Replies

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.

1 user thanked author for this post.

italiangm

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?

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

italiangm

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 I know that many people will be instructing me to upgrade to Win11 immediately as MS will have withdrawn support for Win10.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!

3 users thanked author for this post.

Steve S., Douglas, Cybertooth

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.

 

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.

1 user thanked author for this post.

GeeBeeDee

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.

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

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

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.

And here we go again:

Microsoft apologises after thousands report new outage – BBC News

2 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, windbg

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.

1 user thanked author for this post.

WSbobby-p

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.

3 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, Geo, WSbobby-p

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.

2 users thanked author for this post.

BobbyB, Sky

While there’s clearly a major lesson to be learnt as to the dangers inherent in relying totally on computer technology meaning we have to ensure the companies providing the technology services are taking all possible steps to minimise the risk of things like today’s global outage occurring in the first place, which has been the focus of many public discussions today on e.g. news channels, there’s also an under-stated lesson to be learnt about the need for businesses and public services to re-establish the level of resilience they used to have before everything went digital.

Back in the early 1980s I was working in a company through the transition from manual typewriters in their offices to electric typewriters (and then to word processers). Back then if anything had gone wrong with the electric equipment (such as power cuts, for example), we still had the manual equipment we could take out of the office cupboards and keep the company running.

Now, whether it’s the refusal to accept cash in some shops, restaurants, and other commercial businesses (increasingly common in the UK), or reliance on digital equipment, there is no alternative available to fall back on. In the UK it’s almost impossible now to access banking in the high street, most of the bank branches have been closed with customers forced to sign up to online banking – but when the banking system goes down, which does happen from time to time, there is no fall-back system in place.

If a shop is not geared up to accept cash then when the card readers go down, the shop has to close. Today in countless doctors surgeries around the UK they lost access to digital patient records and so announced they couldn’t see patients today. These are examples of how we have to review our practices and make sure that when problems arise like today’s one we have the resilience in place to keep things running.

This is an enormous wake-up call.

6 users thanked author for this post.

Steve, rc primak, Steve S., Cybertooth, NaNoNyMouse, windbg

Opatch cover for Windows 7 hasn’t been available for free, you have to have the paid version which from memory was about £24 per annum in the UK for the two or three years I used it. In that time I had no problems, and their micro-patch system meant I was free of the monthly Russian Roulette that we know as Windows Updates as well as the accompanying feeling I always get in the pit of my stomach until everything reboots ok.

I haven’t used their existing Windows 10 support, but will have no hesitation in doing so when necessary.

I suspect a major reason why not everyone will use 0Patch despite clear advantages in doing so will be the same as with Windows 7. Too many users and commenters will remain unaware of 0patch and will peddle the falsehood that you must upgrade (downgrade?) to Windows 11 on the due date or be at immediate risk of catastrophe. A lot of users will fall for it. I lost track of the number of posters on other forums I had to correct regarding Windows 7 by pointing out that it wasn’t security support that was being withdrawn, it was free security support.

1 user thanked author for this post.

windbg

huntpt wrote:

Susan asks and answers an interesting question at the end: “Am I willing to start recommending everyone rip out Windows and start deploying Mint? No.” This is the situation that I face regarding two of my three Windows PCs. They are (evidently) not capable of running Windows 11, yet I don’t like the idea of throwing them on the trash heap when Windows 10 expires. So I am thinking that I need to convert them to Linux Mint and somehow convert my current processes to run under that operating system. I wonder if others have experience with such a transformation.

You could just continue to use Windows 10 and keep it secure with 0patch for a pretty small subscription.

1 user thanked author for this post.

rc primak