Woody Leonhard (1951–2025)

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ISSUE 22.11 • 2025-03-17 EDITORIAL Woody Leonhard (1951–2025) By Will Fastie Woody Leonhard, né Gregory Forrest Leonhard, passed away on Saturday, Mar
[See the full post at: Woody Leonhard (1951–2025)]

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Charles Kenyon, Dreamkid, Andy M, jonaw, WSGeo, LongTimer, lmacri, WSLeighW, Mike Hall, BobbyB, fisher75, Steve S., Fred, schmootoo, LH, JC Zorkoff, AlexEiffel, Elly, AJNorth, Myst

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God speed to you, Woody towards your new destination.   Heart’s out to your family and friends.   Appreciate you and all that saved Windowsecrets.

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Fred, LongTimer, jburk07, AJNorth

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I came to the Ask Woody newsletter as a Langa List subscriber when the two newsletters merged. I’ve been an avid reader ever since. I’ll miss Woody Leonhard, and I wish him God Speed as well as those he left behind,

Ernie

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LongTimer, jburk07, AJNorth

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to Woody, Brian, Susan, and  all the valuable members of this newsletter, it is sad to see the passing of Woody.   I have followed this newsletter, and its predecessors, for 20+ years, and have valued everyone’s contributions to it.  Thanks to all of you, and my prayers for Woody.

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teuhasn2, LongTimer, Mike Hall, AJNorth, jburk07

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well said…you and the whole team have my sincerest condolences

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LongTimer, WSLeighW, AJNorth

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I will remember him fondly for the Windows Secrets / Ask Woody newsletter and all the advice and good info he gave us.

Rest in peace, Woody. My condolences to those he left behind.

 

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teuhasn2, LongTimer, AJNorth

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Rest in peace Woody. Godspeed.

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LongTimer, AJNorth

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It is always a kick in the stomach to wake up and find another contemporary has passed on. Woody was someone who contributed throughout his life to make the world a better place, and definitely succeeded. I never knew him personally, other than a few emails, but he was someone who always came across as a friend to all.

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teuhasn2, LongTimer, Mike Hall, AJNorth, jburk07

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Wow. Truly the passing of a legend in his own time. Woody was one who always told it as it is, every time I read anything he wrote. Like many others, I peruse many sites as I seek information, but this is the one among them all that really resonated with me, and it was Woody’s incisive commentary and affable style that really stood out. I know that when he retired from this site, he said something about health issues being part of the reason, and I hope the years between then and now have treated him well. I’d always hoped he’d pop in for a guest appearance or two, but… well, dang it.

I will treasure my signed copy of his Windows 10 book even more now. Thanks for all that you did for the community, for us all, Woody… you have been missed for years, and now doubly so.

 

 

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Many thanks for posting this bio. Woody made this world a better place through his tireless efforts to help others. He was an example to us all.

Condolences to his family.

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WSGeo, LongTimer, AJNorth, Myst, jburk07

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Thank you Will for the article on Woody. He will be missed and was a great help to a lot of his readers, myself included.
RIP my friend.
Don

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LongTimer, AJNorth

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I will miss Woody, as I am sure everyone who read any of his missives will. Condolensces to his family. Know that he shared his knowledge with the world. Best wishes, Carl

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LongTimer, Mike Hall, AJNorth

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I joined this page when it was the Langa List and then it merged to Ask Woody.  I have learned so much from this page, not just from Woody but all the other knowledgable participants.

I know we will all miss Woody but the page will continue on, providing expert advice to all of us Rookies.

God bless your family

Paul

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LongTimer, Mike Hall, AJNorth

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It grieves me to hear about Woody. Being a long time subscriber to Windows Secrets, I had become attached to him. RIP Woody.

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LongTimer, Mike Hall, AJNorth

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So sad to hear the news.  I didn’t know Woody personally but I could tell that he was a very kind person and cared about others.  He will be missed.

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Mike Hall, AJNorth

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So sad to hear. I don’t recall how Woody and I connected originally, but I was part of his stable of writers in the 90s for Woody’s Office and two books in the Underground series, and remember him fondly. I always hoped we would wind up in the same city at the same time so we could meet in person (which never happened), but we had plenty of conversations by phone and email, and he was always a pleasure to work with or just talk to. I would have happily worked with him again at any time. My condolences and best wishes to Woody’s family.

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LongTimer, Mike Hall, AJNorth

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I have kept his “WOPR Power Putty” fist above my keyboard since it first came out, and use it every-so-often to this day. This is very sad news. Woody will be missed. (˃̣̣̥ᯅ˂̣̣̥)

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LongTimer, AJNorth

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All this time reading these emails and occasional visits to the site not knowing he was only 20 minutes away from where I live. Would have been nice to meet him in person.

A salute to Woody on his newest journey.

