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138.0.1 update is live, got notification & installed minutes ago. No issues noted.

Everything gets a backup to external SSD’s on Sunday nights. Full backup on the 1st Sunday, differential for the rest of the month. My production machine gets additional diffs every Tuesday and Thursday. First backup of the year will happen as scheduled tonight.

The iPhone & iPad get backed up semi-regularly to the MacBook Air when I feel like it and I usually check for updates on the Linux system while doing that since they’re in the same room.

New addition for 2025: Back up my most irreplaceable personal files to Blu-Ray/M-Disc and keep an extra off site copy of those discs in the fire safe at my shop and/or safe deposit box at the bank. Process the files with Winrar with a recovery record first and verify each burn before storage for fault tolerance.

Also, to copy the backup files from the external SSD used for that purpose on the production machine to a compact bus powered extra USB drive on a monthly/bi monthly basis and store that drive in the fire safe as well.

It looks like you’ll be able to get your favored program back based on other responses in this thread but having an alternative is always nice.

I’ve used the freeware program Irfanview to do similar what you say you wish to do and a bit more. It’s worth checking out as an alternative or backup and handles a huge variety of formats and functions with the plugin pack installed.

https://www.irfanview.com/

 

I never experienced W95 because I was somewhere within a string of Macs that started whenever the SE/30 came out (’87? ’89?) and didn’t end until 2000 when I sold what I recall as being a Blue & White G3 tower.

I didn’t build my first Intel PC to run Windows, but BeOS. In ’99 while at the shop buying all the parts to assemble that first PC I decided it would be crazy not to pick up an OEM copy of Win 98 SE along with the hardware so I could access all those games that didn’t run or ran badly on the Mac.

Fast forward 18 months or so and with BeOS floundering, Apple about to switch to a whole new OS with MacOS X, and Win 2k getting better and less buggy by the month, I decided Windows version whatever & cheap, fast commodity hardware were what suited me best for both productivity and entertainment.

That lasted for over 20 years until I bought a MacBook Air & iPad Pro to go with my iPhone and added a mini Appleverse to join my Windows dominated menagerie.

My primary browsers are Firefox and Brave, both using uBlock Origin and other privacy/safety enhancing extensions. Imagine that, what a coincidence.

I wonder if anyone is considering forking Chromium over this.

Not quite what you asked for but the lock screen widgets can be turned off under

Settings>Personalization>Lock Screen

There’s a drop down menu and the top selection is None. After reboot I had weather, sports scores, etc. on as a default but after changing the setting to none and a reboot, things were back the way I wanted them to be.

Startpage and Brave Search are primary for me, but I will at times repeat a search using Google, Bing or Yandex just as a double check to see if I get different results, particularly if I’m having difficulty finding the information I want. I experiment with others as well.

That’s what optical disc backups are for. A few burned Blu-rays or better yet, M-Discs in slimline cases stuck in a safe or bank safe deposit box, and your most precious data – Family multimedia/photos, business records, genealogy records, whatever floats your boat – will be there for you after the cataclysm should you survive it.

Offsite backups are a good thing. I’m soon to implement a second layer backup system where I copy my main system’s Macrium Reflect most recent backup files from last full backup + incrementals onto little 2-5Tb bus powered portable hard drives, then take that drive and stick in in the safe in my shop in town. Rinse & repeat each week after the backup completes, and even if lightning hit my house, fried all the electronics and caused it to burn to the ground, I’d never lose more than a week’s worth of data.

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IreneLinda

I’m another who adores the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/natural-ergonomic-keyboard-4000/8xlw43x19hnt

Fits my hands like nothing else since I got used to it around 15 or whatever years ago and thankfully this one just won’t die.

Microsoft did make a lesser, cheaper replacement later on, and I bought a couple of them as backups. At least the basic shape of the keyboard is the same even if it’s not as nice overall and doesn’t have quite the same feel.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/d/microsoft-ergonomic-keyboard/93841ngdwr1h

It irritates me when good HID products are discontinued without any reason I can consider a good cause. I would have vastly preferred that MS update the 4000’s original design with LED backlighting. I would have run right out and bought a couple, relegating the old one I have now to backup keyboard in the closet.

