Winter is coming

PKCano advises that a whole bunch of Optional updates for Win7 and 8.1 have disappeared.

That’s usually a sign they’ll reappear as “checked” updates in the near future.

Wish everything were that predictable….

Can you “reserve” a free copy of Windows 10, yet continue to use Win7 or 8.1?

Chris Hoffman – who’s one of my favorite Windows writers – has an article in How to Geek explaining how you can install Windows 10 now, then roll back to Windows 7, thereby locking in your free upgrade to Windows 10, even if Microsoft pulls the free upgrade offer after July 29.

The steps he gives are clear and accurate. It’s just that… I’m not sure Microsoft will let you do that.

Technically, physically, yes it’s possible. Today. But I don’t think anybody knows if Microsoft will throw a monkeywrench (er, a spanner) into the works in late July.

If you want to take a chance on rolling back to Win7 (which is by no means a cakewalk), and you really want a free Win10, you can certainly give it a try. But I wouldn’t recommend it for two reasons.

First, as I said, Microsoft may frown on the procedure, and back up the frown with a game-altering glitch around July 29.

Second, I’m not at all convinced that Microsoft will get rid of the free upgrades after July 29. Paul Thurrott has a well-reasoned analysis on petri.com this morning. He doesn’t have any definitive answer, either.

Net Neutrality is under attack

AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Comcast are trying to sneak past Net Neutrality rules. They’re imposing bogus data caps (with throttling & fees if you hit the cap) and exempting some services from those caps… but not others. It’s just as bad as the fast lanes we fought to stop.

The web site battleforthenet.com has a petition you can sign. It’ll help.

I recently switched from a slow, expensive 300 GB data-capped Comcast line to a fast, expensive 1 TB data-capped fiber line from AT&T. Much, much better – but let’s not lose sight of the core problem.

XML Core Services 4.0 vulnerability on Windows 7 – unpatched and vulnerable for several years

This from IT:

Windows 7 links getting harder to use – DirectX edition

From reader MS:

New mystery patch KB 3152599 for Win10 showing on Windows Update servers

This from ch100:

Just noticed that I received KB3152599 Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 and Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems. It’s marked as a “Device Access Broker ACL.”

What seems unusual is that this patch is flagged as Updates in WSUS which is normally the category for Recommended and Optional using the pre-Win10 naming convention.

I don’t remember previous patches for Windows 10 flagged as “Updates”. All the other were either Security Updates or Critical Updates or the new Upgrades for the major ones – Service Pack like, i.e 10240, 1511.

There is no KB published yet, so I don’t have further information.

UPDATE: Rod Trent reports from WindowsITPro:

I’m told that this update should have never shown up in the normal WSUS infrastructure. The update is only intended for Insiders as part of the pre-release ring and is meant to fix an issue specific to the Start Menu in the Windows 10 upgrade process.

The shame of Windows Update

Michael Horowitz at Computerworld echoes a sentiment we’ve been debating for far too long.

The shame of Windows Update

20 fixes for Windows 10 cumulative update meltdowns

Has a Win10 cumulative update got you down? Here’s your first line of defense.

InfoWorld Woody on Windows

What’s next after Outlook Express?

Now here’s an interesting question, from WM:

Hey Woody,

Had to finally give up XP and jumped to W10.

Now, what’s the best alternative for Outlook Express. I used mine from the word go right up until the last dinosaur caught the bus. Not real keen on those web emails even with being free. Would like a suggestion for a “store-bought”one I can load from the disk.

‘Course you folks know I would recommend Gmail – but a non-web email program? Who’s for Thunderbird? Metro/UWP Mail? Something else?

How to replace Windows Live Mail with Thunderbird

I don’t want to start a religious war, but reader Conehead has the inside scoop on how to use Thunderbird with your Microsoft-supplied email addresses:

Windows Server and System Center 2016 telemetry whitepaper

Microsoft pub on TechNet:

This document provides our server and enterprise customers with the necessary information to make informed decisions about how to configure telemetry in their environments. It discusses telemetry as system data that is uploaded by the Connected User Experience and Telemetry component.  In this document we will focus on the telemetry data from Windows Server 2016 and System Center 2016.  We discuss how we use it to troubleshoot problems and improve our products and services.  There are also some references to Windows 10 because the underlying infrastructure in Windows Server is the same.

Tip o’ the Baker Street Irregulars hat to ch100.

Two April patches, KB3146706 and KB3147071, break AppLocker when used for whitelisting on an Admin account

From AB-