Blog Archives

• Here’s why we’re not patching Internet Explorer

  Posted on September 30th, 2019 at 01:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PATCH WATCH

  By Susan Bradley

  There’s no way to sugar-coat this: The current Windows updating situation is a disaster.

  No, I’m not talking about the usual round of side effects in the second–Patch Tuesday updates, the lack of overall patch quality, or the known issues that impact only a small set of Windows users but that we’re still forced to track.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.35.0 (2019-09-30).

  Patch Watch .NET Framework, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Internet Explorer, Office updates, Patch problems, Windows Updates

• Freeware Spotlight — Win7 Games for Windows 10 and 8

  Posted on September 30th, 2019 at 01:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  BEST UTILITIES

  By Deanna McElveen

  Moving from Win7 to Win10 is somewhat like moving to a new town. Sure, many of the big stores are in both places, but what about that favorite coffee shop?

  For Windows 7 users, migrating up can mean leaving behind some familiar versions of treasured games — good ol’ FreeCell, Hearts, Solitaire, Spider Solitaire, Mahjong, Minesweeper, and others — and wandering through the MS Store maze or the silliness of Win10’s “Solitaire Collection.”

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.35.0 (2019-09-30).

  Best Utilities AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Freecell, gaming, Minesweeper, Pinball, Solitaire

• Has MS cleaned up its Win10-update mess? (Spoiler: No!)

  Posted on September 23rd, 2019 at 01:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  WOODY’S WINDOWS WATCH

  By Woody Leonhard

  Give Microsoft some credit: it keeps trying to improve patch quality.

  But in spite of two significant improvements to the patching infrastructure, it looks to me as though the process is getting worse, not better.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.34.0 (2019-09-23).

  Windows Patches/Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, patching, Windows 10

• How to stop two Windows Defender annoyances

  Posted on September 23rd, 2019 at 01:10 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  By Fred Langa

  Win10’s built-in Windows Defender has matured into a top-ranked anti-malware tool. But several of its default behaviors can be downright irritating.

  Here’s how to tweak Windows Defender with a few buried settings and a Task Scheduler change.

  Plus: Does Adobe Flash Player really need as many updates as it claims?

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.34.0 (2019-09-23).

  LangaList Adobe Flash Player, Anti-malware, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Windows Defender

• How to fill out a PDF form with Adobe Acrobat Reader

  Posted on September 23rd, 2019 at 01:05 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  PRODUCTIVITY

  By Lance Whitney

  Entering information into PDF-based forms can be an exercise in frustration — especially if it’s something you don’t do often.

  Let’s say, for example, that you have a PDF tax form that needs to be filled out. You could use Adobe Acrobat to complete the task (and also do lots of other tricks with PDF files), but that’s a pricey proposition — around U.S. $180 per year — especially if you rarely need to edit or annotate PDFs.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.34.0 (2019-09-23).

  Productivity Adobe Acrobat Reader, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Digital forms, PDFs

• Changing my mind about Facebook

  Posted on September 23rd, 2019 at 01:00 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  SECURITY

  Amy Babinchak

  Undoubtedly, you’ve seen the invitation to sign in to a website with your Facebook account. And you ask yourself: “How can that be safe?”

  Using one account sign-in for everything goes against a basic tenet of password security. And you’re trusting Facebook to keep your credentials secure — and not share them. (Sharing is core to Facebook.) And yet you watch as all your friends get hacked and cloned while using conventional sign-ins.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.34.0 (2019-09-23).

  On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Facebook, passwords, Sign-in security

• Coming soon: Windows Secrets Newsletter archives!

  Posted on September 16th, 2019 at 01:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ASKWOODY.COM EVOLUTION

  By Woody Leonhard

  One more big piece of the Windows Secrets legacy is about to drop into place.

  If all goes as planned, in the next few days we’ll have the full catalog of past Windows Secrets newsletters available, right here on AskWoody. You’ll need an AskWoody Plus membership to see the most recent two months of newsletters, but all the rest will be free to one and all.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.33.0 (2019-09-16).

  Thanks to @TBCapen-AW and @joep157 for pulling this all together.

  AskWoody Plus membership, AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Membership, Paid content

• A ‘tip of the iceberg’ problem with RPV

  Posted on September 16th, 2019 at 01:10 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  LANGALIST

  By Fred Langa

  Win7’s and Win10’s Restore previous versions (RPV) applets normally work in the background, so you might not notice when they’ve failed.

  But an RPV failure can be a symptom of deeper problems — especially in Win10, where RPV is intimately linked with other recovery components.

  Plus: “Bad penny” drivers and (ahem) “asking for a friend” about browser trouble.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.33.0 (2019-09-16).

  LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Bad device drivers, File History, Restore previous versions
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