Newsletter Archives

• EFI Partition issues?

  Posted on July 15, 2021 at 11:38 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Passing this along as a heads up… now mind you I have installed this patch on several machines with zero issues.  And point number two – remember ANY issue is recoverable if you have a backup.

  On a reddit thread, a poster is indicating issues with EFI partitions causing a no boot situation after the install of the July updates. An EFI partition is “The EFI partition (similar to the System Reserved partition on drives with the MBR partition table), stores the boot configuration store (BCD) and a number of files required to boot Windows. When the computer boots, the UEFI environment loads the bootloader”.

  Some things to keep in mind that monthly patches don’t move a EFI partition so I don’t think that’s what’s going on. When you have two EFI partitions that typically means you dual boot and I always consider a dual booting machine an advanced setup that you should consider a bit more carefully and ensure it’s backed up.

  I personally don’t dual boot, rather I use virtual machines as I feel it’s safer.

  But bottom line we’ll keep an eye on it and keep you posted.

   

  Windows Patches/Security July 2021 Black Tuesday, Patch Lady Posts

• July 2021 security updates are out

  Posted on July 13, 2021 at 12:35 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Which means we wait and see how the month fares before dipping our toes into the patching waters.

  Remember the Print spooler patch that was released earlier this month is also included in this batch. Microsoft has included the fix for the USB label printers (Zebra/Dymo) but if you have any label printer it would be wise to hold off – or at least prepare yourself to uninstall if you have to.

  Exchange (email server) has another patch so if you are still patching an on premises Email server, heads up!

  As always, holler if you do see issues and report in when you don’t, as it helps to see how many come through okay.

  Windows 7 ESU folks have a servicing stack update.

  Resources to read in the meantime:

  Dustin Childs’ Zero day blog

  Firefox 90 is out

  Security updates for Firefox

  Bleeping Computer – 9 zero days fixed

  Edit 7/14/2021 – added links to Master Patch page (Plus members only)

  So far not seeing anything major trending at this time, keeping an eye on things.

  Windows Patches/Security July 2021 Black Tuesday

• July 2021 Office non-Security updates are now available

  Posted on July 6, 2021 at 13:11 CDT by PKCano • Comment in the Forums

  The July 2021 Office non-Security updates have been released Tuesday, July 6, 2021. They are not included in the DEFCON-4 approval for the June 2021 patches. Unless you have a specific need to install them, you should wait until Susan Bradley (Patch Lady) approves them and any problems have been reported.

  Remember, Susan’s patching sequence and recommendations are based on a business environment that has IT support and may have time constraints on the updating process. Consumer patching should be more cautious due to limited technical and mechanical resources. The latter is the reason for the AskWoody DEFCON system.

  Office 2016
  Update for Microsoft Office 2016 (KB5001971)
  Update for Microsoft Outlook 2016 (KB5001980)

  There were no non-security listings for Office 2010 (which reached EOS on October 13, 2020) nor for Office 2013.
  On April 10, 2018, Office 2013 reached End of Mainstream Support. Extended Support will end for Office 2013 on April 11, 2023.
  Office 2016 also reached  End of Mainstream Support on October 13, 2020. EOS for Office 2016 is October 14, 2025.

  Updates are for the .msi version (perpetual). Office 365 and C2R are not included.

  Security updates for all supported versions of Microsoft Office are released on the second Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday).

  Office Patches/Security July 2021 Black Tuesday, July 2021 Office non-security updates, Office 2010, Office 2013, Office 2016