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Patch Tuesday
TH2?
“They” said Threshold 2 would be out today. No sign of it here.
Posted on Nov. 9th by @GabeAul on Twitter: “Not yet, will be a couple more days for ISO”
Time To Run Windows Update
Got Windows and/or MS Office? You’ve got updates.
Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for November 2015
Flash
Adobe Flash patched again? No, say it isn’t so!
APSB15-28 Security Updates Available for Adobe Flash Player
Download Flash
Get Flash for IE in Win 8/8.1/10 via Windows Update.
Latest version of Chrome has it too (see below when released)
Related: 8 of top 10 vulnerabilities used by exploit kits target Adobe Flash Player
Google Chrome Updated
“The stable channel has been updated to 46.0.2490.86 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. This release contains an update to Adobe Flash Player (19.0.0.245) and security fixes.”
Download or update from within the program.
Newegg Premier, 3 Months Free
http://promotions.newegg.com/nepro/15-5150/ (takes a while to get the code)
Other News And Random Stupidity
The geek distrust of telemetry risks making software dumber
What the hell do they put in the water cooler at ZDNet?
“Why would you buy a PC anymore?” asks Tim Cook
It’s only Tuesday and we have the winner for Tool Of The Week!
Own a Vizio Smart TV? It’s Watching You
“The tracking — which Vizio calls “Smart Interactivity” — is turned on by default for the more than 10 million Smart TVs that the company has sold.“
openSUSE Leap 42.1 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
This article IS NOT FINISHED. I’m preoccupied with other stuff but folks have been asking for this so I thought I would show what I’ve got.
[Read more…] about openSUSE Leap 42.1 Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
Random Thursday Stuff…
Threshold 2
Lots of folks are thinking the latest insider build (10586) is indeed TH2 RTM.
In an effort to avoid having my every move sent to Microsoft I stopped doing insider builds on my main rig.
Since TH2 official is “supposed” to be released Tuesday I’ll wait.
The place to watch for the real scoop is WZor.net.
New Nvidia Drivers
GeForce Game Ready Driver WHQL 358.87
Release Notes
Rockets Red Orange/Yellow Glare
Last October a NASA rocket exploded at Wallops Island in my state. They just released some awesome pics of the event.
Speaking of NASA
They have the details on some Geeks that spotted something leaving a black hole!
Cool Stars Wars Vids
10 Star Wars Movie Scenes You’ve Never Seen
10 Star Wars Movie Mistakes You Missed
Fix Windows 10 Folder View Settings
Below is an email exchange with a long time TweakHound.com friend. He couldn’t get the folder view settings to stick.
I thought I would publish it on his suggestion. I hope this exchange helps someone.
[Read more…] about Fix Windows 10 Folder View Settings
Dual Boot openSUSE Leap and Windows 10 UEFI
This is how I dual-boot my Windows 10 rig with openSUSE Leap.
This article is virtually unchanged from: Dual Boot openSUSE 13.2 and Windows 8.1 UEFI
Notes:
– BACKUP your computer with a disk image before attempting this!
– Please do not contact me with questions on this topic.
That’s what the openSUSE forums are for.
– For how I dual-boot with a standard BIOS (legacy) see here: Dual-Boot openSUSE 12.3 And Windows (article is NOT compatible with BTRFS)
Interesting Links
openSUSE:UEFI
BCD System Store Settings for UEFI
Dual booting with Windows 8, not as painful as expected.
Preparation
1 – Full disk image backup using Acronis True Image.
2 – Make or leave unpartitioned space on OS drive for openSUSE. (If you can’t do this without a tutorial, well…..)
3 – Make UEFI boot usb flash drive with Rufus.
Installation
Pardon the odd screenshots. I used Vmware player for this article.
I should note that I am not a believer in using multiple partitions for my Linux installs.
Boot up, go through setup until you get to the partitioning section.
I do not use BTRFS and I always use Create Partition Setup…
Choose Custom Partitioning (for experts) and click Next
Right-click on the DRIVE where you want to install openSUSE and choose Add Partition
Make a swap partition, 2-4GB is fine.
Below are the options I use. Ext4 for file system, noatime, discard* (=trim)
*note – I am not using discard at the moment because it was causing errors on my Samsung 850 Pro SSD.
This next step is critical as your system will not boot without it.
Right-click on the Windows EFI boot partition and choose Edit
Choose Mount partition
Choose /boot/efi
Click Finish
Done? click Accept
Last chance to bail…
Click Next
I don’t use Secure Boot. It can be disabled here:
Boot Screen:
Everything should run just peachy until you boot into Windows again.
Windows will usually try and make its bootloader default again which means openSUSE isn’t an option.
