AskWoody

New PC? Lost your Microsoft account password?

ISSUE 18.15 • 2021-04-26

MICROSOFT

By Ben Myers

If your dog ate your Microsoft account credentials, Microsoft will welcome you to the tenth circle of hell.

You probably don’t want to hear this, because you’ve been nagged this way before; but make sure you have a safe record of your user credentials for every online account you maintain. Just do it.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.15.F (2021-04-26).

New M1 devices from Apple

APPLE NEWS

By Will Fastie

Last week Apple welcomed more models into its family of M1-powered devices, including two new iPads!

I listened to last Tuesday’s Apple event announcing a new iMac and the new iPads as well as several other less important products. I have a lot of thoughts not only about the products, but also about how Apple might interact with us in the future.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.15.F (2021-04-26).

The coming battle for control of the Internet

LEGAL BRIEF

By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

The Supreme Court is not required to explain itself.

It decides cases by majority vote, and it is up to the justices to decide how much or how little information to provide to explain why they voted the way they did. Typically, there is one opinion explaining the Court’s decision (and, if the decision is not unanimous, a dissenting opinion explaining the disagreement) and an indication of which justices join in the decision. When a justice takes the additional step of writing a separate opinion, it does not change the outcome but does provide valuable information. Not only does it give us insight into nuances of that justice’s view, it also tells us that the justice considers it so important that it is worth the extra work of explaining it.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).

RAID 0 error = Total data loss!

LANGALIST

By Fred Langa

RAID — Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks — is an old technology that offers few real benefits on today’s standard PCs — but man, does it have drawbacks!

Today’s first reader-submitted letter illustrates the case. A system problem rendered essentially all the user’s data inaccessible and unrecoverable, across the entire RAID array!

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).

Freeware Spotlight — Complete Internet Repair 8

BEST UITILITIES

By Deanna McElveen

The tools on your flash drive save you time — and the time of your client.

In my former life as an elementary school teacher, I was never opposed to kids using calculators to skip some of the basics and get right to more advanced math skills. Let’s face it, using a calculator to do the easy stuff so you can get a head start on figuring out how to get us to Alpha Centauri is not cheating. Punch in 7 times 8 a few thousand times, and you’re going to learn it.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).

Computing should adapt

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

Even though the 21H1 version of Windows is not yet officially released, Microsoft is already planning on changes for the next feature release.

 We’re getting hints of what Microsoft has in store for 21H2. BleepingComputer reports that many of the changes will be in the Start Menu, Taskbar, Action Center (notification center), and File Explorer, among others. One of the most visible changes will be to icons, as Microsoft itself has hinted. In fact, if you want to obtain the icons without going through the insider program process, there are websites where you can download the bundle of icons and install them on your computer running 20H2 and perhaps earlier versions.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.15.0 (2021-04-26).

Tasks for the Weekend – April 24, 2021 – changes to New Edge

Youtube here

Included in the April updates is the installation of New Edge and the removal of old Edge. But already Edge has changed: The download location has moved from the bottom left to the top right. Now for those of you that are Firefox and Chrome users you’ll say… yeah? And? As that’s where it’s been for you. But for Edge, this wasn’t where the download used to be. Unfortunately there’s no way to change it back to the bottom left.

Also you may have had your PDF reader changed to Edge. You’ll want to click on the search box, then type in default apps, scroll down to find file type, now file PDF and change it to what program you want it to be. (It will make more sense if you watch the video).

Windows 10 gaming issues fixed with known issue rollback

Microsoft releases emergency fix for Windows 10 gaming issues – @LawrenceAbramshttps://t.co/MQISfsyNKL

— BleepingComputer (@BleepinComputer) April 24, 2021

“A small subset of users have reported lower than expected performance in games after installing KB5000842 or later updates. Most users affected by this issue are running games full screen or borderless windowed modes and using two or more monitors,” Microsoft stated in the Windows 10 2004 and Windows 20H2 known issues and notifications site.

This fix is being rolled out using Microsoft’s Known Issue Rollback (KIR) feature to send out a minor fix via Windows Update, which should propagate to affected users within 24 hours.

“This issue is resolved using Known Issue Rollback (KIR). Please note that it might take up to 24 hours for the resolution to propagate automatically to consumer devices and non-managed business devices. Restarting your device might help the resolution apply to your device faster.”

AH that Known issue rollback is kicking in.

Coming soon to a Windows 10 near you

This is the time of the month that we normally see preview updates for Windows 10.

Per the ITpro blog, included in the preview updates will be a new “News and interests” on the task bar.  The official announcement is here, but the IT pro blog gives a bit more information about the timing and roll out….

News and interests on the taskbar will begin rolling out to Windows 10 users today. We are taking a measured approach starting with the April 2021 Cumulative Update Preview for Windows 10, and broad availability will occur in phases. Devices running Windows 10, version 1909 (and later) who have installed the May 2021 Windows monthly update (or later) will be included in this phased rollout.

So as I’m reading between the lines, if you have the April preview or main May update installed, this new task bar will start showing up.

For the record I have a person in the office that I STILL find the Vista era gadgets and install them on his Windows 10 because he prefers the date and clock in his sidebar. Which if you remember they got rid of because they found that attackers could sneak things in there and they were vulnerable.

Bottom line know that your task bar will change. Don’t know when…. but it will…

P.S. I will be investigating if there is a registry key available for Home users to turn it off, stay tuned.

TenForums has a tutorial on how to disable the taskbar “News and Interests” via group policy or registry key file. (Thanks to Bruce for pointing that out)

How big is your hard drive?

Recently I did an article for ComputerWorld about how Windows 10 has increased what I consider “normal” hard drive space.

No longer do I think 100 gigs is enough for Windows 10. What size of hard drive do you have in your Windows 10? Pick the one closest to what you have.

I also don’t consider anything other than a SSD drive is acceptable for Windows 10. Just a kind reminder, if you finally get to the point where your Windows computer is getting wheezy, remember you can take the plunge with Linux and resident Linux guru Sandra will be here to help. Bottom line the “bare minimum” of Windows keeps edging up over time.

(Apologies in advance if the poll isn’t scientific, I just find them fun and educational to get your views)

End of the road for old Edge

ISSUE 18.14 • 2021-04-19

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

The April 13 updates bring a close to “old”  or “legacy” Edge and force us to say hello to “new” Edge. The Windows 10 updates released in April will remove legacy Edge and replace it with new Edge.

I’ve noted before that when I’ve set a default PDF viewer and then installed new Edge, it has been necessary to reset the preference. Resetting default applications always has been problematic in Windows 10; it has often taken several feature releases before things settled down and defaults were respected.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.14.0 (2021-04-19).
This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.14.F (2021-04-19).

OneDrive, several problems

LANGALIST

By Fred Langa

OneDrive’s poor documentation and weak user interface can cause endless frustration.

Some important OneDrive procedures are left unexplained; others literally cannot be accomplished from the desktop and can be done only via the Web interface — but again, with nary a word of guidance.

Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.14.0 (2021-04-19).