Newsletter Archives

• Veterans – watch out for scams

  Posted on November 11, 2023 at 15:57 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  In the United States today, we honor those who have served.  Unfortunately, it’s also a time when criminals target those who have been in our military and those that are in our military.  On the AARP site they sent out a reminder that “veterans, active-duty service members and their families are 40 percent more likely to lose money to fraud”.

  Scams come in the form of phone calls, text messages or emails luring Veterans.

  Just a reminder “If someone contacts you claiming to be from the VA and requests personal information, hang up and contact the VA directly at 800-827-1000. Ignore unsolicited offers related to your VA benefits. ”

  The same is true if you aren’t a veteran.  The latest targeted scam I’ve personally seen as an Accountant is a fake invoice that purports to be a receipt for purchasing QuickBooks online subscription for the year even though the “look” of the receipt was off and I knew we hadn’t purchased it at this time.  The receipt had an 800 number to call and dispute the charge. Clearly they wanted to get the CC number to “remove” the bogus charge, but in doing so, they would steal your credit card number.

  So what about you?  What targeted scams have you seen going after your background and interests? How do you think they targeted you?

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Do you put your computer to sleep?

  Posted on November 4, 2023 at 20:27 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Do you put your computer to sleep?  Do you enable hibernation? I’m not convinced that it’s bug free in either Windows 11 or Windows 10. Now while at the office I leave my computers on in order to back them up and to patch them, even at home my computers are either fully on, on but with the monitor in sleep mode, or they are fully off.  I don’t like to have the computer go to sleep as I’ve found that often when they “wake up” they don’t fully wake up, or they have issues with the docking stations.

  Sleep and hibernation has often been buggy and has needed fixes and firmware and driver updates along the way.  Now at the office I recommend having the systems do a “lock” if you walk away.

  So what about you?  Do you put your computer to sleep?

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Got a question about browsers?

  Posted on October 21, 2023 at 21:05 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  It’s pretty obvious that Browsers are an operating system into themselves. No matter what platform or operating system you use, all of us depend on the browser as a key component to get to the thing we want to do. Increasingly it’s the thing we use for more and more of our daily lives as our vendors push more features and functions to the Web. As a result, I recommend having several browsers on any platform so you can have a primary (secured and paranoid) browser and then one that is plain default as a fallback in case you have an issue on a site. In the future, I’ll be doing newsletter topics on the new kid on the block, DuckDuckGo.

  Check out the reorganized section of the forum! We’ll be moving around older posts into these new slots over time, but in the meantime, ask away.

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Looking for a different email client?

  Posted on October 15, 2023 at 01:22 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Looking for additional email clients OTHER than Outlook? We’ve opened up a new section in the forum where you can ask your questions. We’ll be sorting and moving more threads under this section, but in the meantime if you have questions about patching Thunderbird or changes to the interface.

  We’ve also set up a forum for AOL email as the changes in that platform lately has created a LOT of people asking about how to deal with the changes.

  If there is another email client that you think we need to call out, let us know. In the meantime there’s an “other” section.

  As always if there is a suggestion, we have a forum location for that as well.

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Got a Windows 11 22H2 home?

  Posted on October 7, 2023 at 22:52 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Do you have a Windows 11 22H2 home machine and don’t want to deal with Windows 11 Copilot once it gets included in the October security updates?

  No worries. Look for detailed information and instructions coming in Monday’s newsletter as well as my take and concerns about it.

  In the meantime, here are some resources as a sneak peak:

  First off for Windows 11 22H2 home version users where you don’t have group policy, here is a registry key download. I’ve done a video of the process you need to do to run the registry key.

  For those of you in firms where you have Windows 11 pro, keep in mind that if you are behind some sort of patching tool (WSUS, Intune,etc) Copilot will not show up. But if you use Windows update you are seen as “unmanaged” and thus it will. For those of you that want to use group policy to control, the ADMX and ADML downloads are on the Master Patch List page and will be included in Monday’s newsletter. Normally you have to install the code ahead of time and grab those files from a machine that has the updated patch.  I installed it on a test machine and grabbed them for you.

  Stay tuned, lots more in Monday’s newsletter.

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Wait for the bugs to be worked out

  Posted on September 30, 2023 at 21:40 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Lately no matter what the vendor, it pays to not be first.

