Newsletter Archives

• MS-DEFCON 4: Get patched now

  Posted on November 12, 2012 at 13:34 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’m late this month in giving an “OK” to the Windows patches.

  The primary culprit? The Windows 8 patch. It’s all new – and I figured the chances of having a major calamity were very high.

  Fortunately, it looks like there are more problems with bad keyboards on Surface RT machines that there are screwed up Win8 patches from October.

  So, I’m recommending that you go ahead and install all of the offered patches. You know the routine: work with Windows Update (or Microsoft Update) and patch everything, then reboot and see if any more patches are on offer.

  Let’s go down to MS-DEFCON 4: There are isolated problems with current patches, but they are well-known and documented here. Check this site to see if you’re affected and if things look OK, go ahead and patch.

  It looks like Tuesday’s going to be an interesting day, so get patched up before the floodgates open again.

  Windows Patches/Security October 2012 Black Tuesday

• MS-DEFCON 2: Get locked down

  Posted on October 5, 2012 at 11:30 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I’m on vacation until the middle of the month, but I’ll drop by this site and let you know if anything dire happens.

  We’ve had a good, long stretch of “patch now” status, so now is a good time to check and make sure that you have Automatic Updates turned off. 

  Until we know more about the October Black Tuesday patches, I’m moving us up to MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

  Catch ya on the flip side…

  Windows Patches/Security October 2012 Black Tuesday