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Create drive images regularly so that when it fails, you won’t lose anything except the hardware.

I think I’ve got that part covered.  #post-2380926

Eric, thanks for the update.  I re-tested my phone for Power Off versus Restart; and I confirmed the same thing.  Apps that are open before doing that (whether a Power Off or a Restart) stay open at exactly the same point once the phone finishes restarting (or powering on again).  So it looks like Android phones never do a “true” restart — at least nothing equivalent to what happens on a Windows PC.

I was always under the impression that restarting the Android O/S would “Force Stop” all open apps and processes.  But apparently that’s not true.  It looks like there really isn’t any way to do an actual reboot of an Android phone — at least nothing short of a full “Factory Reset” (which I can’t see myself ever doing except as a last resort if things really got out of whack).

If anyone knows of a way to fully reboot an Android phone — something that actually ends and closes out all open apps and processes, but without doing a Factory Reset — I’d sure be interested in knowing how to do that.

I’m pretty well covered for backups.  I’m using Macrium Reflect to make disk images (with verification) at least weekly to two separate external USB drives that I alternate between with each backup.  And that’s in addition to my daily user file backups, which also alternate between two separate backup drives.  So I’m not too worried about being able to recover from a system failure.

The question I was really posing was if there’s any way to reliably tell if an SSD is getting close to failing.  In other words, is there any utility I can use to monitor the condition of the SSD that would let me know that it’s time to get ready to replace it before it actually stops functioning?

I’ve always felt that it’s easier to schedule a preemptive hardware replacement or upgrade when it’s convenient for me, rather than having to recover from a hardware failure at a point when it might be horribly inconvenient (e.g., in the middle of a time-sensitive project that can’t wait).

Alex, I’m just curious here.  But do you keep your system up and running 24×7 because it’s actually running programs or processes that need to be up and running continuously?  Or do you keep it running that way just for the heck of it (because you can)?  Does the system ever go into Sleep mode when it’s not actively being used?

James, I think you might be wrong about assuming that.  I’m an Android user myself; but when I power off my phone (which I do every night), I find that when I power it back on in the morning, all the apps that were open the night before are still open at exactly the same spot where they were before I powered down.  So I think that powering your phone down might be equivalent to Sleep mode on a PC.  In other words, it’s not really the same as restarting the phone.

When I want to actually restart the phone following an update (or to just close out everything on the phone and start clean again), I explicitly select the Restart option.  Of course, that’s how things work for me on my Android phone.  So maybe someone with an iPhone can jump in here if they have more accurate info about Apple devices.

kstephens43:  My personal choice is KeePass 2.x.  By default it does AES 256-bit encryption of the entire database file.  It’s open source, and has been extensively examined and audited by the open source community to ensure there’s no backdoor way of bypassing that encryption.  It is completely self-contained; so it doesn’t rely on any cloud storage (although you can choose to store it on a cloud drive if you want).  Since it resides on your local hardware (by default) no third-party company has access to your database file; you have complete control over it.

So basically, the only way in to the database is via your master password, which only you know (unless you choose to disclose it to someone else).  If your master password is long and complex enough; no one is ever going to be able to get into your KeePass database.

Just for reference, I use a master password that’s almost 30 characters in length with upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols.  With that complex a master password and KeePass’ AES 256-bit encryption, I say good luck to anybody trying to break into my KeePass database — assuming that they can even get access to the database file in order to attempt a break-in.

Oh, and you get that level of security with KeePass at no cost — without any monthly subscription fee.

Susan, in your article I was especially paying attention to your comments regarding monitoring SSDs; since they can apparently fail without much advance warning.  Part of what you said there was this:

While the S.M.A.R.T predictive tools should work for HDDs as well as SSDs, often the alerts for the SSD drives get overlooked. Regularly using the health apps provided by the SSD vendor is important, or you can use tools such as StableBit Scanner tool to alert you to drive problems.

I’ve never had any experience with StableBit Scanner.  Other than the SSD vendor’s monitoring tool (in my case Crucial Storage Executive), I’ve been relying on a freeware tool: CrystalDiskInfo.  On my main system that gets heavy daily usage, the Health Status reported by CrystalDiskInfo for the SSD boot drive is “Good 96%”.  But I’m not sure how much confidence I can have in that “Good” status if some alerts for the SSD are possibly getting overlooked by the software.