  Case in point, today Apple acknowledged that there is a bug in their latest OS 17 combined with iPhone 15 to cause it to run hot.

  The issue will be fixed in an upcoming patch.

  Over the next several weeks you’ll see stories and hype about Windows 11 23H2 and Copilot for Windows which is being slid into the October security updates. But don’t worry, we got your back. Rest assured you can defer and block whatever you don’t like that Microsoft is slinging your way. Already there is a KB tracking the known issues in Copilot.

  Bottom line, good things come to those who wait, or in our case, block what we don’t want.

  For the Copilot in Windows preview, we have identified the following: Narrator does not work as you expect with challenge–response tests, such as Captcha. Narrator fails to correctly state the name of the “remove an image” button. It also fails to say the name of the dialog or buttons for a skill. When you are in the chat input box, pressing Tab does not change the keyboard focus. If you add an image to the chat input box, Narrator does not announce the addition.

  We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

  The color font format for COLRv1 does not render properly. This format enables Windows to display emoji with a 3D-like appearance.

  We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release.

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• What happened to the manual?

  Posted on September 23, 2023 at 22:53 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  The other day at the office AT&T insisted that we needed to upgrade our Fiber connection to a faster connection. Upon installing the new fiber connection I was left with a BGW 320 500 unit with no manual. Instead there was a QR code guiding you to download an app on the phone.

  Mind you this is at the office where the intent is that this will be the backup Internet to the office, so as a result I need the necessary static IP address. While I could connect to the Internet simply by attaching to the unit’s wifi and doing a whatismyip look up, that didn’t give me the necessary information for the five IP addresses. When I reached out to the vendor, they provided me with an IP address that didn’t make sense with the IP address I was getting when connecting via wifi.

  I was expecting to be given an IP address in the range of the IP address I was getting when I logged into wifi, but the address they gave me was totally different and didn’t make sense that the static IP they gave me would work given the IP address I was getting from merely connecting to the unit via wifi. Turns out this is I guess you could call it a hybrid unit. As I was told by a friend, “You can connect a device to the modem and it can dole out a dynamic IP from AT&T. But you can also connect a device using the static range they assign you – for example your own router or firewall appliance. You CAN set up your desktop/laptop with one of those usable addresses that they provided to me . You may need to reboot your router if you plug in and get a dynamic address – and then need to switch to your static IP address. NOTE: The dynamic IPs do NOT route to the static subnet.”

  Learned something new about fiber equipment. But what kills me is that I’m having to google to find guidance and a manual. Why is good documentation so hard to get these days? Do you find your ISP doesn’t provide good documentation for the equipment they provide?

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Got notifications?

  Posted on September 9, 2023 at 22:40 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  I’m linking a thread in the forums about something I’ve seen lately on both Windows 10 as well as Windows 11 and both on and off a domain.

  Microsoft is now “suggesting” and doing so annoyingly.

  

  Thanks but no thanks, Microsoft I really don’t want Tik Tok templates.  I’ve seen suggestions about Paint at the office.

  While the thread points out how to disable it, I hope that this is a temporary behavior on Microsoft’s part and enough of us complain. Now while I fully expect that if they only did this to consumer or home users, Microsoft would continue the behavior, I HOPE that with enough businesses start to grumble about the suggestions and pop ups in a business operating system that enough customers that have Satya on speed dial will complain so that they will knock off this behavior.

  Just the other day I helped someone who got a notification from a web site stuck in their Chrome browser to the point where there was a pop up nearly every second. These suggestion pop ups, while not QUITE as annoying are a close second.

  Microsoft stop being malicious and pushy. Put the adults back in charge and leave the suggested Tik Tok’s out of my operating system.

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• It’s the first of the month, how’s your backup?

  Posted on September 2, 2023 at 22:35 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Always at the first of the month, no matter what tech item I’ve got, whether it’s a tablet, a phone, a computer, a server, a laptop, a thing, I always take stock and review if I’ve got a backup of that thing.

  Depending on the “thing” I may back up to an online location or I may backup to an external hard drive or other storage location. The other day I came across an iphone that hadn’t been backed up since June of 2022.  Why so long? Because there wasn’t enough storage on icloud and the person hadn’t been paying attention to the fact that no backup had been occuring. I used to backup my phone to my computer but now that I typically have more storage in my iphone than I have free space on many of my computer hard drives, I backup to the cloud.

