AskWoody

Patch Tuesday poll – how is the testing going?

Well how is everyone doing the day after in your early testing of the updates?

April Patch Tuesday out – Exchange once again

Patches are just coming out.

Small business guidance up first:

https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/blog/2021/4/13/the-april-2021-security-update-review

– CVE-2021-28480/28481 – Microsoft Exchange Server Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

Both of these CVEs are listed at a 9.8 CVSS and have identical write-ups, so they both get listed here. Both code execution bugs are unauthenticated and require no user interaction. Since the attack vector is listed as “Network,” it is likely these bugs are wormable – at least between Exchange servers. The CVSS score for these two bugs is actually higher than the Exchange bugs exploited earlier this year. These bugs were credited to the National Security Agency. Considering the source, and considering these bugs also receive Microsoft’s highest Exploit Index rating, assume they will eventually be exploited. Update your systems as soon as possible.

How to customize and manage your Microsoft Account

ISSUE 18.13 • 2021-04-12

MICROSOFT

By Lance Whitney

You can view and administer your subscriptions, devices, family members, rewards, and other aspects of your Microsoft account through a dedicated website.

You have a Microsoft account that you use to sign in to Windows and possibly to other apps such as Outlook, Office 365, OneDrive, and Skype. But maybe there are aspects of your account that you’d like to tweak or at least review. Microsoft offers a website that serves up all the relevant details and settings on your account.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.13.0 (2021-04-12).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.13.F (2021-04-12).

New smartphone? Great! Now don’t charge it past 80%

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

Sales of new smartphones are skyrocketing — Samsung’s new S21 line sold three times as many units in the US in March 2021 as last year’s S20 series did in the same period, according to SamMobile — but few people are learning from the manufacturers about these phones’ dirty little secret.

That’s the fact that charging these devices’ lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries to a full 100% wears out a great deal of your battery’s capacity within a year or two. This has been written about before. But in this story, I’ll show you how to triple the usable life of your gadgets’ batteries — either on your own or using a simple app.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.13.0 (2021-04-12).

Check or change Win10’s file-sharing encryption level

LANGALIST

By Fred Langa

If you’ve upgraded your PC from Win7, Win8, or early Win10 versions, it may still be using a thoroughly obsolete and nearly useless level of encryption for file sharing!

Plus: More on “stuttering mice” and a potentially dangerous charger-cord fire hazard!

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.13.0 (2021-04-12).

Freeware Spotlight — Killer

Best Utilities

By Deanna McElveen

It’s thorough, it’s free, it’s portable, it’s a little dangerous, and it has a knife icon. What’s not to love? 

Remember the good old days when Task Manager had just one or two processes showing for each running program? Not 47 of them (looking at you, Google). Remember when you could kill this fella by ending one process?

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.13.0 (2021-04-12).

Known Issue Rollback

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

Patches that fix themselves

Every month we receive updates to keep us secure, but sometimes they cause other side effects. If only Microsoft had a mechanism to roll back the side effects of any update. But wait — at least for some updates, it does.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.13.0 (2021-04-12).

MS-DEFCON 2 – Deferring the April Updates

ISSUE 18.12.1 • 2021-04-11

By Susan Bradley

Brace yourself for April updates

It’s the time of the month to pause for updates. You will recall that the March updates were very disruptive and many of you decided to not install that round. The April releases are cumulative so you won’t have to go back and install the March updates. Instead, we’ll take a long pause to see what April brings.

If you are a home/consumer user, I recommend two actions to ensure you do not get inadvertent updates. First, select Start, Settings, Network & Internet, and then Wi-Fi or Ethernet (whichever connection you are using). Next click Manage known networks, click on the network that you use, click Properties and turn on Set as metered connection. This “tricks” the computer into thinking that your Internet connection is not unlimited (i.e., you might incur charges) and thus will only download patches once you approve the process.

The second action is picking a deferral date after April 13, when the next Patch Tuesday security releases will be pushed out by Microsoft. Click on Start, Settings, Update & Security, then click on Advanced Options. Pick a date far enough in the future to give you comfort. I always wait at least a week, usually more. I’ll be reevaluating the update situation closer to the end of the month, but for now choosing April 30 should be safe enough.

Remember: For those of you running Windows 10 1909, support is coming to an end. After May 11, 2021, 1909 will not receive security updates. In accordance with prior advice, update to 20H2; 21H1 is just around the corner.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Alert 18.12.1 (2021-04-11).

Tasks for the weekend – April 10, 2021 – change your Office

Youtube here

Office Click to run normally installs on the monthly version. This means features can be installed every month. I find it changes too much too fast. So I recommend that if you want more stability that you choose the semi-annual version. Note ANY VERSION of Click to run can be done to made to do this flip to what I call the fuddy duddy versions that don’t change as much as the monthly version.

You can follow this blog post to do this.

To change to the semi-annual channel, from an administrative command prompt:
cd C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\ClickToRun
OfficeC2RClient.exe /changesetting Channel=Deferred
OfficeC2RClient.exe /update user

It will take some time and then there you are, on the “fuddy duddy” version that I think works better.

Inside tech support scams

My Dad spotted this article in the latest AARP bulletin:

Inside an International Tech-Support Scam (aarp.org)

It’s an interesting read.

As he says… “What’s the ultimate solution to this growing fraud menace? Realistically, it will require a mix of tough law enforcement, tighter regulations and increased education to warn consumers of these evil practices.”

Just a reminder, if you have any stories or tips you can send them to Brian Livingston, Public Defender as scams and tricks are what he loves to investigate best.

How much RAM does your computer have?

The other day someone said that their new “normal” for Windows 10 machines was 16 gigs of RAM. It got me to wondering…what is your normal amount of RAM that is in your Windows machine?

Are you a Consultant or IT Pro?

I’ll be speaking virtually at the SMBTechFest coming up on April 15th on the topic of Security in the news. If you are a SMB consultant I highly recommend signing up for the presentations.

Highlighted speakers include