AskWoody

Tasks for the weekend – September 25, 2021 – but what if you DO want Windows 11?

Youtube here  Unless you’ve been’ living under a rock, you’ll know that Windows 11 is to be officially released on October 5th. We don’t know when 21H2 will be released but I think it will be after October 5th.  Don’t worry after I give the all clear to install updates I’ll walk you through the setting to defer 21H2 and ensure Windows 11 won’t get installed in next week’s newsletter. Some of you that are the testers for the rest of your office/fleet may want to have Windows 11 as soon as possible.

So what should you do if you DO want Windows 11 on your existing computer? 

First off as we’ve said before, check that your hardware can support it. Keeping in mind that if you’ve done ANY group policy based deferrals of updates, the Microsoft tool will say that your organization manages patching on your machine.  Thus you’ll need to use a third party tool like WhynotWin11 instead.

Next click on search, device manager, go into your video card driver drivers and review the date of the drivers. Next go to the manufacturer of the video card drivers (don’t google and go to a random driver site) and see if there are newer drivers. If there are, install them.

Next check if you have the latest and greatest engine of your antivirus vendor. (This will be automatic with Microsoft Defender). Ensure you have the latest engine from your vendor – and if need be – uninstall and reinstall. Make sure your backup vendor will support Windows 11 as well.

Review for support from your vendors – see if they all support it at this time – and if they don’t you can deal with not using them if there is an issue.

…and remember – you can roll back to Windows 10, you can easily do so.  So after you install it, go through the applications and accessories like printers and scanners that are your bread and butter items and test to make sure they work. If they don’t, roll back, report it here, and we’ll let you know when the issues are fixed.

Sneak peak – testing out a new skin on the forum

Over on a test forum (where we turn it on when we want to test updates and new plug ins) I have a test going on a new “skin” for the forum. Note we’re still in testing – at the present time if you want post anonymously you have to enter anon as the user and anon@askwoody.com as the email address – we’re working on making that prefilled in if you don’t want to log into the site.

https://testaskwoody.holbihost.com/forums/

Bottom line check it out. Let me know please if you have any issues?

The goal is to make it WAY more obvious how to start a topic or reply.

Feedback please!

Do we need firmware and software updates forever?

Check out this article:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/we-need-software-updates-forever

Consumers have relied on the good graces of device makers to keep our gadget firmware and software secure and up-to-date. Doing so costs the manufacturer some of its profits. As a result, many of them are apt to drop support for old gadgets faster than the gadgets themselves wear out. This corporate stinginess consigns far too many of our devices to the trash heap before they have exhausted their usability. That’s bad for consumers and bad for the planet. It needs to stop.

We have seen a global right-to-repair movement emerge from maker communities and start to influence public policy around such things as the availability of spare parts. I’d argue that there should be a parallel right-to-maintain movement. We should mandate that device manufacturers set aside a portion of the purchase price of a gadget to support ongoing software maintenance, forcing them to budget for a future they’d rather ignore. Or maybe they aren’t ignoring the future so much as trying to manage it by speeding up product obsolescence, because it typically sparks another purchase.

Clearly they didn’t get my feedback

The Surface Go device is one of the lightest, best devices for traveling if you need a Windows device.  But there is a BUT in there.  The keyboard is a little too small/off and I kept hitting the wrong keys. So I traded up for a Surface Pro 7 + but it is a little heavier.

The Surface event is being held today and the Surface Go 3 doesn’t look like it got a larger keyboard.

Next up Surface 8 devices.

Interesting change that I didn’t realize was happening … my favorite business way to buy Surface devices WAS through the Liftforward/Surface all access program that you paid over time and then could upgrade/swap out as needed.  Looks like this shut down in March of 2021. Now they have Klarna as their partner.

You can watch the recording here.

Real-time MS-DEFCON alerts debut!

ISSUE 18.36 • 2021-09-20

MS-DEFCON

By Susan Bradley

The new AskWoody SMS alert system is now available for Plus members.

