April 2025 updates out

Once again it’s the second Tuesday of the month and it’s time for the major “B” week release better known as Patch Tuesday.

And finally this issue “Event Viewer displays an error for System Guard Runtime Monitor Broker service” is now resolved in the April updates. KB5055518 for Windows 10 22H2 fixes the issue.  I think.  I got an alert saying “Resolution: This issue was resolved by Windows updates released April 8, 2025 (the Resolved KBs listed above), and later. ” but the KB update history still acts like it’s not resolved? I think their documentation needs to catch up with their release information.

Windows 11 24H2 will be receiving KB5055523

Windows 11 23H2 will be receiving KB5055528

Remember at this time we are in test mode only.

I’ll be following up on any side effects or concerns in Monday’s newsletter.  In the meantime, you can view the vulnerability details on Dustin Child’s blog.

Apparently, Microsoft once again wants to torture us with KB5057589!  Our friend the WinRE patch is back. Just a reminder to skip that one.

Using Office apps with non-Microsoft cloud services

MICROSOFT 365

By Peter Deegan

OneDrive and SharePoint aren’t the only cloud storage options available. There are others that will work inside modern Office apps, some with far superior security and privacy capabilities.

Anyone who has read my past articles will know that I’m no convert to Microsoft’s “everything in the cloud” zeal. Cloud storage has uses for some documents and situations but not necessarily for everything, despite Microsoft insistence.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.14.0, 2025-04-07).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

I installed Windows 11 24H2

WINDOWS 11

By Will Fastie

24H2 has been running on my laptop for some time so I can check things as required by my editorial duties. Last week, I decided that 24H2 needed to be under my fingers all the time, so I updated my daily driver, Obsidian.

It went pretty well. I did break one of Susan’s rules; the result was at least a doubling of the time the update should have taken because I had to manually fix an unexpected problem.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.14.0, 2025-04-07).

NotifyIcons — Put that System tray to work!

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

By Deanna McElveen

The Windows System tray (or status notification area) tells us when our Internet is down, when our printer is out of ink, and provides countless other alerts.

Windows and other programs install NotifyIcons to our System trays to accomplish this.

During our morning coffee sipping/software hunt the other day, we came across two pretty neat utilities, Icon Meter and Temperature Icon Meter.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.14.0, 2025-04-07).

Decisions to be made before moving to Windows 11

TAME YOUR TECH

By Susan Bradley

I’ve been promising a step-by-step guide to help you migrate to Windows 11 as neatly and safely as possible. This isn’t it.

I’m planning that for May, assuming the stress from tax season has dissipated and I can return fully to the Zen of Windows.

This column is about the decisions you must make before you make the leap to Windows 11. After all, when you buy a new toaster you usually make sure it suits your needs.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.14.0, 2025-04-07).

50 years and counting

Where were you 50 years ago when Microsoft started? I was in junior high and it wasn’t until high school that we saw our first Basic computer. There was one computer in the math lab and that was it. Now we have the vastly greater computing power in our pockets and in our wristwatches.

50 years later, Microsoft is holding a Copilot event on the 50th anniversary date (what else do we expect, I guess?)

Where do you think we will be in the next 50 years in terms of computing?  I realize that many of us won’t be around to experience the full 50 years!  Will we get flying cars? Experience the lifestyle of the Jetson’s? Interestingly enough, we do have many of the technologies that were shown in that classic cartoon show.

What technology do you predict for the next 50 years?

MS-DEFCON 2: Seven months and counting

By Susan Bradley

It’s time to put a pause on updates as I sort out developments from this coming Patch Tuesday.

Therefore, I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

The security updates coming next week include all supported Windows platforms, including Windows 10. Seven months may seem like a lot, but time flies. Given that time is needed to prepare for the end of Windows 10 updates, it’s better to think that a mere three months are left.

Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (22.13.1, 2025-04-03).

Apple backports fixes

Apple released several updates on March 31, including several backports to older versions of iOS and iPadOS. These fixes retroactively addressed three actively exploited zero-day vulnerabilities affecting legacy versions of its operating systems.

CVE-2025-24200: ” This issue is fixed in iPadOS 17.7.5, iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1. A physical attack may disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device. Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.”

That means businesses, journalists, and other highly targeted individuals. It was originally patched on February 10 in iOS 18.3.1, iPadOS 18.3.1, and iPad 17.7.5, but the vulnerability remained unresolved in older operating systems until now.

Another bug, CVE-2025-24201, was patched in iOS 16.7.11, iPadOS 16.7.11, iOS 15.8.4, and iPadOS 15.8.4 and is targeting flaws in WebKit and browsers. It’s been backported to iOS and iPadOS 15 and 16.

For more information, see this post in our forums.