Newsletter Archives

• Dealing with DCOM

  Posted on June 27, 2022 at 02:41 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  PATCH WATCH

  

  By Susan Bradley

  In the June updates, Microsoft continues its journey to harden the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), with the goal of making it more resilient to attack.

  DCOM is a proprietary Microsoft software component that allows COM objects to communicate with each other over a network. Network OLE was the precursor to DCOM (remember Windows 3.1.1?). Because DCOM can run programs on other computers, hackers can leverage it for lateral-movement attacks through your network, gaining access to more data. This activity can be difficult to detect because it’s not malware or hacker tools — all it takes to access DCOM is PowerShell.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.26.0, 2022-06-27).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Watch AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Patch Watch, Windows, Windows DCOM

• Will you be able to run Windows on an Arm processor?

  Posted on June 13, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by B. Livingston • Comment in the Forums

  SILICON

  

  By Brian Livingston

  The computing scene is up in arms, so to speak, about the latest Arm technology.

  Arm — which began as an acronym but is now more like a religion — is the technology that powers the latest Apple Macs, but it’s made only slight inroads into Windows machines due to software incompatibilities.

  Whether or not you know anything about Arm, you’re probably already using it. Arm-based systems tend to have much lower power requirements than systems using more complex central processing units, such as Intel processors.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.24.0, 2022-06-13).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Silicon ARM, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Silicon, Windows, Windows on ARM

• Hasleo Windows ISO Downloader — easily get Windows from Microsoft

  Posted on May 30, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Deanna McElveen • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.22 • 2022-05-30

  FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

  

  By Deanna McElveen

  There was a time when getting your hands on an ISO of Windows to fix your computer meant borrowing one from a friend or visiting pirated software sites.

  These days, Microsoft lets you stay on the good side of the Internet neighborhood by allowing you to download copies. You can go through the steps on Microsoft’s website to get Windows, or you can do it the easy way.

  Hasleo Software has been around for years, making some of my favorite commercial tools, but they also have a few free ones. Hasleo Windows ISO Downloader is their free, portable program to download Windows 8.1, Windows 10, or Windows 11 straight from Microsoft’s official servers.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.22.0, 2022-05-30).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Freeware Spotlight AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Deanna's Freeware Spotlight, Windows

• Twenty years of trustworthy computing

  Posted on January 24, 2022 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 19.04 • 2022-01-24

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Are we more secure now?

  It’s been 20 years since Bill Gates wrote the “trustworthy computing” memo and had Microsoft’s developers take a coding pause so they could be trained in how better to write secure software.

  Twenty years later, are we more secure? Do you feel more secure?

  I’m not sure I do. You know I watch this every hour of every day, and it sure feels like we are doing the same updating and patching dance over and over, without feeling more secure. We are promised that the hardware and software we buy will meet the safety promises. We certainly deserve that — period.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.04.0 (2022-01-24).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 19.04.F (2022-01-24).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, On Security AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Bill Gates, Patch Lady Posts, security, Windows

• Windows 11: When no doesn’t mean no

  Posted on January 10, 2022 at 02:42 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS

  

  By Susan Bradley

  It all started when I saw reports of users who hadn’t approved the installation of Windows 11 but rebooted their computers to find them doing exactly that.

  These users assured me that they hadn’t approved the install. Worse, some had specifically declined the update, only to see it being offered again. I have a serious issue with Microsoft about this, because the company is not providing good information about what to expect if your PC qualifies for the Windows 11 upgrade. It’s guesswork so far; trying to determine what to expect has not been easy.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 19.02.0 (2022-01-10).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Windows 10, Windows 11 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Patch Lady Posts, Windows

• Windows 11: Not quite ready for prime time

  Posted on November 22, 2021 at 02:44 CST by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  These early days of Win11 are looking a bit rough. Driver issues remain the leading cause of serious upgrade problems, and some solutions are out of end-users’ hands until Microsoft and various OEMs and software publishers catch up.

  To make matters worse, Win11’s Device Encryption may stumble when upgrading a Win10 BitLocker drive, and the Win11 interface repeats some of the same mistakes Microsoft made in Windows 8!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.45.0 (2021-11-22).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Windows, Windows 11, Windows upgrades

• Win11 Home never completely lets go

  Posted on November 15, 2021 at 02:45 CST by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.44 • 2021-11-15

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  Even after upgrading to Pro, PCs that start with Windows Home can retain several critical Home limitations that royally foul up future from-scratch reinstalls and upgrades.

