Newsletter Archives

• The end of the road for Internet Explorer

  Posted on June 20, 2022 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Well, not quite. Sort of. Maybe. Partially.

  Over a year ago, Microsoft published the Internet Explorer 11 desktop app retirement FAQ, announcing that IE11 would be retired on June 15, 2022. (That’s last Wednesday, in case you missed it.) Retirement means the end of support. The FAQ is full of details, confusing and self-contradictory.

  So what does this really mean?

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.25.0, 2022-06-20).

  Patch Watch Internet Explorer, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch

• May updates fix risks to networks

  Posted on May 16, 2022 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  It’s looking like consumers may have an issue-free month — if they don’t run Windows 11 machines — and businesses will have to decide whether they want to patch sooner versus later.

  Once again, we have a vulnerability that has already been used and abused, but the good news for home and consumer users is that the vulnerability under fire is seen only in Active Directory domains.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.20.0, 2022-05-16).

  Patch Watch .NET Framework, Active Directory, browsers, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Windows Update

• Why can’t search just search?

  Posted on April 4, 2022 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Microsoft introduces “search highlights,” another feature we probably don’t want and didn’t ask for.

  In the April cumulative updates for Windows 10 and Windows 11, Microsoft will be bringing some changes to Windows’ desktop search. Unfortunately, it won’t fix what we really want fixed. Instead, it will be adding another feature we don’t want. The feature, called “search highlights,” began to roll out on March 22 to Windows 10 users who had installed the March 2022 preview update (KB5011543).

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.14.0, 2022-04-04).

  Patch Watch Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Search, Windows Search

• How Windows feature releases have changed

  Posted on March 28, 2022 at 02:41 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  There’s a reason why you don’t see “service pack” updates any longer.

  I am often asked why I recommend 21H2 when there are other releases of Windows still under support. The concern stems from the not unreasonable sense that a feature update is massively disruptive and from the reasonable desire to put off that pain as long as possible.

  But after so many years of updates that represented total swaps of Windows for a new version (remember service packs?), Windows 10 has brought welcome changes.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.13.0, 2022-03-28).

  Patch Watch Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch

• The madness of releases

  Posted on March 14, 2022 at 02:41 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  This month’s security updates for Windows 11 include some major changes. Alas, they don’t include one major wish item that everyone wants back: thumbnail views on folder contents.

  Microsoft does appear to have heard that feedback; starting with Windows 11 Build 22557, Microsoft is testing folder thumbnails again. But even in the March release of Build 22000.556, it is already moving items around.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.11.0 (2022-03-14).

  Patch Watch browsers, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Windows 11

• Understanding the zero days

  Posted on March 7, 2022 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  What do attackers go after?

  If you take a look at the known, exploited vulnerability listing as put out by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, you’ll find that the list is long and confusing. Even if you cut it down to just Microsoft and Apple, it’s still a bit overwhelming, to say the least.

  I’m going to focus on two bugs, to showcase differences in how the attacks occur on Windows and Apple and what the attackers are going after.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.10.0 (2022-03-07).

  Patch Watch Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Ransomware, Zero Day

• A sweetheart of a patching month

  Posted on February 14, 2022 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.07 • 2022-02-14

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Is Microsoft trying to win back our love?

  Microsoft may be giving us a Valentine’s Day patching reprieve: this month, we have no critical bugs being patched. Everyone, from home users to small-business users to large enterprises, can take a bit of a breather.

  The Windows Update releases this month include 70 vulnerabilities, none of which has any known exploits. For businesses, there are no Exchange patches to worry about. I therefore consider this a bit of a “cleanup” month, especially for anyone who skipped the January updates that caused so many side effects and concerns.

  Updates to .NET include security updates for 5.0.211, 5.0.405, and 6.0.102 — but not for older releases such as 4.8 and other earlier versions. However, you may still see these versions offered to your systems.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.07.0 (2022-02-14).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Newsletter 19.07.F (2022-02-14).

  Patch Watch Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch

• Keeping an eye on Apple updates

  Posted on February 7, 2022 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  In 2022, we will start to pay a bit more attention to security and update issues related to Apple devices and possibly other environments, such as Android.

  Don’t worry — our focus will continue to be on our core mission, which is providing guidance for the huge installed base of Windows PCs and servers. What we’ve learned over the past year is that many in our audience use something other than a Windows PC as a secondary device, and that almost everyone carries a smartphone. Apple’s device lineup is an obvious choice for second devices. And it appears Apple’s efforts with its own silicon, especially the M1 chip, are increasing interest in Macintosh PCs and high-end iPads.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.06.0 (2022-02-07).

  Patch Watch Apple, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch

• A bumpy road for January

  Posted on January 17, 2022 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  I’m always conservative, but this month you must delay applying updates to avoid side effects. Business patchers — you face tough choices.

  We are seeing reports of various issues with this month’s updates, some of which are so extreme that patching administrators in businesses have had to remove or roll back updates. Even for consumer and home users, I suggest holding off; it’s way too soon for me to feel comfortable recommending updates.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.03.0 (2022-01-17).

  Patch Watch Hyper-V, MS-DEFCON 1, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, ReFS, VPN

• Staying safe this holiday season

  Posted on December 27, 2021 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  This is the season of bright lights and holiday scams. Not a day goes by when I don’t receive notice that a credit card has an alert, a FedEx package has been delayed, or my bank account is overdrawn.

  I’ve seen bogus links to websites that want my credentials, that want to inject malware into my machine, that basically want to steal money from me. While most of the time these scams are very obvious, there are times when they make me stop and do additional checking — just to make sure that I’ve not been scammed. As we close the year, it’s a good time to remind ourselves of various tips and best practices to keep ourselves protected.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.50.0 (2021-12-27).

  Patch Watch Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch

• November cleans up October’s mess

  Posted on November 15, 2021 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Could we still see printing issues?

  Even though the 55 vulnerabilities fixed in November do not include any new Print Spooler updates, we are still to some extent in clean-up mode. Microsoft is at least acknowledging that issues remain that it is trying to fix.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.44.0 (2021-11-15).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Exchange, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Print Spooler

• Controlling Windows features

  Posted on November 8, 2021 at 02:41 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Is group policy on Windows 10 Home possible? I am enticed by the potential.

  I’ve seen several articles and posts about installing the Group Policy Editor (GPE) on a PC running Windows 10 Home edition. Cool, says I — an easier way to help control Windows updates on a Windows 10 computer. It’s always simpler and clearer to use the graphical user interface of the group policy management console rather than editing the registry, so I was excited to see whether this was possible.

  But it comes with a hitch. A tiny hitch. It’s not real.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.43.0 (2021-11-08).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Windows 11
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