Newsletter Archives

• Master Patch List as of October 11, 2022

  Posted on October 12, 2022 at 22:23 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  #PatchTuesday

  I’ve updated the Master Patch List for yesterday’s releases

  I’ll be keeping an eye out for issues and will be updating that page and spreadsheet should I seen anything trending.

  Not seeing anything in my personal home testing for consumer/home issues

  Business impact only:  Group policy issue after the install of October releases (same issue as last month).  See master patch list page.

  2012 R2 server OS only – seeing Internet explorer/access is denied in the event log

  TLS1.0/1.1 is only disabled on Windows 10 and Server 2019 this patch. 2016 retains it and Windows 11/ Server 2022 already have it disabled by default.

  As always, thank you all for supporting the cause! Remember a donation will give you access and if you donate $50 or more you’ll get a special code to enable text messages sent to your phone each time the Master Patch List gets updated and when I change the MS-DEFCON level.

  Uncategorized Master Patch List, October 2022 Black Tuesday, Patch Lady Posts

• Master Patch List as of September 13, 2022

  Posted on September 14, 2022 at 08:25 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  #PatchTuesday

  I’ve updated the Master Patch List for yesterday’s releases

  Fingers crossed we will have a quieter September than August was. Apple has several fixes you’ll want, but watch out and don’t upgrade to iOS16 quite yet.

  I’ll be keeping an eye out for issues and will be updating that spreadsheet should I seen anything trending.

  Update: 9-14-2022  Business impact only:  Group policy issue after the install of KB5017308.  See master patch list page.

  As always, thank you all for supporting the cause! Remember a mere $1 donation will give you access and if you donate $50 or more you’ll get a special code to enable text messages sent to your phone each time the Master Patch List gets updated and when I change the MS-DEFCON level.

  Uncategorized Master Patch List, Patch Lady Posts, September 2022 Black Tuesday

• I have Outlook and can no longer connect to Gmail

  Posted on June 10, 2022 at 01:10 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  If you are seeing this you aren’t alone. Gmail made a security change and clearly didn’t communicate well about it.

  I’m reposting a solution posted by Roger in the forums on the main page so that others can see it: It should work on other versions of Outlook as well.

  Topic: How to use MS Outlook 2003 to access a Gmail account with 2-Step Verification @ AskWoody

  How to use MS Outlook 2003 to access a Gmail account with 2-Step Verification

  For many years, my wife and I have used MS Outlook 2003 to access our Gmail accounts. Because MS Outlook 2003 has some security issues, Google has for years required the “Access to less secure apps” option to be turned on in order to use Outlook 2003 with a Gmail account. However, Google has announced that this option will be removed at the end of May, 2022. At that time, Google says it will require 2-Step Verification (Two factor Authorization) on all Gmail accounts.

  However, Outlook 2003 doesn’t work with 2-Step Verification (later versions of Outlook do, I think). Therefore, it is necessary to use an “App Password” generated by Google instead of the usual Outlook password. After a day and a half of effort, I have learned how to do that. I summarize below what worked for me because I have not seen it documented elsewhere.

  First, turn “2-Step Verification” on in your gmail account and make sure it works. For me, this required at least two automated phone calls from Google to verify my identity. After that, I could access my gmail account with the gmail app with no problems.

  Then select the “Security” tab on your Google Account, then look for “Signing in to Google”, and select “App Passwords”. Google asks for type of computer (Windows PC for me) and program (“Outlook” is NOT an option and “Mail” does not work; instead Select “Other” and then type “Outlook”) Google then creates and displays a 16 character alphabetic password. Write down this password.

  Return to Outlook 2003, and try to access your gmail account. I got a pop up screen asking for my password, then entered the 16 character Google “App” password, and everything worked !! I had to save the Google Password within Outlook, and enter it “blindly” since Outlook 2003 does not have an option to display the password as it is entered. I had to enter this password a couple of times because I forgot to save it. But now, I can send/receive emails to/from my gmail account, and also use the Outlook 2003 “Test Account Settings” option with no problems.
  We continue to use Outlook 2003 because it works and is sufficient for our needs, but is obviously a very old program.

  ---

  Susan note on 6/10:  While I’d LOVE for you to get on a supported platform I’m also a bit of a realist. Also I know that many times you need to get into your email asap and then you’ll deal with upgrading later.  Note that you may see this on other platforms as well as your newer versions of email may have been set up with older auth technology.

  I’ve also found that some email (uh like my vintage pacbell.net account that has no ability to set an app password) can’t be used on Outlook but can be used on Windows 10 mail app.  You may have to move to another email app to get a comfortable email flow again. Don’t get stuck on Outlook forever. Try such mail platforms as em.

  Uncategorized Gmail, Patch Lady Posts

• Ewaste or usable?

  Posted on May 7, 2022 at 23:09 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  I have two old laptops that over the next few weekends I’m going to attempt to see what options I have to make them usable.

  Laptop number 1 was built for Vista and is now running Windows 7 (barely). Laptop number 2 was sold as a Chromebook but the version is now out of date and it’s unsupported. It’s no longer usable for it’s most recent use – that of tele-medicine for someone who used it recently. She’s since bought a new chromebook that is supported.

