Search Results for 'brinkmann'

Woody;

re: https://www.askwoody.com/2016/how-to-check-the-microsoft-update-catalog-with-chrome-or-firefox/#comment-97156

Martin Brinkmann, ghacks.net, has posted a nicely illustrated, detailed article about this method with credits to you.

http://www.ghacks.net/2016/08/29/download-updates-from-microsofts-update-catalog-without-ie/

@Walker,

Definitely I agree with you about the gratitude so many of us feel towards Woody.

Especially now when it’s really a crunch time.

We’ve asked before how to show our support to him, beyond trying to be good “members” of the discussion forum here, and he says that the 3 ways to do that are:
– Buy his new book about Windows 10 (it is available in bookstores now, and also sold online at the usual retailers)
– Use no ad blockers when reading his articles at Infoworld.com
– Download his son’s new game app

I do wish there were a way to contribute a little bit directly, like Martin Brinkmann has established on Ghacks.net (described here: http://www.ghacks.net/support/).

I don’t know, is there a way to give someone a gift card, like for a few dollars on Amazon, when all you know is their name and their email address? (Woody’s email address is given in the “about Woody” tab at the top of the page.) I’m just thinking aloud, it’s not that I’m saying that would work or be a good idea, and maybe it wouldn’t be a welcome option from his p.o.v.
[It’s just that I don’t need the Windows 10 book and I play no games/apps, and my do-it-yourself type of ad-blocking is not something that is easily dismantled (without letting in and out all kinds of other connections that I don’t want to give free reign to).]

Woody’s site has a number (currently 28) of responses about this: Details about the Win10 Pro disappearing group policies.

Microsoft removes policies from Windows 10 Pro over at ghacks is over 180 comments already.

Top story on MS’s Windows10 blog: Windows Store Weekly: great new titles in this week, alongside Windows Insider Program.next()

Meanwhile, back at Martin Brinkmann’s ghacks site: You can still grab a free Windows 10 copy after July 29, 2016 “Microsoft made the decision to provide the free upgrade offer to all customers who need assistive technologies. This means that anyone can click on the upgrade now button on the website to start the upgrade process.”

We are not restricting the free upgrade offer to specific assistive technologies. If you use assistive technology on Windows, you are eligible for the free upgrade offer.

As an occasional user of Little Sky’s Colorblind Assistant, reckon I don’t have to rush to grab W10 for free, wish I’d known that months ago. Anyone who uses the OSK or Magnifier could also upgrade with a clear conscience.

Judging by the Event logs on my #2 PC, there’s already a non- GPedit/Regedit method of killing Cortana, gotta wait to find out whether that method can still be applied to this new Advertising Edition of W10.

his is what Martin Brinkmann says: “Furthermore, the corresponding Registry keys are not working either anymore which means that Pro users have no option to make changes to features affected by the change.”

@Walker,

About the May IE patch,
the reason I went ahead and installed it yesterday is that I use Internet Explorer as my normal web browser.

Woody has indicated in the past that if you use I.E. as a web browser
— which is against his overall advice because he thinks people should not be using it as a web browser —
but if you do use it, then you should go ahead and update I.E. 11 with the new May patch for I.E.
(also, he wrote, just a few comments above this one, that “There’s nothing imperative backed up right now, **unless you use IE**.”)

So if you do use Internet Explorer as a web browser, his advice *might* be that you should go ahead and install the new May patch for it.

—-
I researched that May I.E. patch at my usual information sources the other day, and I didn’t find any warnings about problems that it seems to be causing for most people.

(I do see that Woody pointed out to you above one problem that patch is causing for people with specific circumstances, which were not my circumstances.)

