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Patch Lady – COVID-19: The challenges of working from home

ON SECURITY

By Susan Bradley

“Social distancing” — such a simple-sounding phrase. But it’s having a titanic impact on our social and economic fabric. By any measure, we’re now living in uncertain times.

With so many folks being furloughed or laid off, consider yourself fortunate if you can work from home. For those who can, there’s a wealth of online information on remote computing. Here are some highlights for making the experience effective and safe.

And for all of you with kids staying home, I’ve included some information on home-learning resources.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

Win10 update breaks a USB modem?

LANGALIST

By Fred Langa

Networking issues can be daunting, but with a little prep work and Win10’s built-in, one-click Network reset option, you can usually get things going again.

Here’s what to do, step by step, to help ensure a successful repair of this and many similar networking problems.

Plus: MS Office won’t let a user type the word “you”!

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

Win10 optional updates placed on hold

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

As the world hunkers down in response to the COVID crisis, so does Microsoft.

On March 24, the company announced it would pause optional non-security patches (C/D-week updates), starting in May. I assume the April releases are already mostly baked.

The primary purpose of C/D-week updates — aka “previews” — is to let enterprises test non-security fixes before the formal releases go out — typically, two or three weeks later.

Microsoft will reportedly continue to ship the official monthly cumulative updates, but with this announcement, the company is clearly putting its focus on critical security patching. In effect, Microsoft is acknowledging that both it and its customers already have a lot on their plates.

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

Freeware Spotlight — A Thousand Words

BEST UTILITIES

By Deanna McElveen

As we’re all dragged into this new pandemic reality, PC-service clients are going to need remote assistance more than ever.

Unfortunately, many of those folks are not as computer-savvy as we might wish. So when users run into problems, they might find it difficult to convey what exactly is going awry. In many cases, simple screen shots will illustrate the problem far better than will describing it over the phone.

The aptly named A Thousand Words (ATW) is a handy screen-capture app from developer Andrew Lambert. The tool is specifically designed to be easy to use — suitable for PC users of any skill. If a problem can be seen on-screen, the machine’s user can launch ATW and follow a simple wizard to quickly grab shots of the fault. The user can then annotate the images and email the shots to a service tech (or the unofficial family IT person).

Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.12.0 (2020-03-30).

Patch Lady – KB4535996 issues?

Installing an update to Macrium Reflect tonight and in the release notes this caught my eye:

In response to potential file system corruption issues that could arise from applying some recent Windows Updates, we have reviewed our data integrity checks and implemented new features:
See https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/kb4535996/134c504e-bb55-4e3c-a5da-28794a4b6079

Note: The first Incremental after installing may take much longer than normal.

Clearly there are issues noted in that thread but I honestly haven’t seen side effects.  Bottom line don’t forget to update your backup software as well as your operating system.  ….. and read those release notes.

What to do with the time that is given us

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Mingis: Tech pitches in to fight COVID-19

Some refreshing news about our industry.

As IT pros around the world go all-out to support a workforce that’s suddenly fully remote, many technology workers and companies are also joining efforts to alleviate the COVID-19 crisis in various ways, including developing products to combat the virus, tracking and predicting its spread, and protecting hospitals from cyberattacks.

Pitch in and help!