Newsletter Archives

• Steps to take before updating to 24H2

  Posted on April 28, 2025 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.17 • 2025-04-28

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  It’s all about prepping your computer.

  This column is specific to the process of upgrading from Windows 11 23H2 to 24H2. Many of the concepts, however, are valid for any sort of computer update process.

  I’m going to discuss the steps that I recommend before any patch or upgrade is attempted, and then I’ll go into more detail about the specific steps for 24H2.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.17.0, 2025-04-28).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Patch Watch Drivers, InControl, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Windows 11 24H2, Windows 11 Installation Wizard

• Which Web browser is the most secure for 2025?

  Posted on April 28, 2025 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  With all the malware threats we face on the Internet these days, running an antivirus program is a must. But your browser can help, too, warning you about shady websites and preventing your browsing history from being tracked by corporations or governments.

  I most recently wrote about protecting yourself while Web surfing in my AskWoody column titled Browsers with the best security and privacy in 2021.

  Much has changed since that time. We need to question whatever our old choice of browsers may have been and update our knowledge with the latest ratings by security experts.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.17.0, 2025-04-28).

  Public Defender Brave, Chrome, Edge, Epic, FreeNet, Newsletters, Opera, Puffin, Safari, Security, TOR, Vivaldi, Waterfox, Web Browsers

• Replacing Skype

  Posted on April 28, 2025 at 02:43 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  In late February, Microsoft announced that Skype would be retired on May 5, 2025. What can you use instead? It’s a lot more complicated than Microsoft makes out.

  Originally developed by Skype Technologies and released in 2003, Skype went through several owners before being acquired in 2011 by Microsoft. Among other things, Redmond replaced Windows Live Messenger (aka MSN Messenger) with Skype and created a new tier, Skype for Business.

  The seemingly firm date is only partially true. If you’re using Skype as a stand-alone, you’ve got just over a month left. Microsoft 365 users have a bit more time for making phone calls — until March 2026.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.17.0, 2025-04-28).

  Microsoft 365 Facetime, Google Voice, Newsletters, Rebtel, Signal, Skype, Teams, Viber, Vonage, WhatsApp, Yolla, Zoom, Zoom Phone

• FileOptimizer — Over 90 tools working together to squish your files

  Posted on April 28, 2025 at 02:42 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  There are many reasons to make your files smaller, from compressing images for a website so they load faster to sending dog pics to your cousin Brody who uses dial-up Internet in the swamp.

  FileOptimizer by Spanish developer Javier Gutiérrez Chamorro is a collection of over 90 free and/or open-source programs that all work together to do one thing: squish your files down to their smallest size without messing them up. So if you’re just too cheap to spend more than $2.95 on a flash drive, this program is for you!

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.17.0, 2025-04-28).

  Freeware Spotlight Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, File compression, FileOptimizer, Newsletters, Tetrimone, Tetris

• Saying goodbye to not-so-great technology

  Posted on April 21, 2025 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.16 • 2025-04-21

  TAME YOUR TECH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Looking back, but not fondly.

  I’m getting very close to installing Windows 11 24H2 on the production PCs at my office. That means I’ll also be providing my long-promised, step-by-step guide to that process.

  I’m not super excited about this. I believe 24H2 is all about the cloud, but that’s not a priority for me at the firm. However, I do want to be sure that my systems, at home and at work, are on supported operating systems.

  Dragging my feet about the Windows 11 23H2 to 24H2 transition reminded me of times when I was much more excited to say good riddance to technology that I relied on — but that had been driving me crazy over the years. Maybe you’ll remember some of these, too.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.16.0, 2025-04-21).

  Tame Your Tech Accounting Software, Dot Matrix Printing, NET, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, patches, Printing, Small Business Server

• Tech I don’t miss, and some I do

  Posted on April 21, 2025 at 02:44 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  COMMENTARY

  

  By Will Fastie

  There is much technology we’re glad to see gone. But “old” does not automatically mean “bad.”

  In her article today, Susan mentions dot-matrix printers. Do I want one? No. That technology dominated general-purpose printing and then personal printing for nearly two decades and worked very well.

  I remember being thrilled when we replaced 10-character-per-second Teletype 33 terminals with 30-CPS, dot-matrix DECWriters. I thought the Epson MX-80 was great.

  Nevertheless, rest in peace.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.16.0, 2025-04-21).