—–
FYI, here are the information sources I look at, when checking into new patches and whether I want to install them or not:

A. Woody Leonhard’s advice at askwoody.com
https://www.askwoody.com/

B. Woody Leonhard’s articles at InfoWorld.com
http://www.infoworld.com/blog/woody-on-windows/

C. Susan Bradley’s articles at Windows Secret
(Note that only the first couple of paragraphs are free to read – the rest of the content is behind a paywall.)
http://windowssecrets.com/author/susan-bradley/

D. Susan Bradley’s Excel spreadsheet of patches
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=C756C44362CD94AD!2257&ithint=file%2cxlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AIOQkIu7flF7lPE

E. Martin Brinkmann’s overview of monthly patches at Ghacks
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/04/12/microsoft-security-bulletins-april-2016/

F. Wilders Security Forum’s running thread about “Bork Tuesday”
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/bork-tuesday-any-problems-yet.370217/page-88

G. Windows Seven Forums’ subset of discussion threads on “windows updates and activation”
[Note: There was an unpleasant incident on a thread in that forum recently where Woody was treated unprofessionally and rudely by the moderator/owner of the site, which was naturally very surprising and disappointing]
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/

H. Softpedia’s articles by Bogdan Popa about Microsoft “patches and vulnerabilities”
http://news.softpedia.com/cat/Microsoft/Patches-and-Vulnerabilities/

Woody;
Re: Stopping Win10 forced updates.

Maybe old news but thought this info might be useful. I have no idea how the blockers work or if they are legit.

Two Windows 10 tools to block automatic updates
By Martin Brinkmann on December 18, 2015 in Windows – Last Update: December 18, 2015

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/12/18/two-windows-10-tools-to-block-automatic-updates/

1.
Win Updates Disabler
http://www.site2unblock.com/win-updates-disabler/

2.
Windows 10 Update Blocker Version 0.5
http://jjstellato.blogspot.de/

Not free: Buy for $2.99 at:
http://jjstellato.bigcartel.com/product/windows-10-update-blocker

JF

I am an example of a non-technical (though a logical and careful) person who has reluctantly had to wade into this subject matter in the last year for defensive/protective purposes.
My first aim is to be able to keep my computer and operating system functioning well – to keep using it happily in the way I have used it since I purchased it – at least until the end of the operating system’s promised, supported lifecycle.
My second aim is to protect my privacy and security as much as I can, given the knowledge I have, given that I don’t have unlimited time or money to throw at it, given that I can’t live cloistered like a medieval monk (though some acquaintances may say that I don’t do such a bad job of approximating that, ha ha).
I do not claim to know much about computing, and I consult a variety of sources when deciding what to do.
In this particular matter, I tend to be conservative and cautious, because complex computer fixes often take me way out of my comfort zone, but I realize that leaving something in or out (a particular update installed or not) could be seen by some to be conservative and others to be reckless.

This is what I have cobbled together:

From my Excel list of updates (both important and optional updates) that I have avoided installing on my Windows 7 computer in the last 12 months,
below are the kb numbers that I have recorded that I was avoiding specifically for the two reasons of avoiding unwanted telemetry and/or of avoiding get-Windows-10 preparatory stuff.

(Many of them have been withdrawn or replaced by Microsoft since being published.)

kb2952664
kb2990214
kb2999226
kb3021917
kb3022345
kb3035583
kb3050265
kb3065987
kb3068708
kb3075249
kb3080149
kb3083324
kb3112343
kb3123862
kb3135445
kb3138612

And I have these noted as “windows update client”, which I did not install:
kb3075851
kb3083710

I may have missed noting down a few because I wasn’t diligent about keeping this Excel list until I realized that this ordeal has become a monthly certainty over the medium-to-long term, rather than being a momentary inconvenience that would surely end when Microsoft got its act together and regained a sense of professionalism, fairness, and proportion. ?

Additionally, in the past year, I’ve avoided a handful of other updates for other reasons, such as the currently-offered time zone cumulative update kb3148851 which is mainly to fix the time in some Russian regions, and most of those were “optional” anyway. I didn’t list those above.

==========================================
I have my updates set to manual updating, and usually dive into it for an afternoon at the end of each calendar month.

The following are the webpages/resources that I usually check out every month before deciding which patches to install.
They are of varying usefulness, and certainly none of them at an individual level have been as helpful to me as Woody’s reports have been.

