MS-DEFCON 3: Consumers get a break
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by Susan Bradley
15h ago
ISSUE 21.13.1 • 2024-03-27 By Susan Bradley Business patchers take heed. Usually, monthly updates have the same impact on both business and consumer PCs. This month, applying patches to consumer machines is generally safe, which would have earned a MS-DEFCON level of 4. But business machines are another matter; I’ve lowered the level to 3 ..read more
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Tax season — time to steal your refunds!
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by Susan Bradley
2d ago
ISSUE 21.13 • 2024-03-25 ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley If you live in the United States, the ideal time to steal items from a mailbox is from early March to April 15. Why? Because that’s when tax-refund checks get mailed to filers. Mail thefts go up during this period because it’s a window of greatest ..read more
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Better and safer file sharing in OneDrive
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by Peter Deegan
2d ago
ONEDRIVE By Peter Deegan I often use OneDrive to share photos, videos, and files from a trip or event with others who were there — or those who wish they had been! OneDrive has many options for people to edit, caption, and comment on photos and to play videos directly from their browser. Sharing photos ..read more
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MWN and WNW — Take control of your wireless network
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by Deanna McElveen
2d ago
FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen I know that most things I need for controlling my wireless network are right there in Windows. Well, most things. I don’t want to hunt them down. Over two decades, Microsoft has programmed us to click five times to get to any Windows setting. It’s trying to improve this in ..read more
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The hardware baton passes, sort of
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by Will Fastie
2d ago
MICROSOFT By Will Fastie I try to follow Microsoft news carefully, but it can be hard when the news about Microsoft comes from an unexpected third party. In January, Onward Brands published a press release stating that its Incase brand would be introducing a series of “Designed by Microsoft” products. These comprise a significant portion ..read more
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The novelty factor
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by Susan Bradley
4d ago
Spotted this post the other day….  “In our recent analysis of Copilot for Microsoft 365, we observed a notable trend: a 64% decrease in user interactions with Copilot over a 9 week period. This decline suggests a concerning “Novelty Effect,” where initial enthusiasm for new technology gradually wanes. Initially, users exhibited a robust engagement with ..read more
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Issues with processing renewals resolved
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by Susan Bradley
6d ago
ISSUE 21.12.1 • 2024-03-22 By Susan Bradley I’ve been monitoring the fixes we made to ensure that customer orders are properly handled. I’m confident that the underlying bug has been squashed. While I’m confident that you won’t see any repeat of the error where the system would indicate your charge did not go through when ..read more
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Secure messaging on Windows with Signal
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by Mary Branscombe
1w ago
ISSUE 21.11 • 2024-03-18 PRIVACY By Mary Branscombe Signal is a smartphone secure-messaging app that also works in Windows. Here’s why you want it, and how to get started. Sometimes you need to send a message that you can be certain will stay private. Perhaps a friend urgently needs a place to stay while you’re ..read more
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Must your password manager be multiuser or just single-user?
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by B. Livingston
1w ago
PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston So many websites these days require usernames and passwords of varying lengths and strengths that installing a secure password manager to keep track of them all is almost a necessity. But there are big differences between versions of password managers that are designed for a single user (for example, you ..read more
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Server updates fail to download
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by Susan Bradley
1w ago
PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley The March updates for Windows opened the month on a bumpy road. The most significant bump relates to the update for Windows Server, demonstrating that it’s not just client PCs that have problems. Fortunately, the problem seems to have been fixed quickly. KB5035849 is the culprit. Read the full story ..read more
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