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LongTimer, Elly, AJNorth

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I have read a lot since window 7 was to be scraped. He told me where to get all the updates since Jimmy Rivers was shut down. And that left me out of the loop. Can’t ask for a better friend.

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LongTimer, AJNorth

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I became a subscriber through the Fred Langa branch of the expansive tree that is now AskWoody Plus. Thanks to the column authors for the history lesson and the contributions that all, especially Woody, have made to keeping so many up to date on the technology side of life. I trust that the publication and other aspects of the organization will be kept alive and well as a tribute to all that Woody has meant.

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LongTimer, Mike Hall, AJNorth

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Some people come into our lives and quietly go.

Others stay for a while leaving indelible footprints, and we are never ever the same.

Woody Leonhard left footprints on countless lives throughout the world.

 

In the words of the poets:

“Loss, and Possession, Death and Life are one.
There falls no shadow where there shines no sun.”

— Hilaire Belloc (1870—1953)

From “On a Sundial” (Sonnets and Verse, 1938)

 

Sic itur ad astra.

(‘Thus one journeys to the stars’)

— Virgil (70—19 BCE, from “The Aeneid”)

 

With heartfelt condolences to Woody’s family and many, many friends.

 

Rest In Peace, Good Sir — and thank you.

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Andy M, LongTimer, Mike Hall, Myst, Cybertooth, jburk07, Elly

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Thank you for the great post about Woody. We are about the same age. I discovered Ask Woody a long, long time ago. This year, I’m the President of my Rotary club. It doesn’t surprise me that he was a Rotarian!
We’ll miss him. His legacy carries on through this website.
C.E. Jones

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LongTimer, Mike Hall, Myst, Elly, AJNorth

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Woody was a good man who leaves a hole in the universe.

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LongTimer, AJNorth

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Woody told it like it is ever since Woody’s Windows Watch, and basically never stopped.

He made a difference.  We won’t forget him.

— AWRon

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LongTimer, AJNorth

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Woody had such a great ability to bring great minds and great folks together. He was open to hear everyone’s opinions and strongly believed that there was something to discover everywhere, in the anonymous comments or the strong polarizing opinions of some of our most active members.

When he first invited me to post a question on Askwoody, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. It was the first and last social media I would join, and it was to try to figure out why Windows 10 was completely freezing each week at the same time if it wasn’t connected to the internet (it was the new way Windows 10 managed ntp).

I discovered incredibly smart people, some of them so consistently eloquent it was such a pleasure and inspiration to observe how they could succeed again and again at writing something so powerful and meaningful, some more like an unfortunately needed needle in the foot raising the flag on us every time we were writing nonsense because of anger, which happened a lot with the way Microsoft went with Windows 10 over the years, some quite colorful characters, some so humble but deeply knowledgeable contributors and a community of  very annoyed power users and nice ordinary folks that just wanted a computer that works right and not have to work for their computer.

IT people are weird. I think we are better than regular folks, but I don’t think they agree. In any case, we are fun or at least, we find ourselves fun. We are a bit in our own world. I feel a strong connection to many of you here, in the way we see things, in the way we know how things should be to be so much better and wondering why they are not that way, in the way we are not happy with just accepting what things are without understanding them.

I’m often very impressed by what I read coming from the community, I admire many of you techy or not, and of course the wonderful staff and I think this is all the spirit of Woody at work. When things were too quiet for a while, he knew how to drop a bomb and then let everybody discuss passionately, to the point of often having to intervene to calm things down a bit after. I suspect he sometimes used us to deliver some of his opinions passionately while preserving a certain journalistic neutrality, even if he didn’t shy away from telling what needed to be told when he felt like it. Maybe that sometimes annoyed some of the more serious experts here, but maybe it was needed for some to go through the long mourning of what Windows was before and I feel that for some of us, we had to live that with other like-minded individuals that understood our pain.

Although I never met Woody or really interacted much with him directly, I will always have a strong memory of him and what he has done and I will always be grateful for all the help he gave me through the community he brought together.

Let’s all celebrate Woody and what he represented, a true humanist that cared for everyone and knew how to get the best out of them, wherever they were coming from, and that is something that will always be in demand in the world.

 

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AlexEiffel wrote:

celebrate Woody and what he represented, a true humanist that cared for everyone and knew how to get the best out of them, wherever they were coming from, and that is something that will always be in demand in the world.

Thank you, Amen to that

* _ ... _ *

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Microfix, LongTimer, AlexEiffel, AJNorth, jburk07, SueW, PKCano, Mike Hall, Myst

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WScejonesjr wrote:

Thank you for the great post about Woody. We are about the same age. I discovered Ask Woody a long, long time ago.

