Several days ago I said “Not interested” to the pre-Alpha Windows 11. It has now moved to the Beta channel which hopefully means its is at least Alpha grade and I was a little bored so I installed it.
I had to jump through some hoops…
[Read more…] about Upgrading To Windows 11 Beta
Windows
Latest Windows Vulnerabilities
I don’t get into Windows vulnerability issues much here. I find it boring reading, the severity of these issues is often overblown (like everything else), and I used to get paid to protect systems from this stuff. If you like to keep up with such things I recommend BleepingComputer.
Anyway, below are the latest vulnerabilities. The fixes involve you not being able to print (at least remotely), and deleting System Restore points and Shadow volumes and stopping the ability to create them.
[Read more…] about Latest Windows Vulnerabilities
Windows 11 Is A Real Thing
After a week or two of leaks, rumors, and speculation, Windows 11 will happen.
ahem…
May 2015: “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10.” That was the message from Microsoft employee Jerry Nixon, a developer evangelist speaking at the company’s Ignite conference this week.”
Microsoft – Introducing Windows 11
Patch Tuesday
Win10 2004, 2012, 21H1 Updated
June 8, 2021—KB5003637 (OS Builds 19041.1052, 19042.1052, and 19043.1052)
Highlights
Updates to improve security when using input devices such as a mouse, keyboard, or pen.
Updates to improve Windows OLE (compound documents) security.
Updates for verifying usernames and passwords.
Updates to improve security when Windows performs basic operations.
Updates for storing and managing files.
This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:
Security updates to the Microsoft Scripting Engine, Windows App Platform and Frameworks, Windows Input and Composition, Windows Management, Windows Cloud Infrastructure, Windows Authentication, Windows Fundamentals, Windows Virtualization, Windows Kernel, Windows HTML Platform, and Windows Storage and Filesystems.
Microsoft Microsoft News And Interests Widget
After installing the optional Win10 Update Preview KB5003214 this morning, the mythical Microsoft News and interests widget finally appeared.
What a steaming pile.
[Read more…] about Microsoft Microsoft News And Interests Widget
Win10 May 21H1 Is Out
The Windows 10 May 2021 Update is “available”. It is showing up on Windows Update for some but not for me.
I ran the Windows 10 Update Assistant here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
It took about 20 minutes. All I’ve done so far is run O&O Shutup10 to undo the changes the update made.
From the Windows Blog: How to get the Windows 10 May 2021 Update
Bleeping Computer has a good article on the changes: Windows 10 is gaining these nifty enhancements in the next update
Patch Tuesday
Windows Updates
May 11, 2021—KB5003173 (OS Builds 19041.985 and 19042.985)
This security update includes quality improvements. Key changes include:
Security updates to Windows App Platform and Frameworks, the Windows Kernel, Windows Media, the Microsoft Scripting Engine, and the Windows Silicon Platform.
VLC 3.0.14
Fix double loading of slave input
Fix an issue causing the auto-updater not to launch the new version installer
Download (Windows) | Download All | Release Info
Adobe Acrobat Reader DC Updated
Version 21.001.20155 has 10 security updates.
Download (US) | Security Bulletin
[Read more…] about Patch Tuesday
Workaround For Another Botched Update
I’ve said from the beginning of Win10 that the “stable releases” of Win10 are beta quality software and that Windows Insiders are actually alpha testers.
This past weeks updates prove me right yet again. With printers causing blue screens, Microsoft has posted a “workaround” until they fix the issue.
If you have this issue, do yourself a favor and just uninstall the update. Microsoft’s workarounds tend not to be completely effective and sometimes cause other issues.
To uninstall KB5000802:
Elevated Command Prompt: wusa /uninstall /kb:5000802
or
Press the Windows + S keys > type Control Panel > click on Programs and Features > click on View installed updates >
find Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB5000802) and double-click to uninstall.
Stupid Office New Item Menu
MS Office 2019 introduced a new item menu; right-click and empty space in a drive/file/folder and you get this twaddle:
There are registry entries to eliminate these but one or all will come back after Office is updated, especially Access it seems.
[Read more…] about Stupid Office New Item Menu
Patch Tuesday
Windows Updated
One Cumulative Update and a 1 or 2 .NET updates depending on which version you’ve installed.
20H2 & 2004: February 9, 2021—KB4601319 (OS Builds 19041.804 and 19042.804)
1909: February 9, 2021—KB4601315 (OS Build 18363.1377)
Firefox 85.0.2
“Fixed a deadlock during startup”
Download | Release Notes
O&O ShutUp10 Updated
“FIX: Determining registry key permissions has resulted in fewer displayed settings on some NT domain systems.”
If you aren’t on a corporate network (domain) then don’t bother with this update.
Download | Changelog
Security update available for Adobe Reader
Download | Security Bulletin
Google Chrome will no longer support dusty old computers from the mid-2000s
“Though admittedly small, the user base for Chrome users on devices dating back to the early to mid-2000s still exists. A new policy document published by the Chromium development team states that they will be dropping support for processors that lack something called SSE3, or Streaming SIMD Extensions 3, in x86 Chrome builds.”
SSE3 from Wikipedia:
“Intel introduced SSE3 in early 2004 with the Prescott revision of their Pentium 4 CPU. In April 2005, AMD introduced a subset of SSE3 in revision E (Venice and San Diego) of their Athlon 64 CPUs.”
From Intel: Products formerly Prescott