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…. and… we’re off. The Microsoft Update Catalog lists 151 separate patches.
[See the full post at: February 2020 Patch Tuesday foibles]Running WinUp on a Win7/Ent/32bit machine licensed for ESU shows only KB4537829 Servicing Stack update available.
GaryK
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That really fries my grits. This is another example of an all-too-common, internet-driven phenomenon: Someone who wants to gain attention by broadcasting a point of view begins by mischaracterizing and misquoting someone like Woody, then uses that mischaracterization and misquote as a launching pad for an attention-getting rant. No, AskWoody has never said “Don’t patch”; AskWoody has always said, “Don’t patch mindlessly.” Those of us who are computer professionals caring for tens, hundreds, or thousands of workstations have far-too-often been bitten by poorly tested MS patches as a result of which we’ve had to listen to the anquised cries of suddenly-non-productive clients–not to say having lost clients because of this; we badly want never to have that happen again. AskWoody has been invaluable not only by educating us about patches–something Microsoft never adequately took on to begin with and then abandonned any pretense of doing at all–but also by helping us quickly ameliorate the problems caused by culprit patches by identifying those culprit patches and suggesting fixes. We can’t be too grateful.
Edit: Please follow the –Lounge Rules– no personal attacks
GaryK
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All of this is laughable. I know a guy still running Win 98.
If you like Win 7, use a good antivirus and a VPN. You can use a virtual OS. You can use Browser In A Box which virtualizes either Firefox or Chrome. Use Tor. Don’t download torrents. Optimize your router settings. Use a proxy.
Yes, indeed. Also many people still on XP. A former client has several non-internet connected and never-patched XP machines that run a proprietary database. I have always compulsively patched my Win7 PCs–FUD is powerful, and we are easy to stampede–but I know several people who have never patched theirs and never suffered any consequences.
GaryK
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Anyone else here old enough to remember IBM’s FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) campaign? MS learned that lesson well.
GaryK
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“wow Windows 10 is four years old”
Will the beta be over soon?
GaryK
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What about the 98% of the country who were against overturning Net Neutrality and Internet Privacy protections? It was done anyway, but against the will of the majority of people living here. Do you think those people freely exchanging their privacy to use social media would choose to share all of that data if they could say no and still use the services? Uploading selfies is privacy given up intentionally and voluntarily.
There is still a fight going on over all this stuff and the spike in VPN usage (almost 200% increase) in response to the Net Neutrality situation shows that people DO care about their privacy. The spike continues and it’s happening worldwide. It’s not just dinosaurs, it’s a growing majority of people. Some countries have even made them illegal to prevent citizens from having privacy online and hiding their activities from government surveillance.
As long as your VPN keeps no logs of personal information (several don’t, a few have been audited to prove they don’t), so the opposite of “letting it go” is occurring fortunately. People are fighting it and they should fight it if they care at all about this stuff. Not fighting it means that people don’t care what their government is doing and never deserved internet freedom/privacy/net neutrality in the first place.
Net neutrality is a different issue; though there are privacy implications, net neutrality is mainly about bandwidth, not privacy. As far as a “200% increase” in VPN usage, that’s again in the techno-bubble: If you have 3 people on Wednesday and 9 people on Thursday, that’s a 200% increase. Most civilians haven’t a clue about what “VPN” stands for, much less its implications, and when you explain you’ll get a blank stare or a shrug. Those of us in the techno-bubble know and care about this, but if you question the average person about “net neutrality” he or she will assume you’re talking about tuna and dolphins.
I share your frustration–just because I’m describing a tsunami doesn’t mean I’m rooting for the tsunami–but for privacy it’s simply a done deal.
Moderator Note: VPNs , Net Neutrality and political implicatons are off-topic. Please stay on topic here.
GaryK
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I think MS is a truly awful company, but in this particular case, so what if MS collects my SID when I visit URLs? Does anyone think MS doesn’t already have my SID? What are they going to do with it beyond what’s already being done with my personal data by every other corporation in America? Sell it? Spy on my URL history? Turn it over to the government? Does anyone believe the government (and not only the US government) doesn’t already have the SIDs and URL histories of almost everyone on the planet who uses the internet?
Most of us here exist within a techno-bubble. We know how to, we take the time to, and we make the effort to mitigate (although we can’t wholly prevent) the data gathering. Outside that bubble, though, the vast majority of people freely exchange all their privacy for the ability to upload selfies.
We here are like high-tech dinosaurs fondly remembering and bemoaning a world that no longer exists. Privacy as a thing was charming for a while, but it existed only within and was a reaction to a lost world. Other than cherished as a concept by nostalgia buffs who are the equivalent of Civil War Reenactors or Baker Street Irregulars, that world is gone and so is privacy. Time to let it go.
GaryK
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the fact that its reversal was prompted only by an external rather than an internal backlash guarantees more such policies over time.
Or it could guarantee more careful consideration of such changes in future.
That would be so nice.
GaryK
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