A. Woody Leonhard’s advice at askwoody.com
https://www.askwoody.com/

B. Woody Leonhard’s articles at InfoWorld.com
http://www.infoworld.com/blog/woody-on-windows/

C. Susan Bradley’s articles at Windows Secret
(Note that only the first couple of paragraphs are free to read – the rest of the content is behind a paywall.)
http://windowssecrets.com/author/susan-bradley/

D. Susan Bradley’s Excel spreadsheet of patches
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=C756C44362CD94AD!2257&ithint=file%2cxlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AIOQkIu7flF7lPE

E. Martin Brinkmann’s overview of monthly patches at Ghacks
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/04/12/microsoft-security-bulletins-april-2016/

F. Wilders Security Forum’s running thread about “Bork Tuesday”
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/bork-tuesday-any-problems-yet.370217/page-88

G. Windows Seven Forums’ subset of discussion threads on “windows updates and activation”
[Note: There was an unpleasant incident on a thread in that forum recently where Woody was treated unprofessionally and rudely by the moderator/owner of the site, which was naturally very surprising and disappointing]
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/

H. Softpedia’s articles by Bogdan Popa about Microsoft “patches and vulnerabilities”
http://news.softpedia.com/cat/Microsoft/Patches-and-Vulnerabilities/

From my Excel list of updates (both important and optional updates) that I have avoided installing on my Windows 7 computer in the last 12 months,
below are the kb numbers that I have recorded that I was avoiding specifically for the two reasons of avoiding unwanted telemetry and/or of avoiding get-Windows-10 preparatory stuff.

(Many of them have been withdrawn or replaced by Microsoft since being published.)

kb2952664
kb2990214
kb2999226
kb3021917
kb3022345
kb3035583
kb3050265
kb3065987
kb3068708
kb3075249
kb3080149
kb3083324
kb3112343
kb3123862
kb3135445
kb3138612

==========================================
I have my updates set to manual updating, and usually dive into it for an afternoon at the end of each calendar month.

The following are the webpages/resources that I usually check out every month before deciding which patches to install.
They are of varying usefulness, and certainly none of them at an individual level have been as helpful to me as Woody’s reports have been.

A. Woody Leonhard’s advice at askwoody.com
https://www.askwoody.com/

B. Woody Leonhard’s articles at InfoWorld.com
http://www.infoworld.com/blog/woody-on-windows/

C. Susan Bradley’s articles at Windows Secret
(Note that only the first couple of paragraphs are free to read – the rest of the content is behind a paywall.)
http://windowssecrets.com/author/susan-bradley/

D. Susan Bradley’s Excel spreadsheet of patches
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=C756C44362CD94AD!2257&ithint=file%2cxlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AIOQkIu7flF7lPE

E. Martin Brinkmann’s overview of monthly patches at Ghacks
http://www.ghacks.net/2016/04/12/microsoft-security-bulletins-april-2016/

F. Wilders Security Forum’s running thread about “Bork Tuesday”
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/bork-tuesday-any-problems-yet.370217/page-88

G. Windows Seven Forums’ subset of discussion threads on “windows updates and activation”
[Note: There was an unpleasant incident on a thread in that forum recently where Woody was treated unprofessionally and rudely by the moderator/owner of the site, which was naturally very surprising and disappointing]
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/

H. Softpedia’s articles by Bogdan Popa about Microsoft “patches and vulnerabilities”
http://news.softpedia.com/cat/Microsoft/Patches-and-Vulnerabilities/

@CB, in December I left the following comment on this site, and I am copying and pasting it here, in case it might give you some further resources for researching the pre-April security updates that your computer is showing as “important” for your Win 8 machine:

“…You asked whether there were other sources of information on the patches, and I thought I’d mention a few links that I check out every month before deciding which patches to install. They are of varying usefulness, and certainly none of them have been as helpful to me as Woody’s reports have been, but at least it’s something.
A. Susan Bradley author archives at Windows Secret (it appears that one must have a subscription to read most articles, beyond the first couple of paragraphs)
http://windowssecrets.com/author/susan-bradley/
B. Susan Bradley’s fabled Excel spreadsheet of patches (which, like some commenters said below, I also find a little confusing/awkward to use – even though I’m comfortable with Excel – and for the last couple of months, there haven’t seemed to be many notes about the Windows 7 and 8 patches)
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=C756C44362CD94AD!2257&ithint=file%2cxlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AIOQkIu7flF7lPE
C. Martin Brinkmann’s overview of monthly patches (this link is to Nov 2015 – for other months, click on the bolded “Microsoft” word next to the publication date to see all his blog entries on Microsoft)
http://www.ghacks.net/2015/11/10/microsoft-security-bulletins-for-november-2015/
D. Wilders Security Forum’s running thread about “Bork Tuesday”
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/bork-tuesday-any-problems-yet.370217/page-58
E. Windows Seven Forums’ subset of discussion threads on “windows updates and activation”
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/
F. Softpedia’s articles by Bogdan Popa about Microsoft “patches and vulnerabilities”
http://news.softpedia.com/cat/Microsoft/Patches-and-Vulnerabilities/”
https://www.askwoody.com/2015/msdefcon-4-patch-watch-kb-3101488-clean/#comment-66301

Woody responded to that, saying, “All of those are excellent sources….”