The MS-DEFCON system has been a staple of the AskWoody site for many years now. You know it as a visual system of numbers and colors that provides a quick indicator of the relative safety of applying updates (patching) to Windows and other Microsoft apps and services.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).

Older Geeks: Keeping it clean

PROFILES

By Chris Husted

Hidden away in a small town of 5,000 in the Missouri Ozarks is a small computer-repair shop run by a pair of self-confessed “super nerds” who over more than a decade have amassed some 4,000 freeware programs that all satisfy one steadfast credo: “No ads, no crapware, no b.s.”

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).

Apple gives privacy one minute

APPLE NEWS

By Silvia Eckert

“California streaming” ducks the controversial CSAM issue at last week’s annual iPhone event.

As reported by Brian Livingston in his column Apple plans to break its end-to-end encryption (AskWoody 2021-08-30), Apple announced about a month ago an initiative to limit the distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) by looking for inappropriate imagery on its customers’ devices and reporting occurrences to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But because the technology represented what amounted to surveillance that could be applied to virtually anything, an enormous amount of backlash against the initiative occurred.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.36.F (2021-09-20).

Reader wants the deets on failed Home v. Pro test

LANGALIST

By Fred Langa

OK, this is embarrassing: A reader called me out after my planned side-by-side Home/Pro test drive fell apart. (“Crashed and burned” might be more descriptive.)

So, with a deep gulp to swallow my pride, here’s where things went really, really wrong — and why.

Plus: Beyond simple disk wipes and overwrites, a better way to prep an old hard drive for safe resale!

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

Sanas makes emerging-market English sound American or British

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

A tiny tech startup says its software can almost instantly convert the accent of an ESL (English as a Second Language) speaker into a stream of audio that sounds almost exactly like an American or a British native speaker.

Sanas — whose domain name is Sanas.ai — is based in Palo Alto, California, and has used artificial intelligence to analyze thousands of ESL speakers in India, Latin America, the Philippines, and elsewhere. The AI system picks up differences in their speech patterns compared with Western speakers who learned English in childhood. The software’s output is like a 3-D printer for sound.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

Freeware Spotlight — SageThumbs

BEST UTILITIES

By Deanna McElveen

Some of the most common things I get asked about at our computer store are how to email a picture and how to make it smaller. Or, how to make a picture my desktop background image.

To us geeks, these tasks are pretty straightforward because we have done them hundreds of times; but to a novice who is just learning to use a computer, it can seem rather confusing.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

Back to School, Back to patching

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

September is the month for in-the-wild patching.

September is a month of change. From going back to school here in the United States to seasons changing all over the world, one thing remains constant: we have to patch. No matter what technology we have or use, it seems like this month, we’re patching it.

From Apple devices that are getting a fix for the targeted attack that allowed journalists to be spied upon, to Chrome’s several vulnerabilities that have already been used in targeted attacks, to Microsoft’s ActiveX and Office bugs that have already been seen in active attacks, you will probably be patching sooner versus later.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.36.0 (2021-09-20).

Tasks for the weekend – September 18, 2021 – it’s squirrel away time

(Video here) It’s squirrel away time. Time to download a copy of Windows 10 21H1 and ensure you have a copy in case you need it to do a repair install or a clean install.

To do this go to the Windows 10 ISO page and download a copy and place it on your computer or to a spare flash drive.

We think that 21H2 might be coming out soon but we’re not sure when. Microsoft is very focused on Windows 11 and I’ve yet to see an announcement surrounding the release of 21H2. Regardless I recommend downloading a copy and keeping it aside.

The other day I reinstalled from scratch on my home Lenovo laptop due to the fact that I wanted to really clean it up and it was slow in connecting via RDP. Once I got done installing the Windows 10, I went into device manager to see if there were any missing drivers. There were some missing. Even looking at the optional updates via Windows updates didn’t find all of the drivers. I ultimately went to the vendor web site and downloaded the drivers from there. There are a lot of third party websites out there that advertise that they can update your drivers. I strongly recommend not using these sites as some of them have less than stellar reputations.

As always if you have any issues with your computer, we’re here to help.