Newsletter Archives

• Protecting your identification

  Posted on February 3, 2025 at 02:41 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  There is some sort of unique code in every country and jurisdiction, usually a number, that identifies you to the government — especially for tax purposes.

  In the United States, it’s our Social Security number (SSN). But no matter where you live, protecting that ID is critically important. I’ll discuss that here in the context of the US, but the same caution applies similarly everywhere.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.05.0, 2025-02-03).

  On Security Backup, Federal Trade Commission, Government IDs, Multifactor Authentication, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Social Security Number, SSN

• Backup! It’s been a really bad week for SSDs.

  Posted on October 7, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  There are experts out there who will tell me it’s not true and that I’m imagining things.

  But gosh darn it! When the temperature changes, we get an increasing number of failed drives at the shop. And with solid-state drives (SSDs), it happens even more!

  I’m going to use my soapbox here this week to show you how to back up your drives — both SSDs and traditional hard drives (HDDs). I will point you to some free programs, but remember that modern versions of Windows have backup tools built in. Just type in Backup on the search bar at the bottom of your desktop. You’ll find it.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.41.0, 2024-10-07).

  Freeware Spotlight AOMEI Backupper, Backup, Cobian Reflector, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Hasleo Backup, Newsletters, Personal Backup

• The resources you need for a secure computer

  Posted on July 22, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  With over a year left before Windows 10 stops being supported in its current fashion, are you reviewing its health and well-being?

  Just the other day, I came across a home computer that was not a happy camper. Its C (boot) drive was too full. Upon review, I found that it also had a D drive with room for data, so I went into storage settings and moved 30GB of photos from the pictures folder to the D drive.

  Why was this important? Because the PC was not installing updates. Clearing out space on the C drive provided the room for updates, and soon the PC was acting normally. Now we can wait to see how it responds to the constant pull of AI — and decide its future later, perhaps next year.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.30.0, 2024-07-22).

  On Security Backup, Boot Drive, Corruption, Internet Speed, Local Storage, Newsletters, RAM, storage, Windows Updates

• Server updates fail to download

  Posted on March 18, 2024 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The March updates for Windows opened the month on a bumpy road.

  The most significant bump relates to the update for Windows Server, demonstrating that it’s not just client PCs that have problems. Fortunately, the problem seems to have been fixed quickly.

  KB5035849 is the culprit.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.12.0, 2024-03-18).

  Patch Watch Backup, CVE-2024-21407, Hyper-V, iCloud, iPhone, KB5034441, KB5035845, KB5035849, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Windows Server

• Gifts for your computer

  Posted on December 11, 2023 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Technology is one of those purchases best done personally.

  It’s often hard to know how people like their technology, but for gift-giving it’s important to know whether they are firmly entrenched in the ecosystems of Microsoft, Apple, Android, or Kindle.

  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat yourself. And your treat shouldn’t be limited to purchasing something new — this may be the time you want to upgrade the technology you already have. Even a Windows 10 PC might benefit from Santa’s visit.

  Your best gift to yourself is to take stock of your daily drivers. Know how much RAM and hard-drive space they have, determine how well your most important apps run, and decide how reliable and dependable the devices are. Do it once a year — the holidays are a great time for it!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.50.0, 2023-12-11).

  On Security Backup, Buying a new PC, Buying PCs, Hardware Upgrades, Internet connectivity, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Refurbished Equipment, Security

• Keeping your devices up to date

  Posted on November 13, 2023 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Are you monitoring your devices?

  Just the other day, I tried to update an app on my dad’s iPad. That didn’t work, instead messaging that the device itself needed to be upgraded first. Apparently, the iPad had not been left on continuously long enough for it to get the word from Apple that an update was needed.

  A simple solution is to connect to power and leave it on for an extended period, such as 24 hours. That should be enough time for the device to be notified about updates. It’s not different from Windows PCs in this respect — keep them offline long enough, and they will miss the notification, too.

  Of course, you can be proactive and check the device every so often to see whether the O/S is current. That’s my recommendation.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.46.0, 2023-11-13).

