Newsletter Archives

• 22H2 not ready for consumers

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

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  I don’t like to be an alarmist. Nor do I like to base my technology decisions on one anecdote.

  But when a friend of mine who owns a Windows 11 computer called to tell me about issues he experienced with Windows 11 22H2, I got concerned.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.46.0, 2022-11-14).

  Patch Watch Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Print Spooler, Security, Windows, Windows 11

• MS-DEFCON 2: Printing issues, again

  Posted on August 4, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.31.1 • 2022-08-04

  

  By Susan Bradley

  This time we’re forewarned, and the problem probably won’t affect many.

  Here we go again. Month after month this year, updates have affected printing in some way, and the side effects have ranged from minor to major (such as printers being completely disabled).

  Fasten your seatbelts anyway, although chances are that many of us won’t notice this side effect at all. In fact, the security fix causing this side effect has actually been installed on our systems for over a year. Starting with the July and August updates, “hardening” is finally being enabled. Still, prudence demands raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (19.31.1, 2022-08-04).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON AskWoody Plus Alerts, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 2, Patch Lady Posts, Print Spooler, Printing

• MS-DEFCON 4: July updates make some hot and bothered

  Posted on July 26, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.30.1 • 2022-07-26

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Access bugs ruin a quiet July, but we can still lower MS-DEFCON to 4.

  To any reader of this alert who is sweltering in a heat wave, my sincere condolences. I can slightly relate, as I’m having the normal July heat wave in my neck of the woods.

  The big difference is that my area of the country is used to this weather. Thus I’m inside an air-conditioned home, remotely accessing office workstations and servers to perform the monthly maintenance tasks while some of you are … well … just really hot and really uncomfortable. Fortunately for us, this month’s Windows and Office updates were mostly well behaved.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (19.30.1, 2022-07-25).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON AskWoody Plus Alerts, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Patch Lady Posts, Print Spooler

• Why is printing so hard to get right?

  Posted on November 22, 2021 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.45 • 2021-11-22

  Look for our special issue on November 29!

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  I work in an industry that keeps promising we are going paperless, but we still find ways to kill trees. Even though I regularly print to PDF, I continue to print to various desktop and network printers.

  Physical printing is still very important to me and many other professionals. Any problem with printing will affect productivity. Each month, when new updates come out, one of my top priorities is to test printing. Can I print? If I can, then I know I can keep the new patches installed. But why are we constantly fighting issues with printing, and why are we constantly patching our systems for printing?

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.45.0 (2021-11-22).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.45.F (2021-11-22).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Print Spooler, Printing, Security

• 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