I have and use many small charger/maintainers of multiple brands and have yet to see one with a 3-prong cord like a charge n’ start such as you describe may have. An RFI choke as described above may do the job and is a cheap initial attempt at a solution but may or may not do the job well enough.

If I may suggest an alternative or backup solution, would using a lamp timer that turns on a circuit as people sometimes use for security while away for a weekend or before coming home in the evening be feasible? If you set it to turn on and off at a time when you’re quite certain the radio won’t be played, say 1am to 5am, that should be plenty of time to top off most batteries.

Amazon lamp timer

 

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Charlie

I haven’t installed this months updates on any of my (Win 11 22H2) machines yet, but have seen the  extra reboot @ 30% for months on all of them if I happen to be paying attention. Definitely a Win 11 thing too.

Ah! This post explains why I wasn’t offered the problematic update on my “couch potato” laptop I used as a test bed. I’ve standardized on Win 11 Pro, currently 22H2 across all three of my Windows systems.

I had a fresh Reflect backup, checked the recovery partition and saw that it was a healthy 1.9 gigs with plenty of free space and thought why not.

The machine was offered three updates by WU; MSRT, the January CU KB5034123 and .NET CU for 3.5 & 4.8.1 KB5033920. I’ll note this was a faster, easier install than the last two months updates have been. It just went about it’s business with one extra reboot at 30% and no issues noted at this point.

 

Main System (laptop, using external monitor only): Screen off after 20 minutes, sleep manually engaged when I step away/out  for more than brief periods. Hibernation & hybrid sleep disabled. I shut down either when certain I’m done for the day or at least a couple times a week.

The other laptop that’s connected to an A/V receiver > 4k TV for couch surfing/streaming gets shut off at the end of every evening. If I try to use sleep on it and then change inputs/turn off the receiver, it sort of loses the plot on the differing screen resolutions, magnification settings between it’s own screen and the TV if I switch inputs or when turning the receiver back on.

Haven’t really tried out sleep on the rather nice desktop I intend to migrate to as new main system during the “get nothing done” days at the end of the year, just been turning it off when done with whatever specific task I turned it on for. Now I’ll test it out.

“Almost”.

I can’t lower my Dish programming any further without unsubscribing and sending back the equipment. That may happen this coming Spring after I have more time to really understand what all my options and costs are for the content I really want to access. I’m keeping what I have through the winter because I watch more TV then and to make sure I can easily access FCS football playoffs.

Until a couple years ago, streaming wasn’t really an option for me as the only internet access available to me was miserable, overpriced 7 Mbit (or less, depending on the weather) DSL. I’ve had a roof antenna on the house for 20+ years, but that was mostly a backup to the Dish satellite/DVR setup with local channels for time shifting or rain/snow signal blockage issues.

A few years ago, some folks down the road built a very fancy seven figure house and our little lane got a cable loop all the way to the end where I live. Now I have 500 Mbit cable, and am saving ~$50/month by switching my former overpriced, glitchy, failing infrastructure landline to cable VOIP using number portability.

Realizing streaming had become a viable option, I started experimenting with Prime (already had) and Samsung TV+ and liked the experience. At the beginning of summer I slashed the Dish service to the minimum, cutting the bill from ~$165/mo. to $80/mo, added a few streaming services both paid and free and started actually using the antenna feed for local sports and news.

It’s all going swimmingly, I’m spending ~$120 less per month having given up very little content I liked and added a bunch of stuff I like better at the cost of a certain amount of complexity and a mixed result of convenience (some better, some worse).

Edit: While researching streaming, I stumbled across a couple search engine type sites that can help you find specific content you want to watch, or keep track of what’s where on the services you already have.

https://www.justwatch.com/

https://reelgood.com/

 

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Steve

Did two laptops so far, one 11th gen Intel & one 12th gen. Win 11 pro 22H2.

Each initiated an intermediate reboot right after the black screen with spinner reached

“You’re almost there…30%”

As always, I was careful to let every component finish completely before giving it permission to restart. No problems noted on either post install.