (hence 4294967296 * 512 = 2TiB, while 4294967296 * 4kiB = 8TiB), so that, to go above 2TiB with 512-bit sectors (no matter whether real or emulated) MBR is no-go and one needs GPT (which XP does not understand). Paragon has a GPT driver for XP (according to @jaclaz), but it only works for internal, not for USB connected, HDDs. So, to get XP to understand a > 2TiB HDD connected through USB, 4Kn disks are necessary (but not sufficient, the SATA-USB bridge also must pass the 4kiB sectors on to the USB stack).

No it's not. But since you do know the dance already, just go with it: latest IE8 cumulative update and Office Compatibility Pack updates go by hand, then MU gets happy and serves you the rest. No reason for amazement, at this point, just dance the known dance and be happy.

The only combination known to work is HDDs which expose 4kiB sectors (the so-called 4Kn disks), when connected through USB via a SATA/USB bridge that also expose 4kiB sectors, instead of emulating 512-byte sectors. I think @rloew did identify some such bridges, IIRR. There aren't many 4Kn HDDs on market nowadays, and I think none is WDC. @rloew used a Samsung in his experiments, IIRR. Since you have an old USB -SATA enclosure and just bought the HDD, I think you should try to exchange the WDC disk for the right model of Samsung, and then try again. My 2 ¢ only, of course!

Debian vs Ubuntu is way out of topic here so let's get back on topic, please.

Which Office do you have in that machine? 2003? You're missing the compatibility pack updates, aren't you?

Get KB4056615 standalone from the MS Update Catalog and run it from the command-line of a CMD Box with the /overwriteoem switch. That's all there is to it.

This is relevant: Browser Spectre CPU Vulnerability Online Checker

Yes! I confirm v. 5.1.2600.7392 is the correct, latest version available of those files.

I didn't time it, but I'd say under 2 seconds. You do have a problem. However either it's related to the hardware you're using (I'm using an i7 3770K on a Z68 mobo), or some other software (or addon) you have insatalled is interfering with New Moon's correct working. But let's wait for @roytam1, since he may well have some more specific idea than I do. In short: if basilisk works (you said it does) and if FF esr v. 52.5.3 works (you didn't say anything about it), then I don't see why New Moon wouldn't work... and it does not, in your case. I'm baffled.

No. [Posted with New Moon v. 27.7.0a2 (32-bit) (2017-12-09)]

Not quite a list, but clear info, nonetheless...

Substituting, by hand, just ntfs.sys by the previous version (which is v. 5.1.2600.5512), AFAICS.

Must read information: Spectre still unfixed, unlike what Intel says

It's been some time since we talked about this, and today I remembered another HotFix I always use and ought to recommend: KB951126. It's from way back when, but it still carries the latest hal.dlls (v. 5.1.2600.5573) for XP SP3. The KB article is gone, but the HotFix remains available by request from MS.

Hey! Dietmar! It's an honor to have you around! Happy New Year and Welcome to MSFN! PS: "abgesicherten Modus" is "Safe Mode", FTW.

I have downloaded the meltdown and spectre papers several times, inclusive from the wayback machine. When I open either in Adobe Reader 8.3.1 all I get is gibberish. IrfanView, OTOH, compliains Ghostscript (v. 8.63) thinks the files are corrupted. The files say they're PDF v. 1.5, so the readers I'm using ought to be more than enough to read either... I'm baffled! What's going on? If those files were really corrupted, they'd've fixed it already? Please advise.

I installed KB4056615 from the stand-alone file @heinoganda gave us a link to, and all went as expected. However, I use MSE 4.4.304.0, the standard XP SP3 firewall and Pi-Hole as the DNS server (formerly it was a big HOSTS file, but now I use the default HOSTS file and outsource all the work to the Raspberry Pi 3)... Therefore I deduce your paranoid system security is to blame for the file not getting installed. My 2¢ only, of course. Later musing: Then again, if I turn to be right, @glnz's supermegaüberparanoid security settings should also prevent him from installing KB4056615...

Sure. Because it's not used. Here's the scoop: your's is a multiprocessor machine. So, the files you need are ntkrnlmp.exe and ntkrpamp.exe. However, it's not that simple... Windows is naughty and does not use those files with those names! So make a copy of both to a temporary directory. Then rename ntkrnlmp.exe NTOSKRNL.EXE and ntkrpamp.exe NTKRNLPA.EXE. Now boot the other OS and substitute the namesakes of those renamed files by those renamed files in the %WINDIR%\SYSTEM32 directory. Now you may reboot and it should work. Good luck! N.B.: the kernel actually used is NTKRNLPA.EXE. NTOSKRNL.EXE is just the fallback, so, when NTKRNLPA.EXE loads OK and checks as working, NTOSKRNL.EXE is not even loaded (which explains why when you substituted it by the wrong file nothing went wrong...)

AFAICS, everything from Pentium Pro on is affected. "Speculative execution" is the keyword here. The rest is silence.

Pretty little has changed since then... However, the last aegis script has fallen into the memory hole, way back when. So, here's it again (caveat emptor, of course!): aegis_v1.9.zip

Alex Ionescu has released a diagnostic tool: SpecuCheck! Now... does it run on XPSP3? If not, can it be ported? Any volunteers?

+1! Happy New Year to you all!