==============
CB, I think when you say that you “don’t know what to do”, that waiting for a couple of weeks until Woody gives the go-ahead to install updates is only a small part of the plan for you, because at that time you will be presented with 60+ “important” updates, and you will probably *still* not know what to do in order to proceed from there.

I have struggled with the new complications about Windows Update myself in the past year!

I have a Win 7 machine, so even though I’ve kept a detailed list of every update that I have decided not to install in the past year and the reasons for it, I could not just reproduce my list for you (as an example of one person’s experience of refusing to install some specific updates in order to avoid “get-windows-10”) because you have Win 8, and the updates for our two operating systems are somewhat different.

You said that the main thing is that you don’t want Windows 10, so maybe the best option for you is to
1. Immediately install Josh Mayfield’s GWX Control Panel free program (there is a hyperlink to it in the upper right corner of this page) on your computer.
Follow the instructions to run it and make sure it’s active on your machine.
(I have not installed it myself, so I can’t give you the steps on how to do that, but all accounts are that it’s very easy to get up and running.)
2. When you do run Windows Update again, at the end of this month, after Woody says it’s okay to install things, plan to install all updates that are a) listed as important and b) where their boxes are CHECKED.
Because you won’t know which updates need to be installed before which other ones, you should select all of them, and let Windows Update decide on the order of installation.
Note that this might take a long time (even a day) and your computer might need to be turned on and off several times, and you might need to run Windows Update several times, to make sure everything that it wants to install is installed on that occasion.
With this plan of attack, even though you *will* be installing some updates, presumably, that have get-windows-10 functionality in them, you will be relying on Josh Mayfield’s GWX Control Panel to nullify the danger that they would force your computer to Windows 10.

–The reason I suggest the above as maybe the easiest, safest thing for you to do next is that, as I see it, you have 3 choices:
a. Install GWX Control Panel and have it turned on to maximum protection, then install all of your important, checked updates and rely on GWX Control Panel to protect you from the more devious ones.
This way, your computer will have all the security updates that it needs to keep you safe, and you won’t have to spend a lot more time on researching every single one of the 60+ important updates that are in your Windows Update list, which, as you know, is a daunting task, and so confusing, because if one isn’t a computer-techie person, reading Microsoft’s official descriptions of each update, or even reading people’s internet-forum comments on the updates, is usually way over our heads!
b. Spend many more hours going through the updates with a finetooth comb and researching on the internet to see which ones that techie who seem to know what they are doing have said not to install (which is about 12-15 updates over the past year, I estimate — and some of them with different kb numbers are just revisions of earlier ones), and go through and hide those on your Windows Update, and then install all the ones that are left.
c. Continue not to install any security updates and leave your computer dangerously unprotected, since you do still use it to connect to the internet.

It seems that you have already suffered through option “b” and still are not sure what would be best to do — which is understandable.
So you defaulted to option “c” because under the circumstances you felt it was safest in the short term, which it was — that was a good decision.
But now, on a longer-term basis, you probably should be concerned about the implications of not having 60+ checked, important security patches installed on a computer that you are still using to connect to the internet. In that case, moving to option “a” might be a good idea now.

If something goes wrong with option “a”, which isn’t likely to happen, and your computer starts to switch itself to Win10, you can backtrack it back to Win8. Woody has written several articles/blog posts about that.

Martin Brinkmann over at Ghacks has done a little write up on some of the changes that this update brings.

