Closing the year on patching

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

We need a little Copilot, now.

I have a favorite Christmas song called “We Need a Little Christmas” (now). That comes to my mind because for those of you who want to partake in the artificial intelligence experiment know as Windows Copilot, you may end up humming the slightly modified song “I Need a Little Copilot” (now).

The December updates start to bring Copilot into Windows 10. I say “start” because, like many things in Microsoftland, features and changes are no longer released en masse to everyone in the form of a service pack. Instead, the changes are dribbled out or limited to certain geographical areas.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.51.0, 2023-12-18).

Just a reminder – you don’t want this setting

Remember how I don’t recommend preview updates?  I also don’t recommend that you opt into them either.

As Alex pointed out back in November, Microsoft is “backporting” into Windows 10 some of the same buttons and features that Windows 11 has. One of them is this button that you can turn on, or in my case, strongly recommend you keep off, the “Get the latest updates as soon as they are available.

No, we don’t want to be beta testers anymore than we are now.

Just a reminder, still haven’t approved updates, still monitoring for side effects.

Master patch list for December 12, 2023

I’ve updated the Master Patch list for the December updates.  I’ll be updating the page for any known issues or issues that we are tracking. I will keep the latest info there.  There are no .NET updates this month so the updates are installing pretty quickly.

Mind you at this time I still have not given the go ahead. But I know some of you are testing updates at this time.

Windows 10 unmanaged PCs may start to see Copilot.  To disable this use Download reg file to disable Windows Copilot  I’ve seen it dribbled on some, but not all machines.

As always, thank you all for supporting the cause! Remember we use the “name your price” model where you can choose how much you will pay for  a membership . Plus membership gives you access and if you donate $50 or more you’ll get a special code to enable text messages sent to your phone each time the Master Patch List gets updated and when I change the MS-DEFCON level.  More details in Monday’s newsletter.  You are missing out if you don’t sign up. All content is human made with our own blood, sweat, tears, fingers and brain power and 100% AI free.  Therefore, if I’ve fat fingered any KB numbers or if you have any questions, as always post in the forums and I’ll follow up!

We need a little December Copilot

Well…. some of us want the present of Copilot and some of us would rather get that gift after the bugs get worked out.  Once again we have the December updates – the LAST updates to be installed for 2023.  Remember we are in test and watch out for issues mode right now.

To see what changes are coming to Windows 10 you can check out the details in the November 30 preview update.

I’ll be researching and documenting the side effects on the Master Patch list. In the meantime if you have an Ipad or iphone, especially an older version, ensure you update it ASAP for zero day patches out yesterday.

This is a small release month.  Four critical bugs, 29 important. NO zero days (unlike Apple)

Two of them look prime for being abused by Ransomware actors, the MSHTML bug of CVE-2023-35628 and the Outlook bug of CVE-2023-35636 both look like attackers will use these to allow remote unauthenticated attackers to use email as a vector to gain more access as well as disclose NTLM hashes.

Apple releases several updates for zero days

Apple is once again sending out zero day fixes including backporting fixes to older iPhones.

Several of these have to do with bugs in webkit and keep in mind that even if Safari is not your default browser, webkit is still in play

Make Windows 11 easier to see, hear, and use

ACCESSIBILITY

By Lance Whitney

Whether or not you have specific disabilities or limitations, you can take advantage of a variety of accessibility settings to make Windows 11 more usable and accommodating.

My eyes became much drier following eye surgery last year. As a result, my eyesight can at times get fuzzy, so I’ve had to adjust certain visual settings in Windows 11 so that I can more easily see text and other on-screen elements.

If you’ve run into your own issues trying to see, hear, or otherwise use Windows 11, Microsoft offers several key accessibility features that can help. Here’s how they work.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.50.0, 2023-12-11).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

How Xbox and Windows work together

WINDOWS

By Simon Bisson

Windows, Xbox, and the cloud are changing the shape of gaming. And maybe Windows itself.

Microsoft’s Xbox gaming console is, at heart, a very specialized Windows PC built around a custom AMD processor and designed to be a living-room gaming and media platform. Because developers can use the same tools to build Xbox and Windows apps, it is as much a replacement for gaming capabilities of the discontinued Windows Media Center edition — with applications from most streaming providers, as it is a built-in Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) support.

But there’s more to the relationship between the two platforms than that, with Microsoft starting to blur the boundaries between its two consumer platforms.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.50.0, 2023-12-11).

UpdateHub — Safety in updates

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

By Deanna McElveen

Outdated software is one of the most common vulnerabilities that hackers use to gain a foothold in a computer system. Software authors fix their software by releasing updates when a vulnerability is discovered.

Some software keeps itself updated even if you don’t use it. Most software prompts you for an update when you open it. But many programs don’t tell you about updates unless you click a “check for updates” button or something similar.

If you think all the software on your computer is being kept updated automatically, you are probably wrong — unless you are using a software-updating program such as UpdateHub by the California-based company, Nexova Dev.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.50.0, 2023-12-11).