MS-DEFCON 2: Closing out the year

Topic

New Reply

ISSUE 21.49.1 • 2024-12-05 By Susan Bradley As we close the year of patching, I’m surprised to see that our vendors are facing many of the same issues
[See the full post at: MS-DEFCON 2: Closing out the year]

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

10 users thanked author for this post.

CR2, MHCLV941, Kevin, Cybertooth, rc primak, rizzquery, DLivesInTexas, lmacri, Alex5723, TechTango

Reply | Quote

Replies

In the Apple category, I’m still considering iOS 18.1.1 an optional update..

iOS 18.2 and other OSs updates will be released on Monday, December 9, 2024.

Reply | Quote

iOS 18.2 will still be optional unless Photos has been completely revamped, which it won’t be, and/or iOS 17 has a new Security update, eg, 17.7.x.  Especially if you have an older iPhone non AI compatible.

iPhone 13, 2019 iMac(SSD)

Reply | Quote

In response to Defcon 2, I went to my windows update in Settings. I remember that in the past, in Settings/Windows Update if you went to the advanced area you could pause updates for up to 30 days. Now, there’s nothing in advanced and you can only pause for 1 week. Anyone know what happened? I’m using InControl but that doesn’t help with the monthly updates. Thanks

Reply | Quote

I’m running Windows 11 Home 23H2 Build 22631.4460.  Also using InControl.  For me, the option to pause for more than one week is on the main Windows Update page, not the Advanced Options page.

 

Dell XPS17, 11th Gen Intel I7, 64gb RAM, Windows 11 Home 23H2

Reply | Quote

Speaking of forced updates and beta-testing, back in late October Symantec started a forced rollout of v24 of their Norton 360 anti-virus package which is now based on the Avast engine.

There has been little discussion of this on AskWoody, but over on the Norton Community Forum there are thousands of gripes about former features that have been removed or drastically changed. The most prominent of these seems to be their backup option, which now only works to their cloud service, with no option to backup directly to a local external drive or network location. In addition, local backups made on previous versions of N360 are no longer accessible with the new version.

A common solution offered by Symantec support is to revert to the previous version, but eventually it gets auto-updated again within days or weeks.

2 users thanked author for this post.

deuxbits, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

This behavior by Symantec is typical and been going on for years. They are effectively anti-competitive. Bought PC-Tools and orphaned it.  Bought Wise installer, buried it. LifeLock – talk to people who have had to use it – basically no help and they give you a refund. I’m not a fan of Symantec now days although I used to be.

 

Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing - Werner Von Braun

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

This trend represents a “dumbing down” of society, as options and settings are eliminated or concealed behind a facade one-click operations, with big buttons, short menus and a “one size fits all” mentality, both in Windows and in a vast array of other applications and products by many other companies. Some say this is due to Gen Z, many of whom they claim are easily confused and distracted with short attention spans.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Steve S., Cybertooth, rizzquery

Reply | Quote

Another thing which the last two or three generations have done is to stop using desktop and laptop computers. Since they do everything on a phone, all backups are data backups to the Cloud. And since phone screens are small, nearly all phone apps have simplified user interfaces with few options and severely limited display areas.

Yahoo Mail is rolling out a change in their web interface for everyone, no matter which device you are using. The reading pane is unusable. The main view is severely crowded left to right. These are all concessions to the fact that the vast majority of email users (all two of us!) are accessing their mail on a phone.

For now you can revert to the old Yahoo Web Mail user interface, but that option seems destined to go away soon.

I will be very disappointed to have to move my main email account to somewhere else.

I suspect Norton is facing similar pressures and responding accordingly.

I use either EaseUS ToDo Backup or  Macrium Reflect for my backup needs.

Windows Defender plus Malwarebytes free or paid, with the Malwarebytes Browser Guard and Malwarebytes Windows Firewall Controls, plus ADWCleaner (all free) seems to be a safe antimalware setup for most Windows 11 Home and Pro users in non-business settings.

-- rc primak

4 users thanked author for this post.

Perq, windbg, rbailin, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

I personally have never been supportive of regulators punishing successful products just because they seem to have a dominate position. After all, in a free enterprise system you have dominance occuring with most things. Companies are in business and stay in business achieving that dominace. Sure companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple have achieved success that some probably do feel hard to compete against. But that is because most end users are happy with those products and do not consider others. I would bet if say you split up Google that the popularity of Google Search or Google Chrome would change very little. The DOJ and other regulators spend millions on litigation and I have to wonder how this really benefits the people they claim to represent.

Reply | Quote

There is always a ‘middle way’ with regulation, stray from that and troubles will ensue.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

Reply | Quote

Microsoft is once again spending energy fixing things that I don’t think need fixing.

This has been the case for almost every interface change from Windows 10 to Windows 11! (and arguably,  from Windows 7 to Windows 10 ).

Along with the ongoing drive to remove user control over, seemingly, every aspect of the interface.

 

2 users thanked author for this post.

windbg, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

wavy wrote:

There is always a ‘middle way’ with regulation, stray from that and troubles will ensue.

Indeed, but who decides where the “middle way” is?

Reply | Quote

Hello Susan, am I correct in thinking there are no MS monthly Updates in December? If yes thank goodness for the break. If no,
why no updates at the busiest time of the year when all the bad people are on the hunt?
As always sincere thanks for Ask Woody and seasons greetings.

Reply | Quote

Monthly updates come out the second Tuesday of the month which is December 10. I’m sure there will updates.

1 user thanked author for this post.

CR2

Reply | Quote

@CR2 –

Just to add a bit to @DrBonzo ‘s post above, what you may thinking of is the statement that in December there are no Preview updates issued by Microsoft due to their reduced staffing during this time of year.

That still amounts to a break of sorts, as there won’t be any Preview updates issued to have to worry about blocking! 

 

2 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, CR2

Reply | Quote