If you’re wondering whether your computer is susceptible to the latest bête noir, Meltdown and Spectre, you can take the official Microsoft patch and, after a suitable amount of technical drudgery, come away with a result that doesn’t answer much. Or you can try Steve Gibson’s new InSpectre and – with suitable caveats – see some meaningful results and a few hints about catching up.

Microsoft has a complex PowerShell script that details your machine’s exposure to the Meltdown and Spectre security flaws. Running that script on all but the simplest and most up-to-date systems turns into a hair-pulling exercise, and the results are coated in 10 layers of technical gobbledygook.

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