Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 2: April sprinkles

  Posted on April 4, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.14.1 • 2024-04-04

  

  By Susan Bradley

  In honor of spring (and the recent weather in my home state of California), let’s avoid my usual term. Updates are being “sprinkled” this month, not “dribbled.”

  It’s just terminology, though. Either way, I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2. Defer updates for both Windows 10 and 11.

  Meanwhile, I’ll put on my CPA hat for all you late filers out there. Don’t defer any longer — get those US income tax returns in! (Isn’t that aggravating enough?)

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.14.1, 2024-04-04).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, KB5035853, KB5035855, KB5035857, KB5035885, KB5037422, KB5037423, KB5037426, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 2, Patch Lady Posts, Windows 10 ESU

• MS-DEFCON 3: Consumers get a break

  Posted on March 27, 2024 at 16:36 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.13.1 • 2024-03-27

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Business patchers take heed.

  Usually, monthly updates have the same impact on both business and consumer PCs. This month, applying patches to consumer machines is generally safe, which would have earned a MS-DEFCON level of 4. But business machines are another matter; I’ve lowered the level to 3.

  For the most part, I think the business issues are resolved as of the publication of this alert. But we’re experiencing one of those media frenzies which is vastly overstating the occurrence of blue screens of death (BSOD).

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.13.1, 2024-03-27).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, KB5035853, KB5035855, KB5035857, KB5035885, KB5037422, KB5037423, KB5037426, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 3, Patch Lady Posts

• March Madness begins

  Posted on March 12, 2024 at 12:08 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Ready or not, here comes the March updates for Windows.

  Windows 10 22H2 gets KB5035845

  Known issues include:  “Copilot in Windows (in preview) is not currently supported when your taskbar is located vertically on the right or left of your screen.  To access Copilot in Windows, make sure your taskbar is positioned horizontally on the top or bottom of your screen. We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.”  This also removes the backup app from domain machines.

  Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2 get KB5035853.  This fixes the issue seen in earlier updates: “This update addresses a known issue that might affect the February 2024 security and preview updates. They might not install, and your device might stop responding at 96%. The error code is “0x800F0922.” The error message is, “Something did not go as planned. No need to worry – undoing changes. Please keep your computer on.””

  61 CVEs – see https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/releaseNote/2024-Mar 

  Exchange needs updating see – https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/released-march-2024-exchange-server-security-updates/ba-p/4075348

  If you are running Sonoma – remember 14.4 came out last week – https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT214084

  Zero day blog indicates it’s a mild March – now let’s see if it is in deploying these updates. Already got an early report that KB5035849 on Server 2019 is failing to download with an 0xd000034 error.

  Can repro personally:

  

  Windows Patches/Security KB5035845, KB5035853, Patch Lady Posts