  But make sure you can backup to SOMETHING. I can’t stress this enough. Bad patches, ransomware, all of it can be dealt with as long as you have a backup.

  iPhone last successfully backed up at 12:02 am.  Check.

  Laptop: last backed up at 4 a.m. to a tiny external usb flash drive.  Check.

  Computer upstairs backed up to external drive.  Check.

  Surface device at the office: Honestly because I merely use that to remote INTO other devices I don’t install much on it and thus don’t back it up. I can rebuild it my merely reinstalling Windows.

  Sister’s computer backed up to external drive. Check.

  Sister’s ipad backed up to cloud. Check.

  Dad’s iphone and ipad backed up to cloud. Check. and Check.

  Relatively new Mint computer…. ooh don’t have a backup on that one yet.

  Chromebook. All data is in the cloud, don’t need to backup local operating system. Check.

  All of the workstations at the office backed up to a NAS.  Check.

  Servers backed up.  Check. As well as rotating to offsite storage. Check.

  Get the idea?  At least once a month take inventory of all of the computing devices you care about and ensure they are backed up. If you don’t care about them and know you can quickly reinstall then the lack of a backup is an acceptable risk.

  So when is the last time you checked?

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Chrome moves download indicator

  Posted on August 30, 2023 at 13:37 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  So my 95 year old Dad calls me up this morning and says “I need help”.  He was on his computer and working on a tax return (yes he still works on returns at 95 years of age) and says “The zip file download isn’t working”.  He’s on the cloud version of tax software which downloads zip files of pdfs and he uses Chrome.

  Well as you can guess recently as I’m sure many of you know, Chrome moved the download indicator from the bottom left to the top right. Now if you are used to using different browsers you’ll know that many of them use top right (Edge) as well as bottom left.

  You CAN change it back.

  You can also merely deal with the change and cuss at software developers that love to change things as my Dad did when I pointed out that the zip file REALLY was being downloaded but now look for that bubble in the top right.

  “Dumb a-……s”  is what Dad muttered. I figured many could relate to my tale. And yes, just a reminder, you CAN change it back.

  Public service announcement for the day:

  Launch Chrome and go to chrome://flags/.
  Search for “Download Bubble” or “Download Button”.
  Disable both flags.
  Click on “Relaunch” to restart Chrome.
  After following these steps, the downloads bar should be moved back to the bottom of the Chrome window.

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts

• Preparing for a hurricane

  Posted on August 19, 2023 at 13:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums
  

  Clouds coming in at 5 p.m Saturday

  First off, while many of you know I live in Calfornia, fortunately I’m far enough away from Southern California that I will probably receive a bit of rain from Hurricane Hilary and not much else. But it will be an impact to grape and other fruit growers in the area as this isn’t the greatest time to have a couple of inches of rain. But it’s a reminder that all of us around the world are having extremes in weather and we should remember that sometimes there are outages in Power, Internet, etc. With all of our Internet of things, don’t forget to have something as basic as a radio that runs on batteries. We do have earthquakes in California and need to be just as aware of the side effects of that on a daily basis.

  Ready.gov has a prep list of things you should have on hand in case of emergency. I’ll be digging out and charging up my external power brick just in case.

  What other things do you do to prepare yourself for a possible weather disaster that might disrupt Power or Internet? What alternatives do you keep around? Do you have everything on that list?

  Tech Help

• Are you gettng more spam in your inbox?

  Posted on August 12, 2023 at 21:07 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  Recently at the office I had to go in and edit the spam settings because I got tired of all sorts of spam and email threats coming into the office.

  If you are on Microsoft 365 you can edit the spam levels by following this.

  If you using Desktop Outlook you can also adjust the spam filters inside the Outlook application.

  I’ve always been convinced that unsubscribing from something doesn’t work it just showcases to the firm that you exist.

  We’re also seeing emails that clearly are doing investigation and background checking – for example an email was sent supposedly from one employee of the firm to another. So clearly they harvested information from the web site and the email information posted there.

  So what about you?  Are you seeing more spam?

  Tech Help Patch Lady Posts
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