Welcome!

Welcome to AskWoody.com. Here’s a quick overview designed to get you going in no time.

Windows Secrets Refugees

You probably know that Informa/Penton – the company that owned Windows Secrets – has pulled the plug. Not to worry. You’ll likely find your old helpers and mentors have made the leap, and we add more every day. The format here is a bit different, posting rules are more rigorously enforced, but if you give it a shot, I bet you’ll fit right in.

The move to AskWoody may be more than a bit jarring. I think of it this way. Windows Secrets was a big bulletin board with a newsletter tucked into a tiny corner. AskWoody, by contrast, is a blog, with a weekly newsletter (and sporadic alerts), and a bulletin board tacked on the side.

If you’re looking for the familiar list of Windows Secrets forums, look at the bottom of this page. There’s a reference table that (I hope) will make navigating a little easier.

General layout

The blog is the part you see running down the left side of the site — it concentrates on tech news.

The Lounge (bulletin board) takes over much of the right side. There are different Forums for major areas of concern — Windows 10, for example, or Browsers or Mac. Within each Forum is a bunch of Topics, each corresponding to a question or answer. Within each Topic lie Replies, which are the messages people post back and forth.

To follow along with the latest news, read the left side of the page. To ask (or answer!) questions, start on the right.

Up at the top you’ll see my warnings about the current state of Windows and Office patches — the MS-DEFCON number and recommendations for installing or holding on the latest patches. If you’re interested in more detail, and want to take on all the tech stuff, check out Susan Bradley’s Master Patch List. Follow those instructions and you’ll have far fewer Winthings go bump in the night.

Make your questions count

From @geekdom:

Your account

If you don’t have an account, not to worry. Setting up a new one is easy and free. In the upper right corner, click the link marked Register. If you have trouble registering (most commonly a duplicated email address, or a confirmation email that’s gone AWOL), shoot me a message at CustomerSupport@AskWoody.com.

If you’re logged in to your account, you can see your display name in the upper right corner of this page. To set or change your avatar (your picture), you need to run through gravatar.com. To change your password or email address, click on your display name (underneath your picture, which may look like a gray watermelon) and choose Edit. To see your username, click Edit and look about halfway down the page in the section marked Account. Your username is grayed out because you can’t change it.

If your username looks like an email address, we need to get you moved over to a “proper” AskWoody account. Drop me a line and we’ll get you moved — and your old subscription will go along with you. Promise.

One you’re logged in, post away, but be aware of the admittedly retro Lounge rules — no personal attacks, no swearing (my 9-year-old reads the posts!) and politics and religion go in the Rants forum. We’re keeping AskWoody at the upper end of the gene pool, quite deliberately.

Yes, we do accept anonymous posts. Lots of good reasons why people want to remain anonymous. Just remember that each anonymous post is moderated – reviewed – before it’s allowed to appear. Moderation can take hours or even longer. To cut down on spam accounts (dozens a day), we moderate the first few posts from new users as well. You need to complete a CAPTCHA challenge before registering for a new account, or making an anonymous post.

There’s a Getting Started FAQ-ish post worth reading. We also have a Topic set up for new Loungers — introduce yourself and join in the fray!

Windows Secrets Forum cross-reference

For those of you accustomed to the Windows Secrets forums, here’s a list of hotlinks that may help you get oriented here on AskWoody.

We have many more forums on the Forums page, which you can see by clicking the Forums tab up at the top.