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Windows 7

Patch Tuesday

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Updates available for all supported versions of Windows.
Office updates available too. (how to check for Office updates)

Win10 1809 – February 12, 2019—KB4487044 (OS Build 17763.316)
Win10 1803 – February 12, 2019—KB4487017 (OS Build 17134.590)
Win10 1709 – February 12, 2019—KB4486996 (OS Build 16299.967)

Windows 8.1 – February 12, 2019—KB4487028 (Security-only update)

Windows 7 – Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 update history

Office 365 11231.20174 and other versions

Note from Microsoft:
February 11, 2019 12:45 PM PST
Windows Update customers were recently affected by a network infrastructure event caused by an external DNS service provider’s global outage. A software update to the external provider’s DNS servers resulted in the distribution of corrupted DNS records that affected connectivity to the Windows Update service. The DNS records were restored by January 30, 2019 (00:10 UTC), but downstream effects continued. We believe the issue to be fully mitigated because the majority of local Internet Service Providers (ISP) have refreshed their DNS servers and customer services have been restored. If you are still encountering download failures, please contact your local ISP.
While this was not an issue with Microsoft’s services, we take any service disruption for our customers seriously. We will work with partners to better understand this so we can provide higher quality service in the future even across diverse global network providers.

Using Macrium Reflect Boot Media

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First and foremost, I do not backup from within Windows. I only use the boot CD.
Why? After many years of backup and restoring Windows and Linux I have seen just about every method fail at one time or another.
It is my belief that the only way to do an Operating System backup and restore is:
1 – Only use system images.
2 – Not to be using that OS. This is referred to as being offline.
[Read more…] about Using Macrium Reflect Boot Media

Out Of Band Update

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CVE-2018-8653 | Scripting Engine Memory Corruption Vulnerability
A remote code execution vulnerability exists in the way that the scripting engine handles objects in memory in Internet Explorer…

Updates for all currently supported Windows versions.

Windows 10
Build 1809 – December 19, 2018—KB4483235 (OS Build 17763.195)
Build 1803 – December 19, 2018—KB4483234 (OS Build 17134.472)
Build 1709 – December 19, 2018—KB4483232 (OS Build 16299.847)

Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 update history pages not updated as of this writing.

Patch Tuesday

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Windows Updates available. “Addresses an issue” as well as many security updates.
I recommend backing up and updating as soon as you can.

Windows 10
Build 1809 – December 11, 2018—KB4471332 (OS Build 17763.194)
Build 1803 – December 11, 2018—KB4471324 (OS Build 17134.471)
Build 1709 – December 11, 2018—KB4471329 (OS Build 16299.846)

Windows 8.1
December 11, 2018—KB4471322 (Security-only update)
December 11, 2018—KB4471320 (Monthly Rollup)

Windows 7
December 11, 2018—KB4471328 (Security-only update)
December 11, 2018—KB4471318 (Monthly Rollup)

Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

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Many programs on your computer access the internet even though they don’t need to. They phone home for a variety of reason including telemetry and checking for updates.
I don’t need or want most programs phoning home for any reason. Still, they try.
With programs getting more invasive I thought it would be appropriate to show you how to block their access to the net.
[Read more…] about Blocking A Programs Internet Access Via The Windows Firewall

Patch Tuesday

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Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 have updates.

Windows 7
November 13, 2018—KB4467106 (Security-only update)
November 13, 2018—KB4467107 (Monthly Rollup)

Windows 8.1
November 13, 2018—KB4467703 (Security-only update)
November 13, 2018—KB4467697 (Monthly Rollup)

Windows 10
Build 1809 –
November 13, 2018—KB4464455 (OS Build 17763.107)
November 13, 2018—KB4467708 (OS Build 17763.134)
Build 1803 – November 13, 2018—KB4467702 (OS Build 17134.407)
Build 1709 – November 13, 2018—KB4467686 (OS Build 16299.785)
Build 1703 – November 13, 2018—KB4467696 (OS Build 15063.1446)

Additionally Windows 8.1 & 10 have Flash updates.

Win10 “October” Update
Windows 10, version 1809 Re-Released
When you have it offered to you is anyone’s guess.
Media Creation Tool / ISOs available here: Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File)

Windows 7 Support

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Last week Microsoft announced extended support for “Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Enterprise customers in Volume Licensing” through January 2023. “Volume Licensing” means businesses, not home users. Home users will be EOLed on January 14, 2020.
This will leave users with either Windows 8.1 that nearly nobody wants, or Windows 10 that many people don’t want. I’m not all that sure anyone wanted either one to begin with. A Windows 7 Service Pack 2 would have done nicely. Never the less, here we are.
Windows 7 support for home users will end over 10 years after it was released. We whined when they stopped supporting XP, an operating system that they supported for nearly 13 years. But, to be fair to Microsoft lets look at some other operating systems:
(Dates are best I could find, if you have a correction please post it.)

Apple
macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) Oldest supported Mac OS, Released in 2015
iOS – oldest supported phone (iPhone 5S – September 20, 2013) = approx 5 years old

Linux
Linux varies wildly by vendor but here is my best estimate:
Kernel 3.X EOL 2015-16, 3.5 to 4 years after initial release
Kernel 4.X initial release was 12 April 2015 and is current.
There is a kernel branch called LTS that differs from the above. These “”longterm maintenance” releases have varying expiration dates.
Individual vendors set there own schedules and can often range up to 6 years. The latest Linux Mint LTS release is 19/Tara was released June, 2018 and is supported until April 2023, just shy of 5 years.

Android
Android support is an unmitigated disaster. There seem to be no rules at all. As far as I can tell most phones stop getting updates about 3 years in.

Conclusion
You can see that Microsoft supports their operating systems a long time. Longer than anyone else. Still, for us Windows 7 lovers, end of support will truly suck. From Microsoft’s viewpoint maintaining 3 desktop operating systems is difficult, I get that. But the thing is, they are going to keep maintaining it for businesses anyway. Leaving home users out of the loop seems to be a cold blooded money grab. It is, IMHO, a big middle finger to everyone at home using Windows 7.

*notes
Windows lifecycle fact sheet (Applies to: Windows 10 Windows 7 Windows 8.1)

Patch Tuesday

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*This post will be updated as info comes in.
Microsoft Security Update Summary at bottom of post.

Windows 7 SP1 – April 10, 2018—KB4093118 (Monthly Rollup)

Win10 1709 – April 10, 2018—KB4093112 (OS Build 16299.371)
“This update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update.”
Win10 1703 – April 10, 2018—KB4093107 (OS Build 15063.1029)
“This update includes quality improvements. No new operating system features are being introduced in this update.”
Win10 1607 – April 10, 2018—KB4093119 (OS Build 14393.2189)
“Windows 10 version 1607 will reach end of service on April 10, 2018. Devices running Windows 10 Home or Pro editions will no longer receive monthly security and quality updates that contain protection from the latest security threats. To continue receiving security and quality updates, Microsoft recommends updating to the latest version of Windows 10.”

Insider builds also get the above updates (KB4100375).
[Read more…] about Patch Tuesday