  Win11 (both Home and Pro) also continues to show other serious rough spots and omissions — with drivers, especially — that can turn a simple upgrade into a multi-day nightmare.

  Read on before you attempt an upgrade, especially if you’re using a Home edition!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.44.0 (2021-11-15).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.44.F (2021-11-15).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Windows, Windows 11

• MS-DEFCON 2: Here comes 21H2

  Posted on November 4, 2021 at 02:45 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ISSUE 18.42.1 • 2021-11-04 By Susan Bradley Microsoft is beginning to push 21H2, Microsoft’s least interesting feature release in the Windows 10 era. With new features that are interesting only to businesses, this feature release will serve only one purpose — that of providing you with lifecycle support for several years. So what’s in 21H2? Addition of WPA3 H2E standards support for enhanced Wi-Fi security In Windows Hello for Business, introduction of cloud trust, a new deployment method to support simplified, passwordless deployments and achieve a deploy-to-run state within a few minutes GPU compute support in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows (EFLOW) deployments, for machine learning and other compute-intensive workflows In other words, not much that will excite most of us. I don’t recommend installing feature releases until several weeks (at least) after their release. I strongly recommend that you use either group policy or the registry key methods to keep yourself on 21H1 at this time. You can review your options to defer feature releases. Consumer and home users For consumer and home users, I recommend that you push off updates until right before Thanksgiving, no sooner than November 23. Click on Start, Settings, Update and Security, and click the Pause for 7 days button. if you want to pause for more than seven days, click the button more than once. Do remember my mantra. I always want to install updates — it’s just a matter of timing. Business users By now (hopefully), you have found a resolution to any printing problems that have been driving you insane over the last several months. If not, we can hope that the November updates will include more printing fixes. We already know that the preview updates released at the end of October helped to fix issues for some. Those patches will be included in the November update releases, because Windows 10 patches are always cumulative. References AskWoody Master Patch List Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Alert 18.42.1 (2021-11-04).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, Patch Watch 21H2, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 2, Patch Lady Posts, Windows, Windows 10

• The case of the missing Win10 antivirus scan results

  Posted on October 25, 2021 at 02:44 CDT by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  Windows 10’s dialogs are sometimes laid out in funky ways and can lack headings and other visual cues to help you quickly locate what you’re looking for.

  That, coupled with Windows’ inconsistent and variable naming and labeling conventions, can be an annoyance to most of us — but can actually enrage some users, as you’ll see in today’s first item!

  Plus: An easy solution to a conflict between MS Office and LibreOffice. And: Finding a safe substitute for a laptop AC adapter.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.41.0 (2021-10-25).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList antivirus, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Microsoft Defender, Windows

• PC refuses to upgrade to newer version

  Posted on October 11, 2021 at 02:44 CDT by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  Even as Windows 11 is coming down the pike, some readers are still having trouble getting their PCs to upgrade to the current version of Windows 10!

  But whether you’re updating Win10 or moving to Win11, here are several steps you can try — ranging from simple to severe — if your PC refuses a standard upgrade via Windows Update.

  Plus: What to do when your PC won’t respond to any keystroke!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.39.0 (2021-10-11).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList AskWoody Plus Newsletter, LangaList, Windows, Windows Update

• Where OneDrive really (really!) shines

  Posted on September 13, 2021 at 02:44 CDT by Fred Langa • Comment in the Forums

  LANGALIST

  

  By Fred Langa

  AskWoody’s recent coverage amply illustrated OneDrive’s drawbacks and hassles, but there are instances where OneDrive (and similar cloud-based apps) are truly spectacular aids.

  For example, OneDrive can speed some setup and reinstallation chores by a literal order of magnitude, cutting down to mere minutes some tasks that used to take hours!

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.35.0 (2021-09-13).

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

• The Windows Start menu: Trials and tribulations

  Posted on September 13, 2021 at 02:42 CDT by Lance Whitney • Comment in the Forums

  WINDOWS

  

  By Lance Whitney

  Don’t get me started: Windows 11 saddles us with yet another major change to the always vital but never quite right Start menu.

  Another version of Windows, another version of the Start menu. With Windows 11, Microsoft has unveiled its most dramatic change in years to a feature that’s always been a core part of Windows. Instead of the traditional vertical list of all the apps installed on your PC, we get a sparse, boxy window with links only to pinned and recommended apps. Getting to all your apps requires an additional step.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.35.0 (2021-09-13).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter AskWoody Plus Newsletter, History, Start menu, Windows
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