Newsletter Archives

• My printer is offline!

  Posted on September 23, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  How often have you wondered why and how a networked printer has gone offline?

  For more than a few years, I was confounded when I discovered that a client’s networked printer had gone offline. Usually, I would reinstall the printer drivers, and that would take care of it. Recently, a new client gave me a clear explanation of events leading to a printer’s going offline.

  This is a networking problem, so I need to explain some networking concepts, principles, and software for reference later on.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.39.0, 2024-09-23).

  Ben's Workshop DHCP, Hardware, IPv4, IPv6, Networking, Newsletters, Printing, Routers, Web Services for Devices, WSD

• My hot annoyances

  Posted on November 6, 2023 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.45 • 2023-11-06

  WINDOWS

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Technology newsletters like ours often cover the annoying things about a new operating system.

  Taking potshots at such things is easy. They are new, they are different, and you didn’t have to deal with them before. But what about the aggravations in the operating systems we’ve been using for years? Or what if the vendors have rolled out new features and they are vexing, too? How do we deal with them?

  Here are some of my favorite (?) peeves.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.45.0, 2023-11-06).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Windows Dark mode, Migrating Printers, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Printing, Suggestions, Windows 10, Windows update failures

• Would you ever run an MS-DOS program in 64-bit Windows?

  Posted on February 6, 2023 at 02:43 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Let’s see if we can find good reasons to continue to use a 30-year-old MS-DOS program.

  Recently, a client asked me whether it was possible to run an MS-DOS program important for his business on a modern Windows 10 laptop, rather than his 15-year-old laptop with Windows XP. I asked him for his reasoning and quickly rejected out of hand the possibility of installing a 32-bit version of Windows 10 to run his DOS program, an extremely limited use for a laptop. And with a look to the future, there is no 32-bit Windows 11, either.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.06.0, 2023-02-06).

  Hardware DOS Emulators, MS-DOS, Newsletters, Printing, vDOS

• 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 3: We’re not out of the printing woods yet

  Posted on November 23, 2021 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.45.1 • 2021-11-22 By Susan Bradley The big news last week was Microsoft’s finally releasing Windows 10 version 21H2 and aligning the Windows 10 and Windows 11 annual feature release cadence. Changing the feature release cadence for Windows to an annual schedule is long overdue. From the first moment Microsoft announced that Windows 10 feature updates would be released on a semiannual basis, I’ve felt that the constant release process was too often, too fast. It’s good to see Microsoft finally listening to the feedback. Granted, it was pushed into this decision by the release of Windows 11, but I’ll take the win nonetheless. Now that 21H2 is officially out, I recommend sticking with 21H1 for the moment. That said, 21H2 will be a relatively easy and fast update with very few side effects. But I’m a cautious patcher and never install feature releases during the first week they are out. As November comes to a close, it’s again time to evaluate whether you can perform the basic process we all call “printing.” I discussed the annoyance of these constant and seemingly intractable printing problems in yesterday’s On Security column. The ongoing issues with printing force me, once again, to set our MS-DEFCON status at level 3. Exercise caution. Consumer and home users If you install the updates for November and can still print, pat yourself on the back and relax until next month. If you are still having issues with printing, I recommend installing the preview updates listed in the Master Patch list. For certain shared printers in peer-to-peer networks, we are still seeing issues triggered by the November 9 updates. While Microsoft has released out-of-band updates for authentication issues, they have not put the same priority on printing issues triggered by the updates. Business users Already, we’ve seen the out-of-band update KB5008602 to fix a known issue triggered on domain controllers and single sign-on that might cause authentication failures related to Kerberos tickets you acquired from Service for User to Self (S4U2self). This issue occurs after you install the November 9, 2021, security updates on domain controllers (DCs) that are running Windows Server, and you need to install this update on your domain controllers to fix this issue. References AskWoody Master Patch List Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Alert 18.45.1 (2021-11-22).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 3, Patch Lady Posts, Printing

• 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

• Printing is a nightmare, once again

  Posted on October 25, 2021 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The October updates are again triggering issues with some — but not all — printers.

  This month, printing problems are rearing their heads with older platforms hosting the print server. After reviewing many postings describing this situation, I find the operating systems on the older platforms are no longer being updated and thus not getting the PrintNightmare fixes. Then, when client workstations that have been updated try to print, printing fails.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.41.0 (2021-10-25).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Printing, Windows Update

• MS-DEFCON 4: The printing issues continue

  Posted on September 28, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.37.1 • 2021-09-28 By Susan Bradley Printing or security — you decide We’re back to reasonable levels of safety and of understanding the nature of recent updates, so I’m recommending the resumption of update installation — but not without some major caveats. Sadly, there are still some side effects with printing, which is getting to be an annoying trend. It’s been months now. These updates also include new and expanded categories plus registry keys that allow you to officially defer Windows 11 and then choose to push off the upcoming 21H2 release. More about that later. Consumer and home users I haven’t seen printing problems with directly attached printers, the most likely scenario for home users. Therefore, I recommend applying the September updates now. The reason is that this month’s updates include expanded sections to choose various versions of Windows 10 or Windows 11 and specifically block what you don’t want. For those of you on Windows 10 Professional, after installing the September updates you’ll be able to click on the search box and type in “edit group policy.” Next, scroll down to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Update, and Windows Update for Business. Find the setting for Select the target Feature Update version. Click on Enabled, fill in the product version in the first box (“Windows 10”), and then the feature release version you want to keep. Of course, Windows 10 Home can’t do group policy. Instead, use registry keys to defer Windows 11 and stay on the version of Windows 10 you want. You’ll be adding a value under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate Manually add the values “TargetReleaseVersion”=dword:00000001, “ProductVersion”=”Windows 10”, and “TargetReleaseVersionInfo”=”21H1”. I’ve made it easier for you by including links to download these registry keys. If you want to stay on 21H1, click on this link and install it on your system. If you plan to let your machine upgrade to 21H2, click on this link. And if you leave the setting alone and do nothing, and your computer does not have the hardware capabilities for Windows 11, you will not be offered the upgrade. If you do have hardware that can handle Windows 11, you’ll be offered — but not pushed to — Windows 11. Business users First the good news: Microsoft has finally acknowledged what we’ve known for weeks now — its updates trigger issues if your users do not have administrator rights. The bad news is that it hasn’t yet acknowledged the issues we’ve seen this month, nor are any fixes planned. Microsoft will only urge us to Verify that you are using the latest drivers for all your printing devices and where possible, use the same version of the print driver on the print client and print server. Microsoft indicates that the trigger is … caused by a print driver on the print client and the print server using the same filename, but the server has a newer version of the file. But here’s the problem: We never installed a newer driver on the server. We did nothing but install the software update to the server. I know that many of these notifications are triggered by the use of v3 (older) printer drivers versus v4 printer drivers. If you cannot upgrade to v4 drivers, you have a couple of options to “re-push” out drivers to fix this issue. Unfortunately, in this era of cumulative updates you can’t break out the parts of the update you want from the parts you don’t want. So if you don’t install this update this month, you put your business at risk from MSHTML-based ransomware attacks (CVE-2021-40444).  If you make the decision to not install these updates, make sure you use the registry keys I wrote about earlier to block the MSHTML vulnerabilities. Don’t go unpatched and unprotected. References AskWoody Master Patch List Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Alert 18.37.1 (2021-09-28).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON AskWoody Plus Newsletter, MS-DEFCON 4, Patch Lady Posts, Printing
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