Patch Lady – this is what drives me insane about preview releases

Today we got preview updates for 2004:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/net-framework-july-2020-cumulative-update-preview-for-windows-10-version-2004/

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4568831

4th week of the month – D week

On a Friday.  Not on Tuesday, but on a Friday.   Come on Microsoft, give us patch admins a break and release these on a consistent basis.

Remember – we don’t install preview updates unless we have a really good reason do to so, but even with that I WISH Microsoft would release these on a consistent basis.

Remember the Twitter accounts that got pwned, with a Bitcoin come-on?

Nation-state, right? These superhackers took over the Twitter accounts of Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Apple, Kanye West, Mike Bloomberg, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Uber, Warren Buffet, and many others.

Looks like the mastermind is a world-renowned ace North Korean hacker… oh… wait a sec…

Here’s what an NBC affiliate in Tampa now says:

A Tampa teenager is in jail after being accused of hacking several high-profile Twitter accounts, according to the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office… 30 felony charges were filed against the 17-year-old this week for “scamming people across America” regarding the Twitter hack that happened on July 15.

Imagine what could have been.

UPDATE: Brian Krebs has more of the story. Three people charged.

Patch Lady – 2004 be a tad more communicative please?

MS-DEFCON 3: There are some oddities, but it’s time to install the July 2020 patches

Looks like Microsoft’s fixed the bugs that it introduced this month. It’s time to get the July patches installed.

There’s one potential oddity — you may get the .NET Framework Preview installed on Windows 10 version 1903 or 1909 — but I don’t see any reported bugs in that (unwanted!) patch.

Step-by-step details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

Sams: Edge browser crashes if you use Google as your default search engine

Brad Sams, reporting on petri.com:

If you have Google set as the default engine and try to type in the search bar, the browser may crash. The problem is related to “Search Suggestions” and when that API is called, the browser crashing instantly.

I am seeing it on my dev and release channel builds of the browser. If you have been experiencing this issue, you can navigate to edge://settings/search and turn off the feature as a workaround.

Like two other bugs reported recently — the Outlook crashes earlier this month, and the Search bar crashes two months ago — this happened without a new version of Edge getting pushed. Somebody screwed up something on Microsoft’s servers, installed a change without testing it adequately, and Edge came crashing down.

Move fast and break things.

Where we stand with the July 2020 patches

Patching bugs this month ran quite the gamut, from a buggy patch for paying Win7 customers to a “move fast and break things” server bug in Outlook.

The situation with the “optional, non-security, C/D Week” patches seems murky as ever.

Details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

Surface Duo (the Android-based two-screen phone) teased yet again

Credit: MS exec Shilpa Ranganathan

Yes, the Surface Duo should arrive shortly.

No, I’m not the least bit interested. I don’t know anybody who’s going to line up to buy one. Look at the huge bezels and the 1930s-style hinge.

Blech.

Have a Surface Pro X? Want to upgrade to Win10 2004? There’s a convoluted way….

No, I don’t recommend that you install Win10 version 2004.

But if you have a Surface Pro X (which I don’t recommend, either) and you really really want to move to Win10 version 2004, it can be done, in spite of the notification that says “This PC can’t be upgraded to Windows 10.”

It involves installing the update, and in the middle – at just the right moment – disconnecting your internet connection.

Full instructions from ScottGillis on the Microsoft Answers forum.

Thx @barbbowman

How can a Win10 1903 user keep 2004 off their machine?

Interesting question from CN:

Windows 1903 Home user…  I searched the forum for help with this, and I found a post, but I can’t find all the replies, and I can’t find instructions to help me stop this forced upgrade. The replies I can read seem to reference blocking strategies that I can’t use (perhaps for Windows Pro users?)

Updates just resumed after a 3 week pause for the month of July. Win 2004 is now installing without my requesting it, accepting it, or clicking Check for Updates. I paused the install until September, but where on the forum can I find a way to allow other updates when we hit DEFCON 3 without installing Win 2004?

Do you know of a reliable magic incantation to keep MS from pushing 1903 Home to 2004? I wrote about this back in May, but now it seems that MS is going after 1903 users without offering the circuit breaker “Download and install” option.

Windows 10 turns five years old

Hard to believe how much has changed in five years.

For a bit of nostalgia (not necessarily good nostalgia, mind you!) take a look at Terry Myerson’s announcement Hello World: Windows 10 Available on July 29

Terry (who’s long since gone on to greener pastures) turns the floor over to Cortana “the world’s most personal digital assistant”:

• We designed Windows 10 to create a new generation of Windows for the 1.5 billion people using Windows today in 190 countries around the world. Don’t know where that number came from, but five years later Microsoft claims that Windows 10 runs on “more than 1 billion devices around the world.”
• Microsoft Edge, is an all-new browser designed to get things done online in new ways, with built-in commenting on the web – via typing or inking — sharing comments, and a reading view that makes reading web sites much faster and easier. And we all know how well the original Edge has fared.
• Office on Windows: In addition to the Office 2016 full featured desktop suite, Windows 10 users will be able to experience new universal Windows applications for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, all available separately. Wonder what happened to that?
• Windows Continuum enables today’s best laptops and 2-in-1 devices to elegantly transform from one form factor to the other, enabling smooth transitions of your tablet into a PC, and back. That didn’t turn out so well, either, eh?
• Windows Hello, greets you by name and with a smile, letting you log in without a password and providing instant, more secure access to your Windows 10 devices. With Windows Hello, biometric authentication is easy with your face, iris, or finger, providing instant recognition.
• Windows Store, with easy install and uninstall of trusted applications, supported by the broadest range of global payment methods.

Kinda funny how well the original vision has fared.

Patch Lady – the different “offerings”

So here’s the recent thing I noticed.  1903 offers – but does not push – the optional .net update.

1909 does not do this optional offering.

Furthermore if you check for updates it will install the optional .net.

The rule of thumb now that the optional preview updates have been turned back on is to NOT “check for updates” as it doesn’t merely check for updates, it installs those optional updates.

If you haven’t read Woody’s Computerworld article about how pausing impacts the installation of these optional updates do so now, as you need to understand how it may impact you as well.

Patch Lady – last call for the patching survey

Last call for my unscientific patching survey.  I will be closing it down at the end of July.

Consumer Patching Survey

Business Patching Survey

If you haven’t given your feedback yet, now is the time.