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Wednesday Random Stuff…

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CCleaner Updated
v5.30.6065 (23 May 2017)
– Improved Edge Cookie cleaning
– Updated Internet Explorer 10 and 11 History cleaning
– Updated Thunderbird 52 History cleaning
– Updated Windows Explorer MRU Cache cleaning
– Improved SSD detection algorithm
– Optimized Update Checking process
– Minor GUI improvements
– Minor bug fixes
Download

VMware Player 12.5.6
– Day 0 support of the Windows 10 Creators Update (version 1703).
– Bug fixes and security updates.
Download

Latest Video Drivers
AMD Crimson ReLive Edition 17.5.2 (5/18/2017)
Nvidia Ceforce Game Ready Driver 382.33 WHQL (5/22/2017)

MediaMonkey 4.1.16.1836
“It’s a significant update with over 30 fixes and improvements to music syncing, tagging, UPnP, podcasting, playback and more.”
Download & Info

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Is Kaspersky Software A National Security Risk?
Apparently some in our intelligence community think so.
“In February, the Department of Homeland Security issued a secret report on the matter to other government agencies. And the FBI is investigating the nature of Kaspersky Lab’s relationship to the Russian government“.
For it’s part Kaspersky “has repeatedly insisted it poses no threat to U.S. customers and would never be used as a government tool.”
I know almost nothing about Russian politics. I have never been to Russia. The closest I ever got to Russia was East Berlin a couple of years before the wall came down.
Having said all that, I can’t imagine anyone in Russia telling President Vladimir Putin or his boys “Nyet“.

Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 58.0.3029.110 for Windows, Mac, and Linux…In order to improve stability, performance, and security, users who are currently on 32-bit version of Chrome, and 64-bit Windows with 4GB or more of memory and auto-update enabled will be automatically migrated to 64-bit Chrome during this update.”
Download: Google Chrome Web 32-bit    Google Chrome 64-bit

O&O ShutUp10 Version 1.5.1390
Version 1.5.1390 – released on May 09, 2017
– Changing languages now available in the Help Menu
– Adjustments to the UI
– Small bug fixes
– Available in German, English, French, Italian and Russian.
Download

Intel SSD Toolbox 3.4.5
See download page for release info.

Firefox 53.0.2
A few days late with this.
Windows 64-bit (en-US)
Windows 32-bit (en-US)
Other systems and languages

Adobe Flash Updated
APSB17-15 Security updates available for Adobe Flash Player
Download Flash

Wise Disk Cleaner 9.47
– Improved Microsoft Edge Cache and Cookies cleaning.
– Improved Microsoft IE Cache and Cookies cleaning.
– Other minor improvements.
Download

Tuesday Morning News

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Win10 Updated
Couple of fixes.
Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 update history
Related:
Mystery update KB 3150513 makes yet another reappearance: “You probably don’t want this update—long implicated in advanced Microsoft snooping—on your Windows system”

New Nvidia Drivers
GeForce Game Ready Driver 378.92 WHQL available.
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for Mass Effect: Andromeda and Rock Band VR”
Download

Weekend Random Stuff…

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Happy Saint Patty’s Day
My 100% Irish Grandfather thought the shenanigans surrounding this holiday here in the U.S.A. was too much.
He said, and I am paraphrasing here to keep this SFW,
“Luck of the Irish my arse.”
Still, I’m gonna knock back a pint or two.
If you celebrate, please don’t drink and drive. Call a friend, a taxi, or Lyft, or Uber.

Win10 Creators Update
“They” say this is right around the corner. But then again, Microsoft released build 15060 to the fast ring yesterday and “They” said this was the final build. Then today Microsoft released build 15061. So what the heck do “They” know. I expect I will be futilely running a few Game Mode benchies this weekend.
DSOG claims that as far as Windows is concerned, Vulkan will support multiple GPUs only in Windows 10. So, that kinda sucks.
Tom Warren (ex of WinRumors and Neowin) over at iVerge claims that all the ads in Win10 “are the final straw“. Glad he has joined the party but “the final straw” implies a response that I don’t see in his article.. You know, “that latest affair was the last straw, I’m leaving.”

Ryzen Tips From AMD
In a nutshell:
– Buy fast RAM
– Use High Performance Power Plan
– Overclock
Yes we’ve all been doing that since, well since we’ve been using PC’s.

Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 57.0.2987.110 for Windows, Mac, and Linux.”
Download: Google Chrome Web 32-bit    Google Chrome 64-bit
Download Offline Installer:  Google Chrome Offline Installer 32-bit     Google Chrome Offline Installer 64-bit
Credit Neowin with links

VM Software Updated
VMware Workstation 12.5.4 Player
VirtualBox 5.1.18

Wise Disk Cleaner 9.44
Info
Download

Audacity 2.1.3
“Audacity is free, open source, cross-platform audio software for multi-track recording and editing.”
Download & Info

March Madness
Got your brackets going?
I’ve got 2 main ones. One at the NCAA site and one at ESPN.

Patch Tuesday

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Time To Run Windows Update
Security updates available for all supported versions of Windows, IE, Edge, Flash…
Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for March 2017
see also: Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016 update history
I would highly recommend watching Ask Woody to monitor the situation with these updates. Especially watch his MS-DEFCON board.

Flash
What would Patch Tuesday be without Adobe patching Flash?
APSB17-07 Security updates available for Adobe Flash Player
Download (for Firefox, Opera, Chromium, IE 10 and earlier)

Google Chrome
Chrome 57 was released 5 days ago. It contains the latest Flash version

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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It’s Patch Tuesday so look for another post this afternoon.

Win10 Ads
Everyone is pissed off that Microsoft is putting ads in Windows. IMHO it is just the latest fiasco surrounding Win10.

CCleaner Monthly Update
Version 5.28 released.
Download
Version History

Finally
Verizon managed to finally push out Android Nougat to my Galaxy S7.
The update also put in the most recent security updates (Feb. 1) which is all I really cared about.
The update broke LED notifications and I had to do a full reset to get them to work.

New Bike
Last year I had mentioned I was looking for a hybrid bike. Several of you emailed some good suggestions.
I recently bought a Cannondale Quick 3 Disc on sale for $749 at a local bike shop.
I put a phone holder, two water bottle cages, and a rear bike rack on it.  I have 2 CamelBak Podium Big Chill Insulated Water Bottles. I also got a 529 Garage Bicycle Registration Kit to help recover the bike if it is stolen.
I look forward to putting some serious miles on it once the weather breaks.

Tuesday Random Stuff…

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Installing Windows 7 From Scratch
Woody Leonhard has a chuckle at Microsoft’s “convoluted technique for installing Windows 7 from scratch“.
Best to follow his advice.

Firefox 52 Released
Download 32-bit(en-US)
Download 64-bit (en-US)
All Downloads
Release Notes

O&O ShutUp10 Updated
Version 1.4.1387 – released on 07.03.2017
Following settings were changed:
– Setting “Do not display last users on lock screen” was removed as some users had problems accessing their system
Following errors were fixed:
– Dialogue boxes were defective in high contrast mode
– Crash when clicking links where Google Chrome is set as the standard browser
– Problems detecting some Windows 10 OEM versions
– Notifications that some settings are managed by the organisation did not disappear after applying factory settings
– Factory settings revised
Available in English, German, French, Italian and Russian

Linux Swap Partition
Red Hat Blog – Do we really need swap on modern systems?
“How much swap is recommended nowadays?
This depends on the desired behaviour of the system, but configuring an amount of 20% of the RAM as swap is usually a good idea. More details are in this solution document.
Can I run without swap? Is further tuning possible?
Systems without swap can make sense and are supported by Red Hat – just be sure the behaviour of such a system under memory pressure is what you want. In most environments, a bit of swap makes sense.”

Random Friday Stuff…

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Flash Updates In Windows Update
MS17-005: Security update for Adobe Flash Player: February 21, 2017
Thanks to Ed and radosuaf!

Updated Software
Acronis True Image 2017 Update 2
MediaMonkey 4.1.15.1828

Planet Stuff
NASA found some interesting and possibly habitable planets. It’s cool and all but there are a lot of unanswered questions.
See here for some cool posters.

“Back in my day we had NINE planets”
Bring back Pluto!

Weekend Random Stuff…

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Sysinternals Freeware Updates
Several programs updated including; Autoruns, Process Explorer, and Process Monitor.

Mp3tag 2.81
Several new features and fixes. Download

GeForce Hotfix Driver 378.72
This is GeForce Hot Fix driver version 378.72 that addresses the following:
– Fixed hardware encoding in Steam (In-Home Streaming).
– Resolved PhysX being forced to CPU when “Optimize for Compute Performance” setting is OFF.
Download