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I am so, so sad to learn this. No one, and I mean literally no one, was more instrumental in guiding me through the computing maze than Woody. He will be remembered every time I pull his books off the shelf. I/we have lost a friend and mentor. Sincere sympathy to his family and loved ones.

Rest in Peace, Woody!

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DrBonzo

Good and timely reminder that ’tis the season for fraud.

Admittedly I was slow to adopt 2FA, but now I am a believer that even strong (hard to remember) passwords are not enough.

I’ve gone one step further. I use my home landline phone number, rather than mobile number, for my 2FA. Most, though not all, entities I deal with offer this option. Admittedly, I have to be home when logging in, but that is a fair trade off for me. Don’t have to worry about SIM swapping. Short of a phone tap, the bad guy would need physical access to my landline in addition to my login credentials.

Also, I don’t register my login device to avoid being challenged each time. A pain, but a bad guy in my home would still need my 12 to 16 digit password.

And yes, I remember my childhood phone number – 751W (the “W” indicating a party line). My friend’s number was 250 (they could afford a private line!) The phone number of the grocery store where I worked was “7”…yes, a single digit.

Wow, two great, back-to-back articles. Enjoyed the trip down memory lane (and learned a few things in the process!)

My first computer was the Tandy 1000 acquired circa 1987 for the staggering sum of $2500. Included monitor, modem (300 baud I think) and dot matrix printer. Imagine what computing power $2500 would buy me today!

Thanks for the great read!

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Will Fastie

My question, too!  I admit I only scanned the first couple screens, gave up, and didn’t read the entire article.  Otherwise, a well written article and sounds like a good utility.

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Mary Branscombe

I would be most interested in trying Brave, but hear that the installed version is difficult to cleanly uninstall.

You indicate that you use a portable version of Brave.  Would much appreciate knowing your source for the portable version.  The Older Geeks version doesn’t reference portable and appears to be an installed version.

Many thanks!

Update:

The problem with the “banned from using this service” error message when using Susan’s direct ISO download link was solved by changing browsers from Chrome to Firefox.  Simple as that!

The earlier issue with using the Media Creation Tool option to download the ISO to a flash drive resulted from using a FAT32 flash drive to download a 6 gb file.  Turns out, ya can’t do that! <grin>  Reformatted to NTFS and problem solved.  Yes, definately operator error!

Again thanks for your help.

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Alex5723

Many thanks!!!  Using the Media Creation Tool, I was able to successfully download the ISO to local HD.  Was also able to create bootable USB flash drive using this MCT method.  No MCT error message like a week ago…probably operator error!

Per a quick google search, the error message received when I used the direct ISO d/l option (which still occurs with each attempt)  is not unique to just me.

Thanks for pointing me to the solution!

Using Susan’s link, I tried to download the Win 11 ISO. Got the following error message.

“Error
We are unable to complete your request at this time. Some users, entities and locations are banned from using this service. For this reason, leveraging anonymous or location hiding technologies…”

Likewise, Media Creation tool failed as well, but with different error message suggesting that computer was not eligible.

This a new, 2 month old Dell Inspiron Laptop Win 11 23H2. Other than personalizing some Windows settings and installing a couple portable app utility programs, it is basically factory fresh. No VPN or anything that remotely fits the error message. Using Chrome browser.

Thoughts, please…

I speak only from my non-techie experience, but while WUSHOWHIDE continues to work on my Win 10 boxes, beginning with last month’s WU, not on my Win 11 box. Per the following excerpt from MS the future may be sooner than later.

“…the MSDT deprecation process will be done in stages over the next three years:

2023 – Begin redirecting some of the troubleshooters to the new Get Help troubleshooting platform
2024 – Complete the troubleshooter redirection and remove the rest of the troubleshooters
2025 – Remove the MSDT platform”
“If you’re running Windows 11 version 22H2 and older, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 or any other earlier OS version, your device will not be affected by the MSDT Troubleshooter retirement,” Microsoft added.

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Cybertooth

Apologies, Alex5723, I’m not sure I understand your question (or am technically competent to answer it!) 

The following is a verbatim quote I receive every time I launch a recently downloaded version of wushowhide on my new (and only) Win 11 PC.

“troubleshooters have been moved & this tool will be retired. <Learn More>”

Additionally, this is a quote from a MS forum moderator in response to a question re wushowhide.  I believe it was dated Aug 1, 2024:

“The Show or Hide Windows Updates tool has been retired or significantly altered in recent versions of Windows, including Windows 11.”

Although portable, it is my understanding that wushowhide is a MS product/troubleshooter tool published by MS (at least that’s what the app says) to specifically work in conjunction with the MS Win 10/11 windows update process.  Hence, the relationship with Win 11.  I’m certainly no techie, so I defer to your opinion.  Please correct me if I’m wrong…I’m old but still trainable.

Sorry for any confusion.

 

 

Follow-up to my previous reply.  Sadly, this is not me having a senior moment re: WUSHOWHIDE.  Below from a MS forum.  Again, no timeframe.

TA

Tanvi

Hi Jaburmester,
I am Tanvi, and I would be happy to assist you today!
You’re right. The Show or Hide Windows Updates tool has been retired or significantly altered in recent versions of Windows, including Windows 11.I hope this information will help. Please let me know if you have any other queries.
Good day

Moderator Edit: to remove HTML. Pleasu use the “Text” tab in the Entry Box or the Menu option to “Paste as Text” when you copy/paste from another source.

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Cybertooth

As one old timer to another, I feel your frustration!  WUSHOWHIDE is easy; after reviewing WUmgr, it sure doesn’t look user friendly by comparison.

I keep hoping that this was a mistake and/or I’ve missed something.  But my above quote appears each time I launch WUSH.  BUT, I emphasize, it does not appear when launching from other PC’s using older versions of the app.  In MS tradition, the linked article provided me nothing useful.

And speaking of apps going away…

As part of the setup process for my new (and first) Win 11 computer, I downloaded a copy of WUSHOWHIDE from Older Geeks. When I launched it I was surprised to see a notice stating that “troubleshooters have been moved & this tool will be retired. <Learn More>. The “learn more” was typical MS speak beyond my comprehension.

It seems to function as normal otherwise. I have not seen this notice on my other computers running older copies of this app.

What am I missing here?? Without wushowhide the patching process will surely suffer.

Thanks!

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Deo

Same here!   Installing stuck at 44% for hours, then jumped to 74%…been there for couple hours.  HD activity light indicates some but only intermittent activity.  Going to let it run all night and, if no luck by morning, I’ll reboot.  Hope my other PC’s do better,  Unusual behavior even for this old PC.

OMG! If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this article was written specifically for me!!! Just what I need to address a chronic update issue I’ve been experiencing since December. Clear, understandable instructions with links to tutorials…thanks Susan.

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KP