TweakHound

Much Ado About Nothing?
This past week much ado was made about Microsoft installing the PC Health Check App on Win10 computers without permission. Reader Allen kept me apprised of the situation as I’ve been working a lot. Thank you Allen! Anyway, The main purpose of this app is to check whether or not your PC can run Windows 11.
After giving it some thought I’m gonna say, “Meh” to this. Microsoft force installing stuff isn’t remotely surprising, I can find no claims of privacy issues, and you can easily uninstall it:
“You can uninstall PC Health Check by going to Apps > Apps & Features > App list (Windows PC Health Check) > Uninstall.“

EV Phone Home?
My phones getting wonky so last week I asked for some feedback on the Pixel 6. Since then my phone actually crashed for the first time. I was driving and as usual had Car Home, Waze, and Neutron going and the phone crashed and rebooted. I’ve never had a smart phone crash.
I haven’t made up my mind on if/when I’ll get a new phone. FYI, I’m on Verizon and have no desire to switch as they have great coverage + Veteran’s discount. Any thoughts?

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.4 Optional Drivers
“Fixed Issues – Visual corruption may be observed while playing Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy™ on some AMD Graphics products such as Radeon™ RX 6800 Graphics.”
Download | Release Notes

Mp3tag 3.11
5 new features and a dozen fixes.
Download | Release Announcement

PowerToys 49.1
4 fixes.
Download & Info

Realtek Ethernet Drivers
New version based on OS
Download

Stalkerware
Experts Sound Alarm On ‘Stalkerware,’ Which Can Easily Be Downloaded On Your Phone Without You Knowing
PCMag – Protect Yourself From Abuse: How to Find and Remove Stalkerware on Your Phone and PC
New York Times – ‘Stalkerware’ Apps Are Proliferating. Protect Yourself. (paywalled)
https://www.google.com/search?q=stalkerware&source=lnms&tbm=nws
Wikipedia – Stalkerware
[Read more…] about Weekend Random Stuff…

Google Chrome Updated
“The Stable channel has been updated to 95.0.4638.69 for Windows, Mac and Linux…This update includes 8 security fixes.”
Download | Release Info
To update go to Menu (the the dots in upper-right corner > Help > About Google Chrome
or
type this in the URL bar: chrome://settings/help

PowerToys 49
New mouse utility added. Several fixes and improvements.
Download & Info

Audacity 3.1.0
A few new features and fixes.
Download | Release Announcement | Release Notes

HWiNFO 7.14
New hardware support & bugfixes.
Download ( I use portable) | Version history

FileZilla Client & Server Updated
Minor update for client. Important security update for server.
Download Client | Download Server
[Read more…] about Friday Morning News

Views for the Windows 7 Tweak Guide have spiked. Don’t know what that’s about.

Google Pixel 6, Yay or Nay?
My 5 1/2 year old Samsung Galaxy S7 is becoming harder to use. In the last few weeks at least 3 apps have become unstable/unusable. I’m not spending 1K x 2 on phones. You guys have any thoughts?
https://store.google.com/us/category/phones?hl=en-US
https://www.google.com/search?q=Google+pixel+6&source=lnms&tbm=nws

Wise Disk Cleaner 10.7.2
A few small fixes.
Download (I use portable) | Release Info

AMD Ryzen Chipset Driver 3.10.08.506
Apparently fixes the Win11 performance issue.
Download | Release Notes
[Read more…] about Weekend Random Stuff…

Google Chrome 95
“Chrome 95.0.4638.54 contains a number of fixes and improvements…This update includes 19 security fixes.”
Download | Release Info
To update go to Menu (the the dots in upper-right corner > Help > About Google Chrome
or
type this in the URL bar: chrome://settings/help

VirtualBox 6.1.28
Several fixes, support for Linux Kernel 5.14/5.15 and Win11 guest support.
Download | Changelog

Intel Graphics Drivers 30.0.100.9955
Several game related fixes.
Download | Release Notes

VMware Workstation Player 16.2.0
“This release contains security updates and bug fixes.”
Download | Release Notes

Notepad++ 8.1.7
1/2 dozen fixes.
Download & Info

Windows Updates
Win10 – October 12, 2021—KB5006670 (OS Builds 19041.1288, 19042.1288, and 19043.1288)
Address 1 issue, 39 security updates.
Win11 – October 12, 2021—KB5006674 (OS Build 22000.258)
“Addresses known compatibility issues between some Intel “Killer” and “SmartByte” networking software and Windows 11 (original release).“, 39 security updates.

O&O ShutUp10++ 1.9.1425
A few changes and fixes. UI is looking better.
Download | Changelog

PowerToys 0.47.1
1/2 dozen small fixes.
Download & Info

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.2 OPTIONAL Drivers
Support for a couple of games, 3 fixes.
Download | Release Notes

Nvidia Geforce Game Ready Drivers 496.13 WHQL
Support and updates for many games and a few fixes.
Download | Release Notes

NVMe Windows Drivers for Intel SSDs v5.3.0.1005
Support for Windows 11.
Download & Info