Newsletter Archives

• Is virtualization right for you?

  Posted on August 12, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  With any major change from one OS version to another, such as the leap from Windows 10 to 11, I determine whether to keep the old version around, just to run an application that hasn’t yet made the leap.

  I could keep an old PC on hand with the older OS and app. That might be useful if the older app has a more useful feature than the new version. It’s probably easier to do this in a business setting, where holding on to an old PC is less disruptive, but even home users can keep older technology if they’ve got the space.

  The alternative is to create a virtual machine (VM) on the new PC — one that runs the old OS and thus the older app.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.33.0, 2024-08-12).

  On Security Disk2vhd, Hyper-V, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Virtual Machines, Virtual PC, VirtualBox, VMWare, Windows Sandbox

• Decommissioning Outlier

  Posted on April 22, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Will Fastie

  After 25 years, I’m changing the way I work. Many hardware changes are on the horizon.

  You may recall my previous articles about building my Windows 11 PC, named Obsidian. After I put that PC into daily service, my desk remained cluttered with four desktop PCs. These PCs share the same keyboard, display, and mouse; this means I use a physical KVM switch to move between them.

  That’s been important to me. I help many family members and friends with their PCs. Having the KVM setup always allowed me to bring a “visiting” PC to my desk, where I could work on it conveniently. But the nature of that help has changed; I no longer need the physical infrastructure for that.

  Which means I needed a justification for keeping all those PCs around. A few things changed, which resulted in a completely new perspective about my desktop. Let me start with a reminder of how I used the four systems.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.17.0, 2024-04-22).

  Hardware Desktop PCs, DIY, Hardware, KVM, Newsletters, Recycling systems, Virtual Machines, Virtual PCs

• How secure is your most-used operating system?

  Posted on April 1, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  This is the April Fool’s edition of the newsletter.

  But don’t worry. I’m not going to try to trick you by saying that Microsoft made an announcement that it is giving up on Copilot and AI (with its huge investment, it won’t). Or by telling you that every tech vendor just announced that all security fixes will be free forever (after all, they want incentives for us to upgrade). Or explaining that suddenly, your major operating system is absolutely, positively secure and will remain so for the rest of our lives (check out the newest vulnerability tomorrow).

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.14.0, 2024-04-01).

  On Security Browser Extensions, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Virtual Machines, Web Browsers

• Sandboxie-Plus — A safe place for apps to run

  Posted on February 12, 2024 at 02:43 CST by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  Whether trimming the rose bushes, pulling weeds in the garden, or watering the hanging pots, and when needing to take my eyes off my tiny twin girls, I just plopped them down in the sandbox.

  It’s hard to do real-world damage to a castle when it’s only a castle in a sandbox. You can treat programs the same way.

  In the sense of software, a sandbox is a way of running software in a protected space (virtualized) so that it can run as normal but can’t do any harm to the host computer.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.07.0, 2024-02-12).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, Virtual Machines, Virtualization

• Can I install that on that?

  Posted on August 21, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  SOFTWARE

  

  By Susan Bradley

  I’m going to see how well the applications and tools I regularly use work on vastly different platforms.

  Can we install a contemporary Linux distribution and still run our favorite Windows applications? What about Windows applications on a Mac? Do you think we can?

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.34.0, 2023-08-21).

  Software ChromeOS, CrossOver, Linus, macOS, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Virtual Machines, Windows

• Taking another look at Sandbox

  Posted on October 18, 2020 at 21:00 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 10 2004

  By TB Capen

  Back in June of last year, we published a first look at Windows 10’s then-new Sandbox feature.

  Simply put, Sandbox creates a virtual version of Windows 10 that you can use for software and configuration testing. Whatever happens in Sandbox mostly stays in Sandbox.

  Sandbox debuted in Windows 10 1903 to great interest … until reports of issues with the tool started rolling in. Now with Win10 2004, Microsoft has enhanced its virtual machine — and hopefully won’t break it again.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.41.0 (2020-10-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Windows 10 Releases AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Sandbox, Virtual Machines, Win10 2004

• How to work and play in Win10’s new Sandbox

  Posted on June 10, 2019 at 02:05 CDT by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  First offered with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update (aka Version 1903), the new Sandbox feature provides users a safe, protected area to install and run untested programs.

  Trying out new software is great, but installing and running unknown, untested, or possibly unsafe applications could present a significant risk to your Windows environment.

  One of the better safeguards is sandboxing, which isolates apps from the rest of your system.

  See the full story in the June 10, 2019, AskWoody Plus Newsletter (Issue 16.21.0)

  Hardware, Windows 10 Releases, Windows News AskWoody Plus Newsletter, sandboxing, Virtual Machines, Win10 1903