@Deborah,
I agree with you that Woody’s (very understandable) announcement that he won’t be reporting on the Windows 7 and 8 patches individually anymore is kinda scary! I have relied on his expertise and advice so much in the last 6 months or so. His work is very much appreciated!
You asked whether there were other sources of information on the patches, and I thought I’d mention a few links that I check out every month before deciding which patches to install. They are of varying usefulness, and certainly none of them have been as helpful to me as Woody’s reports have been, but at least it’s something.
A. Susan Bradley author archives at Windows Secret (it appears that one must have a subscription to read most articles, beyond the first couple of paragraphs)
http://windowssecrets.com/author/susan-bradley/
B. Susan Bradley’s fabled Excel spreadsheet of patches (which, like some commenters said below, I also find a little confusing/awkward to use – even though I’m comfortable with Excel – and for the last couple of months, there haven’t seemed to be many notes about the Windows 7 and 8 patches)
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=C756C44362CD94AD!2257&ithint=file%2cxlsx&app=Excel&authkey=!AIOQkIu7flF7lPE
C. Martin Brinkmann’s overview of monthly patches (this link is to Nov 2015 – for other months, click on the bolded “Microsoft” word next to the publication date to see all his blog entries on Microsoft)
http://www.ghacks.net/2015/11/10/microsoft-security-bulletins-for-november-2015/
D. Wilders Security Forum’s running thread about “Bork Tuesday”
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/bork-tuesday-any-problems-yet.370217/page-58
E. Windows Seven Forums’ subset of discussion threads on “windows updates and activation”
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/
F. Softpedia’s articles by Bogdan Popa about Microsoft “patches and vulnerabilities”
http://news.softpedia.com/cat/Microsoft/Patches-and-Vulnerabilities/
If there are other sources of information/advice on Windows 7 and 8 patches (besides the “official” Microsoft ones, of course) which folks consult and find useful, it would be great if people could note those in a reply on this thread!

You can make a mess if you start changing a bunch of Group Policy settings randomly – and even in that case you can always find what’s been changed and change it back to “Not set” state. And it’s totally impossible to mess anything up by changing a single completely documented setting that affects OS Upgrade only. There are much higher chances to mess things up by uninstalling random updates.

I thought it might not be as risky as the articles were saying. Thanks. I’m not uninstalling random updates. I uninstalled the same one you did, 3035583. You mention it in Post #38 (2015-10-2). I’ve read that if 3035583 is installed, we can have a massive folder of Windows 10 materials, up to 6 GB in size, placed onto our C drive. This would happen regardless of what the Group Policy is set to, correct? I also uninstalled 2952664 and 3021917 on the recommendation of Martin Brinkmann and other people. I’ve always found Martin’s advice to be excellent. Here’s a link to his article: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/17/how-to-remove-windows-10-upgrade-updates-in-windows-7-and-8/ . KB3021917 may not be as important to remove and it took a long time to uninstall. I’d just leave it installed, if I had to do it over again. These three updates were all “recommended,” not “important” ones. All I have waiting for me in Windows Update is 3083324, as I mentioned yesterday. Several updates to the Windows Update Client have been withdrawn by Microsoft and replaced by newer ones, so there’s nothing else missing from my system. The old KB3075851 and KB3065987 will stop Windows Update from showing notifications, but those updates have been withdrawn by Microsoft. They may still be on some people’s systems. It’s very likely that they’re not needed. (I’m talking about Windows 7 Professional.)

Sure, there was a bit of trial and error involved while I was trying to figure out what was happening. Now I have a good understanding of what is happening. That’s partly thanks to you, SlimShaggy. Any uninstalling I do from now on will only be done in a spirit of curiosity and experimentation. I should only have to install and (perhaps) uninstall the latest update to the Windows Update Client one time in order to find the answer to my remaining question, which is “Do things work properly now that the ‘Get Windows 10’ icon is gone?”

This is primarily intended for those that run stable systems that DON’T want diagnostic information sent back to Microsoft for analysis.
Or just some more fat to cut away for the sake of cutting away at some OS fat.

How to disable the Diagnostics Tracking Service in Windows

By Martin Brinkmann on May 12, 2015 in Windows – Last Update: May 18, 2015 35
Windows 7 and 8.1, Server 2008 R2 and Server 2012 R2 users and admins who have already installed the patches
Microsoft released today for those operating system may have noticed that the updates included a patch that added a Diagnostics Tracking Service service to the operating system.

Windows 10 beta builds excluded for obvious reasons.

I go through my services once in a while to see what’s new, changed, or turned back on [??]
This particular service I hadn’t seen before.