While in Windows, open an Elevated Command Prompt and copy/paste this command (source):
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\opensuse\shim.efi
That’s it!
openSUSE Leap 42.1 Released
My Linux distro of choice has received a significant update. openSUSE Leap changes the way openSUSE does things. Once divided between an enterprise and regular version openSUSE has merged these into what they are calling a hybrid system. You see the enterprise version (SLE) was a more stable version that was slow to implement changes. The regular version was considered “bleeding edge”. That meant stuff was either not quite done or could break stuff, a permanent beta version if you will. IMHO, his had the effect of frustrating many non-Linux Geeks. openSUSE Leap aims to speed up inclusion of software that is ready for the average users but leave the “bleeding edge” stuff to a version best left to Linux Geeks called “openSUSE Tumbleweed“.
Also includes: Kernel 4.1.12, KDE Plasma 5, GNOME 3.16.2
Release announcement: openSUSE Leap 42.1 Becomes First Hybrid Distribution
Download (I highly suggest you try this in a virtual machine first)
Release notes (very important to read these)
OpenSUSE Forums
Monday Random Stuff…
Get The Latest SSD Info
[H]ardOCP has a great article detailing the recent goings-on with SSD’s. They have buying advice too.
Threshold 2
The “experts” told us TH2 would be released today.
Instead Microsoft will apparently release it on Patch Tuesday, which kinda makes sense, even though Patch Tuesday was supposed to go away.
Firefox 42 Hits Mirrors
Not official yet.
Download (en-US)
Download other systems and languages
Release Notes
AMD Drivers
Changes are afoot.
“AMD is ditching Catalyst Control Center in favor of newly architected solutions dubbed Radeon Settings, which is a critical part of what AMD is calling the Radeon Software Crimson Edition.”
Head over to Hot Hardware for more info and videos!
New Star Trek Series
Oh hell yeah!
“CBS Television Studios announced today it will launch a totally new Star Trek television series in January 2017. The new series will blast off with a special preview broadcast on the CBS Television Network. The premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access, the Network’s digital subscription video on demand and live streaming service.“
It’s A Matter Of Honor
honor
noun
1.honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions:
a man of honor.
Last week Microsoft doubled down on trying to force Windows 10 on Windows 7 and Windows 8 users. This despite the outrage that has sprung up around the internet since GWX and it’s related telemetry issues came to fore.
In his blog post, Terry Myerson claimed “you can choose to upgrade or decline the offer”. That’s a statement the Washington D.C. spin doctors would love.
1 – By default Windows 7 and 8 downloads and installs updates to examine your computer and send that info back to Microsoft. They never ask you, they just do it.
2 – Starting next year, Microsoft will make Windows 10 a recommended update. Most folks computers are set to “Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates.” This means starting next year Microsoft will download Windows 10 to your computer WITHOUT ASKING YOU.
[Read more…] about It’s A Matter Of Honor
Windows 7 Diagnostics Tracking Service
*last updated 24OCT2016
Well it’s official. The Diagnostics Tracking Service is now a permanent part Windows 7.
Microsoft first introduced DiagTrack with KB3022345. Then they tried to sneak it back in with KB3068708 and again with KB3080149.
With these patches you could install or uninstall them and everything else was fine.
Now it is back with KB3192403 – October 2016 Preview of Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
As the name suggests, this update is a preview of what is to come and is an optional update. It will become a standard update next month.
So, if you are a responsible and intelligent Windows user who keeps your system patched you are stuck with DiagTrack being installed. Since as Mary Jo put it, “Each monthly rollup will supersede the previous month’s rollup. The ultimate goal is for these monthly rollups to become fully cumulative, which will happen as the team adds patches released in the past, so users need only to install the latest single rollup.”
Now you must disable it via services.msc or in the registry.
Aren’t update rollups awesome! Welcome to the new Microsoft, “Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.”
Diagnostics Tracking Service
“Start”=dword:00000002 is default . 2=auto, 3=manual, 4=disabled
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DiagTrack
“Start”=dword:00000004
*edit 25OCT2016
I’m not sure what the confusion is but apparently I did not make myself clear above…
DISABLE this via the Services snap-in (services.msc) or manually via the registry. I provided the key above.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
For some time now I’ve been seeing posts about disabling the Diagnostics Tracking Service in Windows 7.
This is unnecessary. Uninstall it instead.
Go to Control Panel > Windows Update > Installed updates (bottom left of windows) > find and uninistall KB3022345 (right-click > Uninstall)
Re-run Windows update > find KB3022345 and hide it (right-click > Hide update)
Microsoft continues to play games with its customers. The new update is below.
Go to Control Panel > Windows Update > Installed updates (bottom left of windows) > find and unnistall KB3080149 and/or KB3068708 (right-click > Uninstall)
Re-run Windows update > find KB3080149 and/or KB3068708 and hide it (right-click > Hide update)
Done
Diagnostics Tracking Service
“Start”=dword:00000002 is default . 2=auto, 3=manual, 4=disabled
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DiagTrack
“Start”=dword:00000004
More info: KB3080149 – Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry