The race is on to patch machines against the Meltdown and Spectre CPU vulnerabilities, which affect nearly all operating systems and devices – but many organizations are lagging because Microsoft will not deliver a Windows update unless a certain registry key exists, in order to avoid serious incompatibility issues with antivirus software.

“Microsoft has acknowledged the update has incompatibility issues with third-party AV software and AMD processors, and has restricted delivery of the update accordingly,” explained Barkly researcher Jonathan Crowe, in a blog on the subject. “Specifically, it has made delivery of the Windows security updates contingent on the presence of a special registry key, which it has instructed all AV vendors to add to customer devices only after they’ve confirmed their products are compatible and won’t cause system crashes.”

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