  But before I add these two laptops to the ewaste heap – I’m going to see what I can do to make them USABLE and SUPPORTED.  Meaning that it’s a functional machine and doesn’t mandate that I take a coffee break for 20 minutes as it boots up and it has to still get patches.

  

  

  

  

  What’s my goal? Well first they are no longer usable as Windows devices. These days you need 16 gigs (at least) and a SSD drive to be usable for Windows 10.  Clearly they cannot support Windows 11 as they have no TPM chip.  I don’t expect these two devices to be beefy workstations, rather merely web browsing and email only.

  I was going to try to initially move these to a supported Chrome OS like Cloud Ready but recently they got bought out by Google.  Along the way I’ll discuss the issues I hit.

  So my first bit of a roadblock is the fact that Cloud Ready has gone more “corporate” and now has certified models that they recommend.  I purchased the Acer C710-2834 from Amazon back in 2013 .  It has a 16 gig hard drive, Intel Celeron Processor 1007U 1.5GHz (2MB L3 Cache)  2 GB DDR3 RAM

  In poking around the web site, it’s definitely not supported, and was not considered a good candidate three years ago.  But I’m going to press on and just see if this is doable.  First I’ll follow these instructions to make a bootable flash drive, I’ll report next weekend on my progress!

  Chromebook, Uncategorized Patch Lady Posts

• April 2022 Office non-Security updates have been released

  Posted on April 5, 2022 at 12:51 CDT by PKCano • Comment in the Forums

  The April 2022 Office non-Security updates have been released Tuesday, April 5, 2022. They are not included in the DEFCON-4 approval for the March 2022 patches. Unless you have a specific need to install them, you should wait until Susan Bradley (Patch Lady) approves them and any problems have been reported.

  Remember, Susan’s patching sequence and recommendations are based on a business environment that has IT support and may have time constraints on the updating process. Consumer patching should be more cautious due to limited technical and mechanical resources. The latter is the reason for the AskWoody DEFCON system.

  Office 2016
  Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB5002141)
  Update for Microsoft Project 2016 (KB5002132)

  There were no non-security listings for Office 2013.
  On April 10, 2018, Office 2013 reached End of Mainstream Support. Extended Support will end for Office 2013 on April 11, 2023.
  Office 2016 also 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).

  Office Patches/Security, Uncategorized April 2022 Black Tuesday, April 2022 Office non-security updates, Office 2013, Office 2016

• 2004’s being pushed?

  Posted on June 24, 2021 at 00:01 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  In the Windows update twitter account they indicate:

  Today we are starting a new rollout phase for Windows 10, version 21H1 using our latest machine learning model to begin the multi-month process to automatically update devices running Windows 10, version 2004, that are approaching end of servicing.

  So. What does that mean? Same old, same old, unfortunately.

  If you have a device on 2004 and do not have the targetreleaseversion in place to keep it on 2004, Microsoft will begin pushing you to 21H1.

  Well first I think they are pushing a little too quickly as 2004 doesn’t age out until December.  Furthermore I still see people struggling to get off of 1909 and on to 2004. So if you have a reason to stay on 2004 – even if that reason is that you are too busy right now to deal with it- make sure you have the targetreleaseversion setting in place otherwise you may find yourself rebooting when you don’t want it.

  I’ll be soon adding the approval of 21H1 to my recommended versions.  Bottom line my recommendation is to use the TRV (aka targetreleaseversion) setting to be the guard rails on your system.  You then get to choose exactly when you want to go through the feature upgrade process. It’s on your time schedule, not Microsoft.

  Will spotted this video the other day… scroll to the 9 minute mark and listen.

  Uncategorized Patch Lady Posts, TargetReleaseVersionInfo

• Are you a Consultant or IT Pro?

  Posted on April 7, 2021 at 23:38 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  I’ll be speaking virtually at the SMBTechFest coming up on April 15th on the topic of Security in the news. If you are a SMB consultant I highly recommend signing up for the presentations.

  

  Highlighted speakers include

  Susan Bradley (yours truly), Bethany Roser, Derek Melber, Robert DeVito, James Kernan, Amy Babinchak, Mark Winter, Nicole Faletra, James Hatzell, Nicole Faletra, , Sarah Hansen, Ian McChord and more.
  Uncategorized Patch Lady Posts

• Set up a guest network that’s actually secure

  Posted on February 1, 2021 at 01:10 CST by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  Set up a guest network that’s actually secure

  By Brian Livingston

  In the computer industry, too many things that should be simple and easy are instead complicated and hard for the average person to understand. Take Wi-Fi routers — please!

  In my column on January 25, I showed you a way to protect your most essential computing devices by placing them on a different network from easy-to-hack Internet of Things devices. The trick uses two different Wi-Fi routers.

  But what if you have only one device? A cable company often installs a gateway that offers several wired Ethernet ports as well as Wi-Fi. In that case, you don’t have two devices to play with — you have just one.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.4.0 (2021-02-01).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender, Uncategorized AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Networking, Public Defender
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