AskWoody turns 12

Hard to believe, but as of today, AskWoody.com has been around for 12 years.

Thanks, everybody. Couldn’t have done it without you….

“Peak PC” hit five years ago

… and it’s been downhill ever since.

Amazing numbers from Matt Rosoff and Business Insider.

Reasons are many and varied, but the influence of Windows 8 and 10 can’t be ignored.

Win7 scan speedup patch KB 3161608 breaks Intel Bluetooth

This from BillC:

Here is a link in the Intel communities for the June rollup KB3161608 breaking Intel Bluetooth.  It is confirmed by Intel.  The fix it to remove the KB until the Intel fix happens.

I have not found a single piece specifying of which update in the KB rollup is the true culprit.  The Intel® Wireless-N 7260 adapter was my specific hardware affected.

I removed the update and have not noticed any decrease in WU speed.

https://communities.intel.com/thread/104414

OK to install KB 3161608?

Great questions from Q:

I just wanted to verify that it is okay to DL & install the KB3161608 from the “Optional List”. I would think that I should be able to DL & install the KB3161608 from the “Optional List” however there are so many messages about this update that after a while it makes me dizzy because each person has his/her own opinion.

Also may I ask exactly what does a “manual install” mean?  Not being computer literate makes a lot of the acronyms and other terminology impossible for me to fully understand.

At this point, the only reason to installl KB 3161608 is if you want to speed up the Win7 Windows Update scan for updates. Most people don’t need to do that – so I say wait until you need to scan for updates.

“Manual install” means you download a patch and run it. Most of the time, you use Windows Update to get your patches, but sometimes it’s better to do things manually.

I’m painfully aware of the fact that I tend to get too technical for most people. I just imagine a car mechanic explaining how I should fix my timing belt – or a doctor stepping me through a prefrontal lobotomy.

July 2016 Patch Tuesday – lots of hype, not much cause for alarm

Remember, everybody, it’s MUCH TOO EARLY to install the July patches. Hold onto your horses, and watch the MS-DEFCON rating.

InfoWorld Woody on Windows

Windows 10 cumulative update KB 3172985 runs slow, triggers some installation bugs

Version 1511 build 10586.494 (I call it Win10.1.14) has a few installation glitches. Haven’t heard of anything major yet, though.

InfoWorld Woody on Windows

Win10 beta build 14388 creeps out to Windows Insiders on ‘Fast’ rin

Credit: Flickr/Tim Norris

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

InfoWorld Woody on Windows

Win10 beta build 14388 is rolling out to Insiders in the Fast Ring

I don’t see anything of interest, but will tromp on it overnight.

AskWoody is now secure

Well, anyway, it’s secure enough.

As noted by reader Simpson, https://www.askwoody.com works, and it gets 100% on the Calomel SSL Validation test.

We do have one cookie. It’s for Gravatar, a well-established, non-commercial site. https://en.gravatar.com/

There are no other cookies of any kind. I don’t require email addresses, and don’t store them even if you enter them. There are no passwords, so you don’t have to worry about the site getting hacked.

There is no advertising, except for the ad that I’ll be posting in a few weeks – and you’ll see that one, front and center.

UPDATE: My web site guy informs me that they have made changes to AskWoody, so you folks shouldn’t see any mixed content problems.

You can also sign up for email notifications when there are responses to a specific thread.

Finally, the security hole y’all identified should be plugged shortly. GreenGeeks is very responsive.

Some site hiccups

Following the suggestions from several of you, I’m switching AskWoody.com over to grant SSL access (via https) and to allow tracking of responses to specific threads.

I’ve heard of sporadic problems loading the site. I think they’re fixed if you hit Shift+F5 and try, try, again.

Send me email if you have any problems.

Win10 cumulative update KB 3172985 is out

Build 10586.494

The KB article is now available.

Details soon.

Patch Tuesday updates are out – are your scans any faster?

MS just released the Patch Tuesday patches, and there’s a big bunch of them. Security bulletin summary is here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms16-jul

Distressingly, Edge has another update to mirror the one in IE, with overlapping CVE numbers.

My main question at this point: Is the KB 3161647 speed-up “fix” working for you?

http://www.infoworld.com/article/3086811/microsoft-windows/microsoft-releases-kb-3161647-kb-3161608-to-fix-slow-windows-7-update-scans.html