Woody on Windows
On a personal note...
Woody Leonhard looks back a bit, looks ahead to retirement — and shares good news about who's picking up the Windows patching torch.
Get Microsoft's October patches installed — and seriously consider Win10 2004
Odd ancillary patches have their problems, but the mainstream October patches look pretty reliable. The big question: Is Win10 version 2004 up to your stability standards. I’m skeptical -- especially because it has few worthwhile...
Microsoft Patch Alert: October 2020
The big news with this month’s patches – aside from the usual smorgasbord of strange errors – has more to do with the patches that are outside the regular cumulative update stream. Remarkably, we didn’t get any security fixes for IE...
With Patch Tuesday here, be sure Windows Update is paused
With all the flotsam floating around, it’s easy to lose sight of Second Tuesdays. October’s arrives tomorrow and, with it, another round of Windows and Office patches. Take a minute to make sure you aren’t in the front lines, as...
The coast is clear to install September's Windows and Office patches
It’s been an interesting month, with a couple of flubs, but no new major plugged security holes and Microsoft has replaced its buggy SQL Server 2019 patch. Win10 version 2004 continues to astound with the number of swatted bugs, but...
Pro tip: Sock away a clean copy of Windows 10 (2004)
It looks like Microsoft will release the next version of Windows 10 – version 20H2 – sometime in the next couple of weeks. Now would be a good time to squirrel away an official, clean copy of Win10 version 2004, even if you don't ever...
Beaucoup bugs beset this month’s Windows patches
July and August had relatively stable Patch Tuesdays. Not so, this month. Here’s the tip of the iceberg – the bugs that cropped up within a day of release.
With Patch Tuesday imminent, get Windows Update locked down
Patch Tuesday’s poised for another turn on the karmic wheel. Now’s a good time to check and make sure you’ve told Windows to pause patching. Wait for the crowdsourced beta testing to kick in. Let other folks take one for the team.
Yes, you can install the August Windows and Office patches now
There are a few odd problems with the latest Microsoft patches, but they’re sporadic and reasonably-well understood. Go get the outstanding updates installed now, but avoid “optional” patches.
It's Patch Tuesday time. Make sure to have auto updates paused.
As Patch Tuesday rolls around again, now’s a very good time to double-check and make sure Windows Auto Update has been throttled. We see problematic patches every month, so put your machine on the sidelines while we watch the cannon...
Despite an unexpected monkey wrench, now is the time to install the July Windows and Office patches
If it weren’t for the schizophrenic behavior of Microsoft’s preview patches, July updating would be a slam dunk. As things stand, you’d be well advised to go ahead and patch – but be aware of the odd behavior.
The Windows 10 'End-of-Service' myth
Microsoft publishes an “End of Service” date for each version of Windows 10. While you might think you can hold onto your version of Win10 until that date, Microsoft starts pushing you onto the next version four months early. That...
Windows Update is a bifurcated mess
Windows 10 now has two different Windows Update subsystems, running simultaneously, with different rules, conflicting goals and little documentation. Can’t see this week's Previews? You aren’t alone.
Microsoft releases some 'optional, non-security, C/D Week' Win10 patches. Avoid them.
In a return to its boorish behavior, Microsoft released several Windows 10 patches, presumably to preview non-security fixes as well as another .NET preview. Microsoft had stopped releasing these confusing middle-of-the-month patches...
Outlook went down for four hours Wednesday. What happened?
The version of Outlook that runs on Windows PCs suddenly stopped working worldwide on Wednesday. The outage wasn’t caused by a bad patch. It wasn’t restored by an update. Microsoft isn’t saying much, but there’s a plausible...
It's Patch Tuesday; make sure you pause Windows Updates
Every month we see the same pattern: Microsoft releases a ton of patches, some of them go kablooey, the Chicken Littles cry that you need patch everything right now -- and there are no immediate security problems. Break the habit....
Most bugs in Microsoft's June patches have been fixed; go ahead and patch
June was a cruel patching month, with loads of bugs, lots of initial confusion and a few belated fixes. We now have a pretty good handle on what’s going bump in the night. Here’s how to get your patching caught up.
Microsoft nixes update deferral settings, but gives us a TargetReleaseVersionInfo
The company intentionally removed the “update deferral” options from the Win10 version 2004 Update Advanced options pane, ostensibly “to prevent confusion.” Riiiiight. But there’s good news: a newly documented Pro, Education and...
Debilitating 'Outlook needs to close' bug linked to a bad Windows cumulative update
Microsoft has acknowledged that a combination of the June 2-or-later version of Microsoft 365 (nee Office 365) and the June Win10 cumulative updates cause Outlook to disavow its PST files. The source of the problem seems to be a bug...
Windows 10 version 2004 slams into a Storage Spaces brick wall
According to official sources, the latest Windows upgrade contains a bug in the Storage Spaces feature. Information, as usual, is sketchy. We have no idea what triggers the bug, or whether rolling back to 1909 will fix it, but … why...
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