Monthly Archives: October 2020

• Online presence: Currency, continuity, and commitment

  Posted on October 25, 2020 at 21:05 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  Small-Business Websites

  By Will Fastie

  So your website is now up and open for business? That doesn’t mean you can just walk away.

  In previous installments of this series on small-business websites, I stressed the important basics of ensuring your site can be easily found. For example, in the September 21 article, “Web presence: Working with search engines,” I discussed understanding the Google search engine. What I didn’t mention was that search engines take into account a site’s age.

  In short, if your site isn’t considered current, its perceived value will drop, and it’ll fall lower in search-result lists.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.42.0 (2020-10-26).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Small Business Computing AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Google searches, Web presence, Website content

• Freeware Spotlight — A potpourri of anti-malware apps

  Posted on October 25, 2020 at 21:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  You might see a doctor for something simple, but it’s likely she will also check your general health.

  So, too, we never let a computer leave our store without a thorough check for malware: rootkits, Trojans, viruses, spyware, bots, worms, ransomware, keyloggers, crimeware, and so on.

  In past newsletters, various contributors have recommended that you not rely wholly on just one anti-malware utility. Fortunately, there are many good, free products to choose from.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.42.0 (2020-10-26).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities, Freeware Anti-malware apps, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Full-time AV protection, On-demand scanners

• Patch Lady – if you use WSUS can I get your feedback?

  Posted on October 23, 2020 at 12:52 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WSUSSurvey

  The first ever unofficial survey on Microsoft’s on premise patching tool called WSUS.

  If you use the platform, can you fill out my unofficial survey please?  I will be sharing the results in a few weeks.

  Survey, Windows Patches/Security Patch Lady Posts, WSUS

• Patch Lady – who knew a cmos?

  Posted on October 23, 2020 at 12:30 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  So the other day someone plugged in a usb dongle to an HP Z240 workstation.  And it turned off.  And wouldn’t turn back on again.

  So I purchased a replacement power supply thinking it was that.  But it turned out once I connected the new power supply in, still no go.

  In searching around, I found a post talking about clearing the CMOS by removing the CMOS battery and pressing the CMOS reset button on the motherboard.

  Sure enough, that did the trick.  The computer now boots up as normal.  That said I’ll be plugging things into the usb slots in the front just to make sure there isn’t something else wrong with the machine.   I’ve had two other machines recently that had their power supply died on me.  The HP Z240 was the easiest to change out the power supply.  The hardest was a small form factor home built unit that I needed smaller fingers in order to plug in all the plugs.

  Windows 10 Patch Lady Posts

• Patch Lady – my favorite new Windows Update setting

  Posted on October 22, 2020 at 08:37 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  So you want to ensure you get feature release XXXX and no later than that right?  So you are on 1903, you forgot to download the 1909 iso and yet you still want to install 1909 and only 1909?

  There is now a way to do that.

  I’ve detailed out my new favorite setting and how it works here.

   

  Edit:  Bruce pointed out on twitter that I said the setting was first released last year…. it actually was released this year but clearly my brain has been impacted by the pandemic and I FELT like it was a year ago.  Apologies to anyone else scratching their heads.

  Windows 10 Patch Lady Posts

• Where we stand with the October patches

  Posted on October 22, 2020 at 00:26 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  The run-of-the-mill cumulative updates had all the usual problems. But the other patches were a bit odd.

  I’m still amazed that the cumulative updates went out with a hard bug in an HP app, but HP has fixed its wayward ways.

  And we still don’t have the announced security fix for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Commerce.

  Winter – and version 20H2 – are coming.

  Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Windows Patches/Security October 2020 Black Tuesday

• Is KB 4580980, the .NET update preview for 1903 and 1909, being installed even if you don’t “seek” for it?

  Posted on October 20, 2020 at 21:12 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  A distressing post from @Brockton:

  I’m running Win10 Home 1909 which was current with the October updates and currently updates are NOT paused.  I still have v2004 sitting in my update screen as an optional ‘download and install’.

  I just had a notification pop-up to restart my computer.  It turns out KB4580980 downloaded and installed without me checking for updates.  I figured with this being a preview it would be optional.  Note that when I system did it’s usual auto-check for updates it pushed the .NET preview without my permission.

  I know the thought was that if you un-pause updates it may perform a check and pull down the .NET preview … BUT my updates were not paused and it still auto-installed the .NET preview.  It was not optional like it used to be…

  it seemed to act like a standard ‘Patch Tuesday’ update that you’d typically pause and prepare for.  But I’m used to the preview patches showing as optional so I kept my updates un-paused not expecting this unless I manuall check for updates.  It seemed to get pushed through like the monthly standard updates that you get even if you don’t ‘seek’.

  Can you confirm? I’m not seeing it – but I’m paused.

  Windows Patches/Security .NET preview, KB 4580980

• A compatibility problem between Office 2010 and the Win10 version 2004 update?

  Posted on October 20, 2020 at 18:47 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Just got this report from BM:

  Just thought I would let you know that the 2004 update was a complete mess for me. It was pushed, I didn’t choose it. I run a Legion Y920-17IKB laptop with a licensed version of office 2010 (because I prefer it to 365). The update completely removed every office file I have created since October 2019. No files were saved in the update restore folder and restoring back to the previous version of windows didn’t recover the files. It also changed all the recents in those applications to files that were again, back from 2019.

  This is by far the worst update experience I’ve had, sharing it with you incase you can use it as a cautionary tale for your readers. Microsoft advice is to always back-up to the cloud. God I hate their updates so much! Just when you thought 2020 had thrown all it could at you…

  Anybody else seeing that?
  Office, Windows 10 Releases Office 2010, Win10 2004
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