Merge with Windows Secrets imminent

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The time has come the walrus said… We’re waiting on the developers to put their heads together, but in the next few days you should expect that Window
[See the full post at: Merge with Windows Secrets imminent]

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OscarCP, Elly, abbodi86, Myst, SueW, PhotM, Lugh, Pepsiboy, Fred

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Best of luck to Woody and the whole team for a smooth merger!

I do have one concern. I think it’s fair to say that for many if not most users here the safe and timely patching of Windows Updates each month is a paramount concern and a key reason for following the site. I hope therefore that if there is to be a period of confusion, slow performance and possible downtime – all perfectly understandable in the circumstances – it will not be embarked on until the March Updates have been resolved as the time for the usual raising/qualifying of the Defcon rating is doubtless imminent.

I note the advice for the transfer of Windows Secrets accounts. So far as my own situation is concerned, I have well-established accounts on both sites under different user names and email addresses, but with only a small past contribution so far as Windows Secrets is concerned. I don’t therefore have any particular interest in merging those accounts and am happy to continue forward here purely under my Ask Woody account. On that basis, can I assume that I don’t need to do anything with regard to the transfer?

Again, because it can’t be said too often – good luck!

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Tex265, OscarCP, PhotM

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That’s correct. Your old Windows Secrets account will be here with a new “WS” name, but if you don’t want to re-associate your old posts with your “Seff” username, you needn’t do a thing.

Timing is tricky. My #1 concern is getting done as quickly as possible. WindowsSecrets.com, right now, only exists because of the good graces of Informa/Penton. I’d hate to see it go down before we get things merged.

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Lugh, Seff

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Seff wrote:

On that basis, can I assume that I don’t need to do anything with regard to the transfer?

Yes, you can assume that.

Your WSL account will sit quietly in a dark corner for evermore 🙂

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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woody, Seff

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Thanks, that’s what I assumed!

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Nice to be here. Nice to hear that you’re re-joining forces with Windows Secrets. Although I’d been away from that tribe a long time, and came aboard in the Brian Livingston days, I also appreciated your perspectives. But I’ll be interested to see what Penton/Informa do with that name. I do hope you’ll be involved.

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The name is now owned by Woody.

cheers, Paul

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woody

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Would the complete merge cause temporary slowdowns, require an expansion in servers’ capacity? I share some of Seff’s concerns and would prefer the merger to happen after this month’s patches have been greenlighted and many of us have already had some time to install them, experience just how well they are working for us, and comment on that here for others to know as well before they decide what to do.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Tex265

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We’re braced.

Our server is set to kick out all the stops when the merge begins.

In the past, the big slowdowns have been due to indexing – and we’re taking care to approach that slowly, only revealing a piece of the site at a time.

No promises, of course, but I think it’ll be pretty smooth.

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OscarCP

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@ OscarCP

OscarCP wrote:

I share some of Seff’s concerns and would prefer the merger to happen after this month’s patches have been greenlighted and many of us have already had some time to install them, experience just how well they are working for us, and comment on that here for others to know as well before they decide what to do.

I think you can probably relax. There does not seem to be any current discussions about some critical security threat(s) that is an absolute must, or your computer is going to blow up in your face. For the most part, almost all *zero-day* threats seem to be targeted security threats against a specific target–rarely have there been any general threats–at least not at first when a treat first shows up.

If something goes poorly with the AskWoody site update, and you’re unsure what to do–I would simply skip installing the updates. This has actually happened, albeit at the recommendation of Woody, several times in the last couple years. The sky did not fall, and missing one month’s update should not be the end of the world. You will be okay.

If you know about imaging software and how to use it–make a complete image backup of your hard drive. If you do not know how to use imaging software–vow to learn how soon so you will not be in this same predicament in the future–and back up all your important files using a file and folder backup in lieu of imaging software. Then, practice cautious web browsing–do not go to any unfamiliar websites for the time being until you can actually bring your system up to date. Do not open any file attachments from your email. Do not open any MS Office files other than those *you* have created. Basically, shelter in place.

The AskWoody website has gone down briefly, in the past, due to some growing pains and instabilities–but those outages and slow downs have been brief, and the site was able to limp along.

Hang in there!

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woody

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Well, thank you and Woody for the reassurances.

Night Owl: I am not worried about something blowing up in my face, and I have all that I may really need to keep safe and sound nicely backed up, plus now I have Linux Mint in dual boot with good old Windows 7, as well as a nice Mac laptop that works just fine. Besides, I am never in some desperate hurry to patch as soon as possible. So my worries are quite under control.

I just want to emphasize the likely usefulness of slightly delaying changes that might cause interruptions, at least until the DEFCON is more than two (quite soon now, I’d expect), so everyone that pays attention to it would know that it is OK to patch, what is advisable to patch, and what is better kept on hold for now. Others might get worried if they don’t know.

Group B (Win 7 Pro) + M & L (macOS and Linux)

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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What will become of the Windows Secrets newsletter articles posted on that site? Will they be transferred as well, or will we lose access to them? I have 50-60 links to articles that I occasionally refer back to.

 

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We’ll be bringing all of the newsletters across, going back to 2004, but it’s going to take a while. We need to get software installed to handle it.

Links to anything on the WindowSecrets.com site should continue to work. Some serious magic performed by our devs…. if it works….

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GLS432

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GLS432 wrote:

What will become of the Windows Secrets newsletter articles posted on that site? … I have 50-60 links to articles that I occasionally refer back to

The plan is to transfer the articles also. Your links *should* continue to work, but it’s a major job so I recommend you copy any vital articles.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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GLS432, woody

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