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.

April 2025 Office non-Security updates

Microsoft released NO non-security updates for Office on April 1, 2025

Office 2016 reached  End of Mainstream Support on October 13, 2020. EOS for Office 2016 is October 14, 2025.

Updates are for the .msi version (perpetual). Office 365 and C2R are not included.

Security updates for all supported versions of Microsoft Office are released on the second Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday).

Microsoft wants to hear from you

I received this in an email from Microsoft this morning. It does not appear to be an April Fool’s joke. Take the company at its word — if you get this survey request, tell Redmond what you think.

I was struck by two things about the mostly multiple-choice survey. First, most of the available choices tended to favor Microsoft. For example, in a set of five choices, three could be construed as favorable to the company while only two were unfavorable. That’s not balanced.

The other was the following question: “How long have you used Copilot for?” I’m no English savant, but this would not have escaped my attention while editing an article for AskWoody. It would certainly have been rewritten by Roberta Scholz. I decided to ask Copilot to copy edit the sentence and it provided “How long have you been using Copilot?”

This suggests that the survey was written by a human, albeit one whose English-language skills are slightly below average.

Reviewing your licensing options

TAME YOUR TECH

By Susan Bradley

Can you get a license for that?

With the upcoming end of life of Windows 10, I’m often asked why I’m not recommending that you look for and install the long-term servicing channel (LTSC) version of Windows 10 or Windows 11.

LTSC is a version of Windows 10 that was designed for devices that require minimal changes over time. It is primarily used in environments where stability and consistency are crucial, such as medical devices or industrial machinery. It is not available to the public and can be purchased only through volume licensing. It’s a platform that is intentionally not bloated, and it comes with fewer pre-installed apps, such as Microsoft Store, Cortana, and Edge (until the 2021 version). While it gets regular security updates, it does not get feature releases.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.13.0, 2025-03-31).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

Apple has been analyzing your photos since September 2024

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

Apple silently turned on a feature in its new iPhone iOS 18, macOS 15, and other operating systems that sends a version of every photo in your collection to a central server for “evaluation” — with no publicity about the feature and without asking device users to opt into the process. It’s simply enabled.

The Cupertino corporation released iOS 18 and macOS 15 (code-named Sequoia) on September 16, 2024. When I say the photo-analysis feature was “silently turned on,” I mean there’s no mention of Apple’s Enhanced Visual Search (EVS) in the company’s official What’s new in iOS 18 Web page. There’s a passing reference to using Apple Intelligence, the iPhone’s “smart assistant,” to search for photos in iOS 18.1 (released on October 28, 2024). But there’s been none of the promotional talk you’d expect for such an important change as EVS.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.13.0, 2025-03-31).

What Windows 11 24H2 offers beyond bugs

WINDOWS 11

By Lance Whitney

If you can get past the persistent glitches, the 2024 flavor of Windows 11 does have some interesting and helpful new features.

I’d long resisted updating my main laptop to Windows 11 24H2. Though I’d been running this version on a couple of virtual machines, I didn’t want to put one of my core PCs through the ringer. And that’s because Windows 24H2 had been plagued by bugs almost since its official release last October.

Most major Windows updates are beset with glitches here and there. Before an official rollout of a new version, Microsoft strives to find as many flaws as possible through internal reviews and beta testing. But with so many different Windows PCs and environments in the world, finding every single problem or conflict is difficult — if not impossible.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.13.0, 2025-03-31).