• Seff

    Seff

    @seff

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    • in reply to: MS-DEFCON 3: Cleanup time #2766109

      Is it generally considered necessary to do that first restart at 30%? I always leave the updating alone at that point and ignore the restart prompt. It automatically goes back to 0% and updates through to 100% when it prompts a restart, and that’s when I do the restart. Is that what others do or is the earlier restart prompt important?

    • in reply to: 50 years and counting #2760834

      I got married in 1975, and all the invitations and thank you notes went in the proper mail, we hadn’t heard of emails and messaging back then! For me the first new technology to impact my work came a lot later in the form of electric typewriters (on which you could store a handful of letters and templates etc which seemed amazing at the time!) and then fax machines. By the time I retired at the end 0f 2014 all my new incoming instructions, outgoing reports and data records etc were routinely handled online and towards the end all of it was being done from home with no need for an office.

      I’m sure the future will involve further advances, more immediately in the form of AI which I’m not convinced will be a good thing especially in the creative arts, but I hope we shall also row back on some of the existing technology. I worry that the younger generations are growing up unable or unwilling to communicate with real people. So far as my experience in the UK is concerned I hope there’s a reduction in the use of self-checkouts in supermarkets, the reopening of bank branches and a move away from the cashless society. How is my young grandson supposed to be able to learn the value of money and how to manage it (or even count it) when everything has to be paid for by his parents’ contactless card?

      The earlier comments above about the Book of Revelations are truly depressing, and I hope that as we learn more about the universes and everything within them we shall be able to look more to science to inform our lives while retaining some form of spiritual element to guide our lives and behaviour.

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    • in reply to: Gregory Forrest “Woody” Leonhard (1951-2025) #2755370

      My deepest sympathy to Woody’s family, friends, and all those who worked with him, or took over from him.

      The brevity and suddenness of this announcement rather shook me, and I hope there will in time be a full obituary here that will detail his life’s work and pay tribute to the major contribution he undoubtedly made to so many people’s understanding and handling of computers.

       

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    • in reply to: Clean installs for 24H2? #2742504

      Thanks, that was always my understanding until I read Susan’s article which I found confusing on that point. I appreciate the clarification.

      The critical point being, of course, that we don’t want Microsoft imposing Win11 on Win10 users just by offering them what may appear to be a routine update to Win 10 when in fact it constitutes the means to installing an update to Win11. So long as 24H2 is merely offered to Win10 users as an optional update, making it clear that it’s upgrading the machine to Win11, then that’s fine.

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    • in reply to: Clean installs for 24H2? #2742493

      While it may be valid, in that an eligible Win10 machine can be upgraded to 24H2 as part of an upgrade to Win 11, it is also highly misleading. The way it is worded indicates that Microsoft intends to offer Win10 users 24H2 with no mention of that being only as part of an upgrade to Win11:

      “eligible devices on both Windows 10 and 11 will be offered the 24H2 release”

      That seems pretty clear to me, if you’re running Win10 (and are eligible for Win11) you’ll be offered 24H2, but is it in fact the case that 24H2 will not routinely be offered on Win10 but only if you upgrade to Win11?

       

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    • in reply to: Should we stop texting? #2723428

      I totally agree. Thanks as always, Susan. for your sage advice.

      We must brace ourselves, however, for next October. I know that many people will be instructing me to upgrade to Win11 immediately as MS will have withdrawn support for Win10. They won’t understand that it’s only free support that will have ended, and that whether through MS or 0patch there will be perfectly satisfactory support being continued.

      0patch will be much cheaper, of course, and based on my experience with it on Win7 it will be highly efficient and leave me free from the monthly feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I hit the “check for updates” button!

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    • in reply to: Patching that video card #2718895

      As a home user with the emphasis on gaming, I have a simple rule on all driver and firmware updates: If it ain’t broke, I don’t fix it.

      While I appreciate the theoretical security implications with e.g. graphics card drivers, the threat in that respect is very small and one of several factors to consider including the effect of any new driver on temperature, fan speeds and noise, not to mention the risk of borking the machine when applying any update or adversely impacting performance generally.

       

    • in reply to: Microsoft Defender could be your free antivirus fix #2711668

      A fascinating article Brian, thanks a lot for all that went into it!

      One additional point in Microsoft Defender’s favour, which I don’t think was in the article but apologies if I missed it, is the one made here in the past by Susan Bradley if I recall correctly. It is that an anti-virus program produced by Microsoft is likely to be inherently more compatible with Windows monthly Updates than other third party security programs.

      I’ve used MSE and then Microsoft Defender for years now on my home desktop PCs, and never had any issues with them, and in recent years have stopped running Malwarebytes anti-malware software as an additional protection as it just didn’t seem necessary.

      If I could offer a suggestion for a future article, how about one dealing with security on our smart phones including androids? Is the default protection adequate or should it be enhanced with a paid-for upgrade?

      Thanks again.

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    • in reply to: So what about Windows 10? #2709899

      I have 2 desktop PCs and they both run Windows 10, one can be upgraded and the other can’t be. I don’t plan to use Windows 11 on either machine and will subscribe when necessary to 0patch as I did when last using Windows 7.

    • in reply to: MS-DEFCON 2: Windows 11 24H2 is out! #2707374

      To save anyone else looking, the fix in the online version simply involves the removal of “Fi”.

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    • in reply to: So your identity has been stolen? Again? #2706923

      For those in the UK, the Land Registry runs a Property Alert scheme whereby you sign up with details of any property that you own, and you will get an automatic email notification if any enquiry is made on that property. You also get an email every six months if no enquiries have been made, confirming that. You can cover up to 10 properties, so even if you only have one yourself you can monitor the situation for e.g. elderly relatives etc.

    • in reply to: Lessons learned from CrowdStrike #2691768

      And here we go again:

      Microsoft apologises after thousands report new outage – BBC News

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    • Not just your opinions. My wife’s too! I didn’t watch it other than when she called me to look at a particular moment or two. While the media headlines were hugely positive, once you got down to the tv critics’ reviews they were highly critical.

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    • I used to enjoy watching the Olympics when they represented a clean and amateur sporting competition. Nowadays they are neither of those things, and I no longer have any interest in them.

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    • The BBC is still paid for through an annual licence fee, which for me is not a lot more than my monthly Sky subscription. Because it is funded by a fee, the BBC’s  TV and radio services are entirely devoid of advertising breaks – which are bad enough on the commercial UK channels but I believe far more intrusive in the US. I don’t believe there are still vans going around tracking non-payers.

      There are numerous other paid-for channels in the UK, such as Netflix, Prime, Apple TV etc. While the BBC funding model is always being debated by politicians when in Opposition, when in Government they never seem to want to do anything to change it. My personal opinion is that it represents good value for money and I’d hate to go down the alternative advertising route for the BBC’s funding.

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