MS-DEFCON 3: Some lingering problems, but it’s time to get Windows and Office patched

It’s time to get the July patches rolled into your Windows and Office systems, in spite of a handful of niggling bugs.

Computerworld Woody on Windows.

.NET patches — manual installation only — released

Windows 7 and 8.1 non-security .NET updates are now available, but only through the Microsoft Catalog.

Details on the Windows Software Update site.

Adobe announces the end of Flash in December 2020

… and not a moment too soon. I can’t imagine how much they’re spending on keeping the holes plugged in the holy mess.

Adobe Corporate Communications:

 we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.

I.e., HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly.

Microsoft’s announcement:

We will phase out Flash from Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer, culminating in the removal of Flash from Windows entirely by the end of 2020.

Good riddance, sez I.

Thurrott: We need a better plan for Windows

Paul hits it out of the ballpark again.

What [Windows] needs is a path to that future, one that has concessions for the needs to today, but a real plan to get us there [a better operating environment] over time… The thing is, they can’t. Not directly. But as you and I both know, what they can do is assume enough of the functionality and productivity of a traditional PC to make PCs even-less necessary to most people. And as they do, the ongoing free-fall in the PC market will simply continue as we race inexorably to a certain future.

It’s a Premium article, which means it’s paywalled. $48/year well spent.

Circling the tank

Gregg Keizer at Computerworld has the latest statistics on PC shipments — down between 3% and 4% year-on-year, depending on whether you believe IDC or Gartner.

Gartner pointed out that the year-over-year performance was the 11th consecutive quarterly decline, and the lowest volume for a three-month period since 2007

Windows was on 90% of the PCs.

KB 4025331 for Server 2012 and KB 4025336 for Server 2012 R2 breaking WSUS and SCCM

Summary from Günter Born on his BornCity blog.

• KB 4025336 blocks the client’s connection to WSUS

• After installing KB 4025331, no more Office and Windows updates could be installed from clients via SCCM.

In both cases, uninstalling the updates solves the problems.

No, MS Paint is NOT disappearing from Windows 10

Arrrrgh.

I see so much BS floating around. The coverage on this has been atrocious. No, you aren’t going to lose MS Paint.

Microsoft has released a list of features that are removed or deprecated in Win 10 1709, the (North American) Fall Creators Update due in September or October. It’s important to understand:

• Removed = Doesn’t ship with 1709. In some cases, there may be ways (varying degrees of difficulty) to put the feature back in 1709.
• Deprecated = It’s still in 1709, but Microsoft isn’t putting any effort into improving or fixing it.

A good example of the former is 3D Builder. I never used it, I doubt that you ever used it, and it’s being replaced by Paint 3D (which I won’t use either). Big yawner.

A good example of the latter is MS Paint. It’ll still be in 1709, but you shouldn’t expect any changes to it, or support for it. As if it has had any changes or support in the past decade or so anyway. I use it. I’ll continue to use it.

Some of you may feel nostalgic for Outlook Express, which is in the “Removed” category, but Microsoft hasn’t supported or updated OE for a decade, as well.

System Image Backup (the Win7-era “ghost” backup capability, built into Windows) is going on the Deprecated list, but MS hasn’t fixed or improved it in nigh on a decade, either.

One important feature that’s getting the axe: EMET. As Kirsty mentioned early this morning, there are some significant repercussions.

UPDATE: Just noticed that Paul Thurrott posted an accurate summary of the events yesterday.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Microsoft saw the controversy and felt moved to issue a clarification. MS Paint, it seems, will be in the Store, available for free.

Reported Type Cover problems with undocumented Surface Pro 4/Surface Book firmware update

Microsoft released a new round of firmware and driver updates for the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 on Friday. There’s no documentation and plenty of complaints.

Computerworld Woody on Windows.

UPDATE: Will wonders ever cease…. three days after pushing the patch on Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 owners, Microsoft just published the details.