I guess I’m asking for an opinion as to whether paying for the StableBit Scanner software would buy me any added early warning of a potential SSD failure beyond what I’m already getting with the free CrystalDiskInfo tool.  I’m just curious as to your thoughts on that.

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rc primak

For what it’s worth, I use Firefox almost exclusively for my regular web browsing (along with Adblock Plus and NoScript extensions).  However, I also control when I accept updates to Firefox via this convenient little utility from TrishTech that toggles between enabling or disabling the automatic updates:

• TrishTech.com – Toggle Firefox Update

So I only update Firefox around once a month typically (on my schedule, not Mozilla’s) — and then only after I check to see if other Firefox users have been reporting any problems with the latest update.

With these updates to v89 and v90, I made sure to preemptively export my Firefox bookmarks to a .json file before updating, just in case anything might get deleted.  However, in my case at least, everything updated cleanly; and no bookmarks were lost in the process.  So my exported .json backup file was never needed.

I really do like Firefox the best of all the browsers I’ve tried, even if it’s not necessarily the fastest.  But just like I don’t fully trust Microsoft with updating Windows, I also don’t trust Mozilla with updating Firefox.  So I make sure that I stay in control of the updating process and schedule.  The TrishTech Toggle utility is to Firefox what the WUMgr tool is to Windows.  It lets me decide when and how to update.

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Charlie, Cybertooth

Noel, I don’t at all disagree that we’re very much living in an online world now.  Yes, we need the Internet to download and install software.  And we rely on the Internet for everything — email, banking, shopping, education, etc.  It’s become a basic utility that we all rely on — like electricity and water.  But just like any infrastructure there will always be interruptions in service — sometimes just briefly for minutes, but occasionally for hours or even days.

My point is that if my PC is only something virtual (in the Cloud) that’s only available to me while the Internet (and the hosting web services) are up and running, then I’m completely dependent on that infrastructure to get anything done.  If and when it goes down, my virtual PC is completely useless — a boat anchor.

But with an actual “real” PC sitting on my desk with its locally resident software (yes, previously installed and activated via the Internet), and with all my data safely available on local directly attached storage, I can keep getting work done regardless of the state of my Internet connection — or of Microsoft’s W365 servers.  I can still work on my To-Do list in Outlook and compose reply emails to queue up in my Outbox (to send when service is restored).  I can still sort thru previously downloaded receipts and invoices, and enter transactions into Quicken or QuickBooks registers.  I can still create and edit Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and videos, etc. etc.; and sync up those documents with others later.

Bottom line: I can still be getting productive work done with an actual real PC — even without the Internet or Microsoft’s W365 servers.  With a virtual Cloud PC, I’m completely dead in the water.

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SueW, Noel Carboni, Cybertooth

…which corporate position would require QuickBooks AND Illustrator AND Acrobat Pro?

Not your typical home user.  But then, Microsoft (at least currently) isn’t targeting Windows 365 to home users.  On the other hand, I’ve worked with a number of small business owners or self-employed consultants who have setups quite similar to that.  Especially folks like graphic artists, small publishing outfits, and website designers.  I can even point to some less likely users like sole practitioner doctors, who run their own practice but have other outside seemingly unrelated interests as well.  Yes, the software I cited is expensive.  That’s exactly the point I was trying to make.  And Microsoft is just making the situation even worse.

…the $30 a month is JUST the operating system, it does not include Microsoft 365 which would be on top of that.

It also doesn’t include a whole lot of cloud storage either.  If my understanding is correct, I believe the low end Windows 365 would only get you 128 GB.  Also for anyone who needs apps beyond the basic Office/Microsoft 365 suite, that would be extra as well.

