MS-DEFCON 2: Pause to review

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ISSUE 19.27.1 • 2022-07-07 By Susan Bradley We’re halfway through the patching year. It seems like just yesterday when I lowered the MS-DEFCON level t
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Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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abbodi86, Lars220, geekdom

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System backup seems to be a sticking point with many software options and much confusion regarding installation and usage.

In the long run, backup is probably the easiest and most preventative measure for preserving system integrity in the event of catastrophe — not if, when.

Carpe Diem {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1413 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox112.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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JohnS1606

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In the article it says “When they do, and if they annoy you as they annoy me, you can disable them in Settings, Privacy and Security, Search Permissions, and Show search highlights.”.

I am on Windows 10 21H2. I don’t have an option called Privacy and Security in Settings. There is one called Privacy and one called Update & Security. There is not a Search Permissions option in either.

I don’t have highlights yet. Will this setting be added when the “feature” is rolled out? Where will it be added if we don’t have Privacy and Security?

Bill

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That section was specifically for Windows 11 users who are only just now getting Search Highlights, whereas most Windows 10 users got it months ago. For Windows 10 the off switch starts with a right-click on the Taskbar, then Search and uncheck Show search highlights:

Enable or Disable Search Highlights in Windows 10

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1483 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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They are dribbling it out and not waiting for a feature release.  I have left the office machines to see when each one would get the “highlights” and it’s real hit and miss. Some have had it (I’ve now removed it), others still don’t.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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JohnS1606

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b wrote:

whereas most Windows 10 users got it months ago. For Windows 10 the off switch starts with a right-click on the Taskbar, then Search and uncheck Show search highlights:

So I am still not most 😉 No Show search highlights.

Windows 10 21H2 June updates.

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Coldheart9020

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Search highlights is also a no show for me too on both of my machines. BUT, I also went into GPEdit and turned off search highlights in there before I even had a hint of it on my taskbar’s search options. Matter of fact, I turned them off in GPEdit as soon as I’d installed the monthly patch that made changes within GPEdit for search highlights to show up.

For folks reading this post and who want to do the same thing I did, remember, GPEdit is only available and fully functional on the Pro or Enterprise editions of Windows. That’s why you see the basic recommendation to just right click the taskbar and go to the item that says “Search” and then click on the item that says “Search Highlights” to remove the check mark next to it. That should stop it from bugging you. See the link in @b ‘s post above for more details.

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Coldheart9020

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Must be getting old… my memory is failing.  I had also gone into GPEdit and disabled search highlights before they were rolled out to me.  No wonder I didn’t see any.  🙂  Thanks everyone for responding to my questions.

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Commenting a bit on your mention of backups, Susan…

I am the world’s biggest fan of backups, and I personally have (counting…) at the moment 4 ways I could restore my computer setup from unexpected failures or data loss. I couldn’t agree more that there’s no time like the present to make a backup!

Thanks for the reminder to break out my separately stored MyBook drive and freshen up my offsite backup also!

But I have to at least mention to others that Susan’s advice to use a cloud backup service is not without risks. “Secure” implies trust. In this world – and acknowledging that I run an online business – I’d be hard pressed to advise anyone to trust an online business with your most precious secrets.

Just think for a moment in the most practical terms what you’re actually doing if you choose to send the entire contents of your computer system’s disk storage to “cloud” storage (which is a just a term for someone else’s servers).

Notwithstanding the possibility of failure to actually copy it successfully – which you won’t know about until you actually try to restore it – once you’ve sent your data somewhere it’s on someone else’s disk (or tape or whatever) and from that moment forward it could be taken by someone who is not even remotely your friend or family and used however they see fit. All the while, you’ll be paying for the privilege of making yourself more vulnerable. That is, until that company goes out of business – what happens to their servers then?

Personally I don’t see how anyone could begin to trust others they haven’t met and don’t even know where they are well enough to keep their legacy of digital information safe and secure.

My TL;DR advice is to not choose to give your data away to other folks, and put your effort and expense (cloud backup isn’t trivial or free to get right) into managing your own backups.

-Noel

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P.S., These kinds of comments often invite responses of “I’ve used … for years and never had a problem“. Anecdotal success stories from the real world are always welcome, but in this case they will prove little. If it’s stored out there, your data could be taken by someone you don’t want having it, plain and simple. If you’ve never sent it to anyone, then it’s still entirely under your control.

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Steve, oldfry, wavy

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Thank you Susan for the path to cure Search Lowlights in the Search box. Now I’ll try your path for the W10 settings after reading here.

My wife’s W10, 21H2 PC had updated last week altho I thought I’d deferred updates on all three W10’s til late July. Happy to report, she has experienced no problem with it but does not use ms-Access. (Our other two W10s haven’t been in use online since the before 8th).

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