I am 71 soon. My father passed at 74. Woodies passing makes me pause and REALLY appreciate all that life has to offer.   I have the greatest gift a man my age can have… I am still very healthy.  know it won’t last but I sure will appreciate my time more as each day passes. Every day is a treasure to explore. Who’d of thunk…I have tears for someone whom I’ve never met. Woody was a treasure.

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Myst, LongTimer, AJNorth, jburk07, Fred

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I felt genuinely sad to know this. I knew Woody only through his books and newsletter. I think the first book I bought was the Outlook Annoyances in the 1990s, which I still have. He must have helped millions of people as he helped me. The side effect of his revelations was that – it’s not me when that Microsoft app doesn’t seem to work right. Some people get great honours for amazing discoveries that have no effect on the lives of most people. Woody was one of the maintenance people who keep our world working for us with minimal pain who are often forgotten. May he be blessed and remembered. Robert Dyson

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Myst, AJNorth, jburk07, Cybertooth

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I first encountered Woody through “Windows Secrets”.  He had a gift of explaining things in a most lucid manner.

Best wishes to you, Woody, on your next Journey.

Charles

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AJNorth

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I am so sorry to hear that Woody has passed away.

I am in Sydney Australia and 90 years old. I have been using MS DOS and Windows etc for years and Woody and the team have been a most precious source of information and advice.

I am sure that the angels in heaven will welcome him and appreciate his advice on how to untangle the firmware that sometimes stops their wings from flying.
I will light a candle for him and you all.
Patrick Kirkwood

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LongTimer, AJNorth

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Far well Woody. I have cooperated years ago as a founder of borncity.com with askwoody.com for several topic. He was, like me, an the cornerstone of the IT world. While I begun in 1993 to work as a full time freelance writer for Person and MS Press (in Germany), Woody followe in 1985. In 2004, Woody was the first, to launch his site, AskWoody.com, while I started blogging in 2007 and moved that stuff 2009 to borncity.com.

It was always a pleasure, so exchange ideas with Woody, and I regretted his departure from askwoody.com (although I understand his motives). So I condolences to the family and remain in thoughts of Woody.

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I went to college with Woody. We spent a lot of time in the computer lab making an ancient IBM 1620 play “music” by writing machine code that used the RFI from the machine to create tones on an AM radio.

RIP Woody

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AJNorth, Myst, SueW, Cybertooth, LongTimer

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Decades long reader of all the various print magazine articles that all of your well known to me names have published over the years – going back to the 1980’s..

Susan Bradley picked up the torch of ownership and has done an outstanding job.

I still read all of your posts in each issue/newsletter.

Thank you all for being by my side during the decades. It has definitely made my windows journey easier..And helps me to know that I’m not the only one pulling my hair out over Microsoft’s tactics.

You guys and gals are truly one of a kind. Keep up the great work.

Thank you

And RIP Woody..

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AJNorth, IreneLinda, Myst, Cybertooth

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“People touch our lives if only for a moment, And yet we’re not the same from that moment on, The time is not important, The moment is forever.” – Fern Bork

RIP Woody

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Mike Hall, Microfix, SueW, AJNorth, IreneLinda, satrow, Myst, PKCano

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Thanks for this obituary, Will. Where would so many of us, myself definitely included, be without Woody?! He served as our small business and my personal “tech guy” forever. His Microsoft Office manuals still fill my bookshelf…can’t bear to part with them. He had such a talent for making technical jargon accessible to us non-techy types. And it sounds as if he had a wonderful, adventure-filled life, full of purpose, friends, travel and family. God bless you, Woody Leonhard…and our thanks!

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Will Fastie, Charlie, Microfix, SueW, Myst, WSGeo, Andy M, satrow, Cybertooth, AJNorth

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You did good work, Woody. Informed so many, shed some light. That’s among the best we can hope for?

Thank you.

Rest easy.

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AJNorth

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What would we do without places like this where we could convene and share thoughts?

I sincerely hope Woody’s legacy of open information sharing lives on for a long time.

-Noel

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Will Fastie, AlexEiffel, Mike Hall, AJNorth, SueW, Cybertooth, WSbobby-p, Charlie, mledman, Microfix, satrow

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What happened? (Rhetorical question)

His passing really came out of left field for me. When you have been a long time member like me, it somehow seems that things will always remain the same. But, of course, nothing in life remains the same forever.

I wish the team and the family all the best in the coming difficult times.
And Woody, thanks for all your years informing all of us.

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AJNorth, Cybertooth

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I corresponded with Woody a few times. My first introduction to him was the book Word 97 Annoyances. That got me started taking control of my Office programs. His enthusiasm and sense of humor were infectious. He will be missed by the Office community. I am sure that he is missed by his family.

I appreciate the full obituary for giving me a more rounded memory.

 

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AJNorth, Cybertooth

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God speed Woody on your westward journey. Thanks for all the help with your knowledge.

S. Davol

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