Newsletter Archives

• Microsoft is not fixing its mess

  Posted on May 3, 2024 at 03:00 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.18.1 • 2024-05-03

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Microsoft has now made it official. It does not plan to fix the mess it made with KB5034441.

  As you may recall, I was not pleased with how Microsoft handled this vulnerability. It took a sledgehammer to a problem that should have been handled with a precision tool. Instead of explaining the risks and letting business patchers make their own deployment calls, it shoved out an update that to this day is blocked on my sister’s Windows 10 PC due to the lack of sufficient space in the recovery partition.

  Read the full Plus Alert (21.18.1, 2024-05-03).

  AskWoody Plus Alert Alerts, Anywhere Access, BitLocker, Copilot, Edge, KB5034441, NTLM, Patch Lady Posts, VPN, WinRE

• MS-DEFCON 4: A “sort of” quiet February

  Posted on February 27, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.09.1 • 2024-02-27

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The February updates have generally been well behaved, with one major exception: gamers.

  Otherwise, things have been mostly quiet. That’s why I feel comfortable lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4. Patches are unlikely to cause most users any problems.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.09.1, 2024-02-27).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON .NET patches, Alerts, ConnectWise, Exchange Server, KB5034441, KB5034763, KB5034765, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Patch Lady Posts, ScreenConnect, SQL Server, WinRE

• February 2024 patches for Windows

  Posted on February 13, 2024 at 12:13 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

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

  Will we see a fix for our  KB5034441 for Windows 10 22H2 and in KB5034440 for Windows 11 woes? (so far, the answer is no)

  What we will see is “Highlights for Windows 11, versions 22H2 & 23H2 (cont.) •The Copilot in Windows icon will appear on the right side of the system tray on the taskbar. Also, the display of Show desktop at the rightmost corner of the taskbar will be off by default.”

  Ugh. And double Ugh.

  I’ll be adding more links to this post as I digest the info.

  And of course it’s a “dribbled” change

  • Note Windows 11 devices will get this new functionality at different times. Some of these new features roll out gradually using controlled feature rollout (CFR) to consumers.

  Remember if you get Copilot and don’t want it, we’ve got your back here and here.

  Grrrrrrrrrr and double grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

  Zero day blog on the updates released today.

  Exchange getting patched again today. SQL client fixes released in the OS patches so check those line of business database connections.  Not seeing any automated patch for the Windows RE issues. Office and specifically Outlook is getting fixed for a preview pane security issue.  Defender for endpoint getting fixes for zero day that led to malware being installed.

  Windows Security KB5034440, KB5034441, Patch Lady Posts, Windows Recovery Environment, WinRE, Zero Day

• MS-DEFCON 3: A bumpy start to 2024

  Posted on January 30, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.05.1 • 2024-01-30

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The partition-sizing problem that emerged earlier this month is not yet fixed.

  Fortunately, our deep examination of this bug has revealed nothing of a dangerous nature. Therefore, I am lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 3. It’s now time to carefully install the January updates.

  We continue to monitor the problem, described in KB5034441 for Windows 10 22H2 and in KB5034440 for Windows 11. Some, but not all, Windows 10 PCs are affected. I have urged you to check your partitions for issues with installing this update. We have written extensively about the problems, and the forums have been very active (see the From the Forums article in yesterday’s newsletter).

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.05.1, 2024-01-30).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, InControl, KB5034234, KB5034440, KB5034441, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 3, Patch Lady Posts, Recovery Partition, WinRE, WUShowHide

• KB5034441 has led us astray, in a horrible way

  Posted on January 22, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.04 • 2024-01-22

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  What’s with this Windows recovery partition thing?

  If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve been discussing the update associated with a BitLocker vulnerability (described in KB5034441) that may require a resizing of the Windows recovery partition to resolve.

  Microsoft’s handling of this problem has been so terrible that I was driven to raise the MS-DEFCON level to 1, just the fifth time I’ve considered it necessary.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.04.0, 2024-01-22).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Patch Watch CVE-2024-20666, Disk Management, KB5034441, KB5034957, MiniTool Partition Wizard, MS-DEFCON 1, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, REAgentC, Recovery Partition, Windows Recovery Environment, WinRE

• BitLocker-related update triggers install problems

  Posted on January 15, 2024 at 02:41 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  January starts off the year with a bang, in the form of an install problem that may affect some of your Windows 10 PCs.

  Fortunately, this problematic update is a separate security patch, not part of the normal cumulative Windows update nor of the .NET security updates.

  The problem occurs as the result of a recovery partition whose size is smaller than the patch requires. The size may have been set by the OEM. It may have been fine at the time of release, but the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) now needs more.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.03.0, 2024-01-15).

  Patch Watch CVE-2024-21305, CVE-2024-21325, KB5002500, KB5033920, KB5034123, KB5034441, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Surface, Windows Recovery Environment, WinRE

• Recovering from a failed Win10 Reset

  Posted on November 22, 2020 at 21:10 CST by Tracey Capen • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  By Fred Langa

  Win10’s cloud-based Resets are usually the fastest and easiest way to return a PC to a known-good, baseline state.

  Major Reset failures are rare, but the worst-case scenarios can leave a PC completely unbootable. Here’s what to do when a reset misadventure strikes.

  Plus: What’s with those weird two-headed USB connectors?

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.46.0 (2020-11-23).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Cloud-based refresh, USB connectors, Windows reset failures, WinRE

• Getting out of a no-boot situation after installing Windows updates

  Posted on February 11, 2018 at 05:54 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  @MrBrian has posted a very important addition to the AskWoody Knowledge Base

  AKB 2000009: Getting out of a no-boot situation after installing Windows updates

  It’s a step-by-step, real world guide to using the Windows Recovery Environment. Might just save your tail one day.

  Other Windows Recovery Environment, Windows Update, WinRE, WRE