Microsoft layoffs: What the bloodbath leaves behind

Yes, 18,000 employees get the heave-ho, but there’s much more to the announcement.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

Java Update: Patch It or Pitch It

Another great, short column from Brian Krebs, for every Windows user.

Note that he’s talking about Java inside your browser, not standalone Java, which is working just fine on servers, in particular.

Krebs on Security.

Microsoft hawks cheap hardware, stays mum on Windows 9

Surprisingly little so far.

InfoWorld Tech Watch

Flash Player update and KB 2952664

This just in from ER…

Adobe has released a new set of Flash Player security updates this July
in Adobe Security bulletin APSB14-17:
https://helpx.adobe.com/security/products/flash-player/apsb14-17.html

earlier this month you recommended to install the KB2952664 update
for Windows 7 users.  Recently, Microsoft quietly “revised” the
KB2952664 updates in mid-June (V2) and again in early July and now they’re
at V3.

Here are the direct download links to V3 of the Windows 7 KB2952664 updates
as I’ve gathered them from the BITS logs from Event Viewer on Win7 while
searching for KB2952664 from the Microsoft Update Catalog site:

KB2952664 for x64/64bit Windows 7 SP1:
http://download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/updt/2014/07/windows6.1-kb2952664-v3-x64_14f057154dbfc1f2658029f7745b49f4a088d7e4.msu

KB2952664 for x86/32bit Windows 7 SP1:
http://download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/updt/2014/07/windows6.1-kb2952664-v3-x86_082b2bd3ceaf809a7eee3e9faba5a79f78b92144.msu

For those who have installed the “original” version of KB2952664 back in late April
or sometime in May, uninstall that one and install the revised KB2952664 patch.

Fascinating. The KB article is still at version 1.0. Somebody’s playing fast and loose with the generally accepted patching principles.

Microsoft zaps bogus SSL certs with emergency patch 2982792

You should check to make sure you’re getting the revocations automatically.

Details: InfoWorld Tech Watch

Review: Dell XPS 15 Touch is the best Windows laptop ever

I’m seriously impressed. If I didn’t already own a MacBook Pro Retina, and run it with BootCamp and Win7, I’d plunk down the money for this machine.

What’s most remarkable is that the desktop works very well with Windows 8.1. Even if you never use the touchscreen, it’s quite a machine.

InfoWorld review

Gartner, IDC, PC sales projections, and other fantasies

The writing’s on the wall, but you don’t have to trust the big prognosticators’ projections.

InfoWorld Tech Watch

Surface Pro 3 Wi-Fi problems persist despite a new update

Some people say this month’s Black Tuesday firmware update solved some of their problems. But there are still many – and we have a promised update on July 16.

InfoWorld Tech Watch

Time to batten down the hatches: MS-DEFCON 2

If you haven’t checked lately, make sure you have Automatic Update turned off.

There’s a big bunch of patches coming on Black Tuesday. One of them is likely to be a fix for the Surface Pro 3 WiFi problem I discussed earlier. Give it a few days — and remember to use Chrome or Firefox, or one of the “other” web browsers.

I’m moving us to MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

Create a Restore Point

Just got this interesting note from fellow Windows victim, MS:

I tried getting a screen shot of hidden notifications (in the notification area of the taskbar) with the Windows Snipping Tool. No surprise to you, I couldn’t do it. The notifications kept disappearing.

Then I remembered PicPick and installed it.

Dum de dum dum… (I don’t mean Dumb. I mean like in Dragnet.)

So what happens? I suddenly see a new kid on the block in my taskbar–Search Protect, from Client Connect LTD.

I googled it and saw it’s the program that came to dinner.

I checked Windows Uninstall Programs and saw it brought along a friend: Yawtix.

So I fired up Revo Uninstaller and got rid of Search Protect. Oddly enough, Revo couldn’t find Yawtix to exterminate it. So I did the dirty job from Windows.

Now here’s where it gets weird….

I tried running PicPick and it wasn’t there. The program was nowhere to be found! The only place it existed was in Win Uninstall. So, what could I do? I killed the ghost of PicPick past.

My new routine when installing this stuff? Set up a Create Restore Point first.

Then pray.

I’ll be covering PicPick in a slideshow coming up shortly on InfoWorld. It works great — but I wonder if MS picked up something during the installer shennanigans? (Many of the latest free Windows desktop apps come bundled inside third-party installers that stick all sorts of crap on Windows machines.) Or maybe it’s a coincidence??? 

Patching the future: How Microsoft can make Windows 9 simpler

You and I both know that Microsoft never listens to me. Oh well. Ideas like “Patch Monday” could save all sorts of grief.

Anyway, in the same vein, this is my attempt to show the powers-that-be a much simpler approach to patching the next version of Windows. More precisely, it’s a concise way to name patches, so people can figure out what they have and what they need.

Chances MS will pick up on it? I won’t hold my breath.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.

Wzor: Windows 8.1 Update 2 marks demise of Win8, Windows 9 to follow in fall

Looks like Windows 8.1 is done with the shipping of Update 2, currently scheduled for the August Patch Tuesday bunch.

Wzor says Windows 9 is going to be announced in the Fall. But there’s some question about what constitutes Windows 9, and what constitutes Threshhold. More on that as details unfold.

InfoWorld Tech Watch.