Newsletter Archives

• How to control the security of your Microsoft Account

  Posted on May 31st, 2021 at 01:02 Lance Whitney Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  MICROSOFT

  

  By Lance Whitney

  You can view and tighten many of the security settings associated with your Microsoft account to better protect it from compromise.

  A Microsoft account not only serves as your login to Windows but also grants you access to Microsoft 365, OneDrive, Skype, and other key Microsoft apps and services. Due to the power of such an account, a hacker who gains access to your credentials or to any of your Windows devices could view sensitive information and even spoof your identity.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.20.0 (2021-05-31).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft, Microsoft Account

• Good choices for your Windows-to-Linux transition

  Posted on May 31st, 2021 at 01:01 Sandra Henry-Stocker Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LINUX

  

  By Sandra Henry-Stocker

  If you’re a long-standing Windows user thinking about moving to Linux, there are several distributions in particular that you ought to consider.

  In this article, we’ll take a quick look at Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and Manjaro and then spend some time examining Ubuntu more closely. These three are some of the most popular Linux distributions and have a considerable user base, along with a very active support community. In fact, TechMint ranked Manjaro, Linux Mint and Ubuntu as the second, third, and fourth most popular Linux distributions of 2021, respectively.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.20.0 (2021-05-31).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Linux AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Linux, Ubuntu

• A quiet month of May

  Posted on May 31st, 2021 at 01:00 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  21H1 is released. Quietly. With no fuss.

  The big release of this month is not the security patches released earlier but rather the May appearance of Windows 10 version 21H1. Microsoft currently has released 21H1 to “seekers” — that is, those people who click on Check for Updates in the Windows update interface. The 21H1 release is a bit anticlimactic; it doesn’t contain many changes. 21H1 even shares the same “base” as 2004 and 20H2. On my test laptop, the install of 21H1 was very fast and caused no side effects.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.20.0 (2021-05-31).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch

• Click here to agree

  Posted on May 24th, 2021 at 01:04 Max Stul Oppenheimer Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.19 • 2021-05-24

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  Any time you install new software or a new service, you are faced with a seemingly simple task: checking a box confirming that you agree to the company’s terms of service.

  If you’ve followed the associated link, chances are you’ve encountered 20 or 30 (or 40) pages of pseudo-English. Using the ubiquitous Microsoft Services Agreement as an example, here’s what you are typically agreeing to. For simplicity, we’ll stick with basic U.S. accounts. Most specific products and some special types of account (for example, accounts for minors, education accounts, and organizational accounts) have additional rules. Other rules apply in other countries. Your mileage may vary.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.19.F (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Legal Agreements, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Legal Brief, Microsoft, Microsoft Service Agreement, terms of service

• Win7 to Win10 activation trouble

  Posted on May 24th, 2021 at 01:03 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  A subscriber lost his Win7 product key and wonders what will happen if his free Win10 upgrade fails to properly activate, especially now that the old, manual “get a replacement key” methods no longer work!

  Surprisingly, the original product key might still exist in several unusual locations, even after the upgrade — but digging it out could take some doing. Here are the options, with additional information about what happens if you don’t activate!

  Plus: More on OneDrive’s permanent vs. impermanent local copies.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, OneDrive, Windows, Windows Activation

• Amazon is turning Echo and Ring into transmitters on June 8

  Posted on May 24th, 2021 at 01:02 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  You may not have been expecting this, but those nice little Echo speakers you bought to play music — as well as your Ring Cams, Video Doorbell Pros, Level door locks, etc. — will begin talking on June 8 to a gaggle of gadgets that may be up to a mile from your home or office.

  These always-on communications will not use Wi-Fi, although your speakers, security cameras, and so forth probably already connect with your Wi-Fi router. Instead, Amazon has built a new capability into devices that the corporation may have sold to you as long ago as 2018.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender Amazon, Amazon Echo, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LoRa, Public Defender, Ring

• Freeware Spotlight — Win10 Settings Blocker

  Posted on May 24th, 2021 at 01:01 Deanna McElveen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  A computer user who can’t access the Windows settings is a computer user who has less chance of breaking something.

  A few years ago, Sordum.org came out with a handy tool called Win10 Settings Blocker to block access to Windows settings. We’ve used it on scores of computers owned by our clients. We’ve used it on public-access kiosks, nursing-home med carts, computers for the Mennonite communities in our area, and countless others. The program is portable, free, and clean. Perfect!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Windows 10 Settings

• Wi-Fi vulnerabilities affect all

  Posted on May 24th, 2021 at 01:00 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  FragAttacks is a newly discovered set of vulnerabilities that, when exploited, allows an adversary to steal data by intercepting a network.

  For once, a threat may be less dangerous than advertised.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.19.0 (2021-05-24).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, security, Wi-Fi

• Other Apple privacy practices

  Posted on May 17th, 2021 at 01:03 Nathan Parker Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.18 • 2021-05-17

  APPLE

  

  By Nathan Parker

  Not all privacy settings are neatly contained in the main Settings app in iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

  In my previous articles in this series on Apple’s privacy settings, I enumerated those found in what we might call the “usual places.” There are some others involving privacy that are found elsewhere. This final article in the series will help you find those “out of the box” controls.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.18.0 (2021-05-17).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.18.F (2021-05-17).

  Apple, AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Privacy Apple, Apple privacy, AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, privacy

• Another OneDrive problem caused by poor documentation

  Posted on May 17th, 2021 at 01:02 Fred Langa Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  Microsoft’s OneDrive service can be excellent, but it also can be frustratingly hard to use to its fullest, impeded by documentation that’s sparse, scattered, and incomplete.

  For example, OneDrive has three very different ways of handling your files, but only one — and it’s not the default — leaves behind a permanent, fully normal, local copy on your hard drive!

  None of this is explained in OneDrive’s “getting started” documentation or in its top-level help files — but is explained in today’s column.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.18.0 (2021-05-17).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Microsoft, OneDrive

• Should you give Microsoft all of your passwords?

  Posted on May 17th, 2021 at 01:01 Brian Livingston Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  A new feature of Microsoft’s Edge browser is causing our readers to ask, “Is this MS initiative going to place our account info at risk?” Should Web users allow their browsers to store usernames and passwords for sites they must sign in to?

  You’re not going to like the answer, but it’s: Yes and No.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.18.0 (2021-05-17).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Public Defender AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft, passwords, Public Defender

• Welcome to beta testing of Outlook

  Posted on May 17th, 2021 at 01:00 Susan Bradley Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  By the time you read this article, the desktop version of Microsoft’s Outlook application will have returned to its normal behavior — being only slightly annoying.

  But on Tuesday, May 11, its behavior was downright obnoxious. Our own AskWoody forums started lighting up with users complaining about their inability to read messages in Outlook. Later in the day, Microsoft’s 365 Twitter account lit up with the same complaints. The only remedy was a roll back to a prior version, which, if you’ve never done it before, is hardly obvious.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.18.0 (2021-05-17).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft Outlook, Patch Lady Posts
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