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AskWoody blog contains Woody Leonhard's no-bull news, tips and help for Windows, Office and more.
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1d ago
ISSUE 21.19.1 • 2024-05-09 By Susan Bradley Patch Tuesday is only a few days away. As usual, caution is in order. I’ve therefore raised the MS-DEFCON level to 2. Make sure your system is backed up and you have deferred updates. In addition, I urge you to take stock of the other software that is ..read more
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5d ago
ISSUE 21.19 • 2024-05-06 COMMENTARY By Michael A. Covington Computer ethics and AI ethics are easier than you think, for one big reason. That reason is simple: if it’s wrong to do something without a computer, it’s still wrong to do it with a computer. See how much puzzlement that principle clears away. Consider, for ..read more
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5d ago
WINDOWS 11 By Ed Tittel The Settings app in Windows 11 remains endlessly under development, with the transition from Control Panel and Microsoft Management consoles far from complete. With the introduction of Windows 8, Microsoft began a slow and deliberate changeover in how setup, configuration, and related settings are handled. In this first of a ..read more
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5d ago
FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen I have two large monitors and a lot of icons filling those screens. It may look like utter chaos, but my brain knows exactly where each icon is located. So when some poorly crafted software leaves my icons all neatly stacked to the left side of my main monitor, I ..read more
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5d ago
PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Despite my being a CPA, earnings calls are not usually a part of my technology coverage for Patch Watch. I’m making an exception. I read the transcript of the Microsoft Fiscal Year 2024 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call and found myself concerned with CEO Satya Nadella’s remarks. In the call ..read more
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6d ago
ISSUE 21.18.1 • 2024-05-03 By Susan Bradley Microsoft has now made it official. It does not plan to fix the mess it made with KB5034441. As you may recall, I was not pleased with how Microsoft handled this vulnerability. It took a sledgehammer to a problem that should have been handled with a precision tool ..read more
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1w ago
ISSUE 21.18 • 2024-04-29 PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston In a pair of serious security breaches in the past two months, hackers tried username-password combinations found on the Dark Web. They attempted to log on to more than half a million accounts at Roku. Hundreds of users who had unwisely stored their full credit-card numbers ..read more
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1w ago
OFFICE By Mary Branscombe Inside every Office file is a hierarchy of formats and XML markup. If you understand these structures, you can use that knowledge to extract information directly from most Office app files. When Word, Excel, and PowerPoint first came out, they stored documents in proprietary binary file formats, with text, styles, page ..read more
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1w ago
FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen If you want me to use your fancy new feature in Windows, it better be fewer than three clicks away. Two is better. It’s not that I’m being difficult. I’m just very conscious of how many clicks I’m using. SmartContextMenu is an enhanced version of author Alexander Illarionov’s other popular ..read more
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1w ago
PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley The Professional and Home editions of Windows 11 22H2 reach end of life on October 14, 2024. Between now and then, those of you on Windows 11 22H2 should begin the process of moving to 23H2. For users with Windows 11 Education and Enterprise editions, their demise arrives a year ..read more