  Patch Watch Android, Apple, Backup, iCloud, Jamf, MaaS360, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, updates

• Hard-drive imaging — AOMEI Backupper Standard

  Posted on October 23, 2023 at 02:43 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  At OlderGeeks.com, we test a lot of software. Sometimes we do so in a virtual machine that we can reset when things get out of control.

  But a lot of software deals with the actual hardware in a computer, so we must use our test system to assure that a rogue app does no harm. In that case, we make a drive image before we experiment.

  There are many free and open-source backup programs out there. Some do just file backups, and some also do total hard-drive imaging. That means they take a snapshot of your entire hard drive and save it as a single file, or perhaps a few files. In this article, I will concentrate on my favorite program in this class.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.43.0, 2023-10-23).

  Freeware Spotlight Backup, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Drive Imaging, Linux, Newsletters, USB drives, Windows PE

• Windows 11 23H2 is around the corner

  Posted on October 23, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  The 23H2 release of Windows 11 is coming soon. Don’t panic — you can defer. But before its release, you should be prepared.

  First, make sure you are on Windows 11 22H2 if you are using the Home or Professional Windows 11 editions. Second, I recommend downloading and keeping a copy of the Windows 11 22H2 ISO from Microsoft’s download site.

  You can also use the Rufus tool to download past versions of Windows 11. However, I feel that Microsoft download is the easiest way to ensure you have all the necessary media should you need to do a repair install at a later date.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.43.0, 2023-10-23).

  Patch Watch Backup, Newsletters, Passkeys, Patch Lady Posts, Windows 11, Windows 11 23H2, Windows backup

• Microsoft Backup triggers help-desk calls and confusion

  Posted on October 2, 2023 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.40 • 2023-10-02

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  I applaud Microsoft for admitting that we all need to back up our computers and workstations, or at least have a recovery plan of some sort.

  But Microsoft’s recent backup implementation, its suddenly appearing Microsoft Backup app, is not well thought out and is a one-size-fits-all solution — that doesn’t fit well at all.

  Here’s the backstory. The new Backup app is available for both Windows 10 and 11. That’s a surprise, because we’ve been put on notice that Windows 10 22H2 is the final release, with only security updates coming our way until October 2025.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.40.0, 2023-10-02).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  On Security Backup, KB5029331, KB5030211, Microsoft Accounts, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Windows backup

• Zeroing in on zero days

  Posted on September 18, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  September’s updates are out, with several zero days and several interesting vulnerabilities.

  The good news is that for consumers and home users, many of these are unique to a business network and won’t be seen in a home network.

  What will be seen this month is that the update installation and reboot process will take longer. I’m not sure what is triggering the slowness, but note that this month’s updates also include .NET updates. Patience.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.38.0, 2023-09-18).

  Patch Watch Backup, CVE-2023-36761, CVE-2023-36802, CVE-2023-38148, Intel Processors, KB5020805, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Windows backup

• Creative uses for external drives

  Posted on July 10, 2023 at 02:44 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Peter Deegan

  Despite the availability of cloud storage over fast Internet connections and the ever-increasing size of storage built into all devices, external storage devices have many uses.

  And even though the very term “external drive” conjures up images of desktop “bricks” containing rotating hard drives, external storage can consist of any storage device that can be connected to a desktop, laptop, or phone and appears to that computer as a disk drive. As we’ll see, external drives can connect in many ways, serve many purposes, and be as tiny as a thumbnail.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.28.0, 2023-07-10).

  Hardware Backup, Docking stations, File Transfer, HDD, Newsletters, SD Cards, SSD, USB Flash Drives

• RoboMirror — robocopy’s fancy cousin

  Posted on April 24, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  The ability to mirror two folders has been a Windows feature for about 26 years, using the robocopy command at a command prompt.

  Now, you can use robocopy with a graphical user interface (GUI), thanks to Martin Kinkelin’s open-source project, RoboMirror.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.17.0, 2023-04-24).

  Freeware Spotlight Backup, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Newsletters, robocopy
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