  Commentary Fax, HDDs, History, Keyboards, Laser Printers, Newsletters, Speakers, SSDs, Technology, Turbo Pascal, Visual Basic

• The time has come for AI-generated art

  Posted on April 14, 2025 at 02:45 CDT by Catherine Barrett • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.15 • 2025-04-14

  Look for our BONUS issue on April 21, 2025!!

  MEDIA

  

  By Catherine Barrett

  The horse may have five legs, but it’s already out of the barn.

  AI-generated images are here to stay, and we need to learn how to recognize them and use them legitimately. They’re not authoritative depictions of how things look, but they are handy for illustrating ideas. In what follows, I’ll tell you how they work and address ethical and practical concerns.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.15.0, 2025-04-14).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Media AI, ChatGPT, Copilot, DALL-E, Generative AI, Google Gemini, Leonardo.ai, Midjourney, Newsletters

• Hackers are using two-factor authentication to infect you

  Posted on April 14, 2025 at 02:44 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  PUBLIC DEFENDER

  

  By Brian Livingston

  We’ve all seen those are-you-human tests that websites use to screen out data-scraping bots — e.g., click all the cars, enter the code we texted you, etc. — but, unfortunately, malicious hackers are now exploiting our trust in these common dialog boxes to trick us into installing malware on our PCs.

  It’s natural for us to simply click through whatever process a particular website may use for two-factor authentication (2FA). But hackers are taking advantage of that sense of familiarity to bypass our usual security measures and infect our machines.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.15.0, 2025-04-14).

  Public Defender Are You Human, ClickFix, Multifactor Authentication, Newsletters, Passkeys, Social Engineering, Two-factor authentication

• 23 and you

  Posted on April 14, 2025 at 02:43 CDT by Max Stul Oppenheimer • Comment in the Forums

  LEGAL BRIEF

  

  By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq.

  The pending bankruptcy of 23andMe raises important questions — questions that are relevant not only to those who have trusted that company with personal information, but more generally to anyone who trusts any company with personal information.

  This particular bankruptcy highlights the importance of reviewing user agreements as well as some shortcomings of current federal law. Fortunately, users who act promptly will be able to mitigate the potential risk.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.15.0, 2025-04-14).

  Legal Brief 23 and Me, Bankruptcy, Newsletters, Privacy, Terms of Service

• April’s deluge of patches

  Posted on April 14, 2025 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  It’s a good thing we no longer receive individual updates fixing each unique vulnerability. If we did, we’d be calling “uncle” right about now.

  Historically, the number of patches released each April tends to be large. I attribute this to the final end of the holiday slump, when the folks at Microsoft are back up to full steam and working on fixes with gusto.

  This time around, there are 124 vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Azure, .NET, Visual Studio, BitLocker, Kerberos, Windows Hello, OpenSSH, and Windows’ Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP).

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.15.0, 2025-04-14).

  Patch Watch CVE-2024-21302, CVE-2025-21204, CVE-2025-26670, CVE-2025-29809, inetpub, KB5002623, KB5002700, KB5055581, KB5057589, Microsoft Edge, Newsletters, Office 2016, Patch Lady Posts, Windows 11 24H2

• Using Office apps with non-Microsoft cloud services

  Posted on April 7, 2025 at 02:45 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 22.14 • 2025-04-07

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  OneDrive and SharePoint aren’t the only cloud storage options available. There are others that will work inside modern Office apps, some with far superior security and privacy capabilities.

  Anyone who has read my past articles will know that I’m no convert to Microsoft’s “everything in the cloud” zeal. Cloud storage has uses for some documents and situations but not necessarily for everything, despite Microsoft insistence.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.14.0, 2025-04-07).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Microsoft 365 Box, Dropbox, Newsletters, Office, OneDrive, ProtonDrive, SharePoint

• I installed Windows 11 24H2

  Posted on April 7, 2025 at 02:44 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS 11

  

  By Will Fastie

  24H2 has been running on my laptop for some time so I can check things as required by my editorial duties. Last week, I decided that 24H2 needed to be under my fingers all the time, so I updated my daily driver, Obsidian.

  It went pretty well. I did break one of Susan’s rules; the result was at least a doubling of the time the update should have taken because I had to manually fix an unexpected problem.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.14.0, 2025-04-07).

  Windows 11 Drivers, File Explorer, Graphics Cards, Newsletters, Windows 11, Windows 11 24H2
• « Older Entries