So let’s just price out the cost for a hypothetical single user — where he/she can’t split the cost among multiple family members or co-workers.  Here’s our hypothetical test case.  It’s a single user who wants a Windows cloud PC with all the Office apps (Word, Excel, Outlook, etc.), as well as QuickBooks, Adobe Illustrator and Acrobat Pro.  And our test case user needs around 2TB of cloud storage for data.  Here’s what the monthly subscription costs might look like:

• $30 – Windows 365 (with 128 GB storage)
• $  7 – Microsoft 365 (with 1 TB storage)
• $10 – Microsoft 365 1 TB storage add-on
• $25 – Intuit QuickBooks Simple Start (single user)
• $21 – Adobe Illustrator
• $15 – Adobe Acrobat Pro

Add all those monthly subscriptions up, and it comes to $108 per month.  That’s a yearly cost of $1,296.  And the absolute worst part about the whole deal is that after shelling out all that money over the course of the year, the user owns absolutely nothing.  It’s basically all money that has been paid out to his software “landlords” in rent.  Oh, and if the landlords decide they’re not getting enough revenue coming in, they can opt to “raise the rent” at any time with very little advance notice.

The 20th Century idealistic dream of personal computing is rapidly becoming just a 21st Century nightmare of corporate greed.

 

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wdburt1, Cybertooth

It’s going to be a hard sell to home users too — or to anyone who’s just plain tired of shelling out more money every month for subscriptions that keep piling on new looks and features that most users have little need for or interest in getting.  And that’s on top of all the other monthly subscriptions for cell service, cable, Netflix, DoorDash, Amazon Prime, etc. etc.  At some point, people are going to say STOP, enough is enough.

But of course, a Windows 365 subscription to replace every real hardware PC is Microsoft’s ultimate goal with this new “cloud PC” strategy of theirs.  Apparently they’re not getting enough revenue from Office/Microsoft 365.  So they need this new Windows 365 nonsense to try and suck even more users into their subscription-based Nirvana.

It seems like we’re devolving back to the last century where end users had dumb ASCII terminals connecting thru dial-up phone lines to some big corporate timeshare systems.  Only now, instead of dial-up phone lines, we’ve graduated to high-speed Internet connections and high-res displays.  Big whoop!  What users will end up with at their home or office is going to be basically nothing more than those dumb terminals from the mid 20th century — useless boat anchors when the network connection goes down.  And they’ll be paying a monthly subscription for the privilege of having those boat anchors on their desks.

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Ricard, Average-Jane, OscarCP, Cybertooth, wdburt1

…most of us find limited use for a computer with no internet connection.

Sure, losing Internet access is going to limit your ability to get things done.  You’re not going to be able to do any online banking, online shopping, online forums (like AskWoody here), etc.  But with my locally controlled (non-Cloud) PC, I still have access to all my locally stored data and I have full functionality of all my installed applications.

I can still run Quicken, and enter receipts and reconcile accounts.  I still have access to all the statements and invoices that I received or downloaded from my credit card companies, banks, Amazon, etc. before losing Internet access.  I can still organize and edit all my photos (which are also stored locally, not in the cloud).  I can go thru my To-Do List in Outlook and compose replies to emails that need a response — even if they just get queued up in my Outbox waiting for Internet access to return.  I can still record broadcast TV shows to my computer’s hard drive via a rooftop antenna.  And I can create tutorials on my computer (recording the screen) to video files, which I can also edit offline without any Internet.  I also have access to all my locally stored client files via a locally stored database; so I’m able to communicate with and support clients by phone even with my Internet connection being down.

Try doing any of those things without having Internet access if your PC only exists “in the Cloud”.

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OscarCP, Cybertooth, bbearren

Is your next PC a cloud?

Easy answer, one word: NO!

(I actually wanted to make that “No” two words, but I held back since there’s the lounge rule about no swearing.)

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Ricard, Average-Jane, Ascaris, wavy

krism:  In WUMgr, you can select “Automatic Update (default)“, which won’t take effect until after a reboot.  But you can also keep or select the option in WUMgr to “Block Access to WU Servers“.  If Windows Update can’t get to the WU Servers, then there should be no way for WU to search for or download any updates.

And if you’ve unselected the option to “Hide WU Settings Page“, you can also feel free to go and pause or un-pause updates as well.  Without access to the WU Servers, no updates should be available to Windows Update.  At least that’s what my experience has been.

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BillH