Category Archives: Microsoft

Microsoft, Miscellany, Patches and updates, Privacy, Windows 10

Windows 10 miscellany

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Ed Bott noticed that the latest release of Windows 10 (1511) was mysteriously removed from availability via the Media Creation Tool. The new version can still be obtained through Windows Update. Microsoft’s explanation isn’t very helpful, and it’s rather annoying to system builders who missed the brief window during which release 1511 was available via MCT. Update #1: Ars Technica reports on the situation, noting that there are reports of serious problems with release 1511 when installed via the MCT. Update #2: Ars Technica confirms that upgrading via MCT was causing privacy settings to be reset to defaults. The problem has been fixed, and build 1511 is once again available via MCT.

Meanwhile, Microsoft apparently updated its privacy policy in response to concerns about information gathered and transmitted by Windows 10. Changes to the policy make it clear that Microsoft will only provide law enforcement access to your data on their servers, not data stored locally on your computer. Encryption keys are backed up to Microsoft servers, but Microsoft will not use them to decrypt disks or files on your computer. The collection of telemetry data cannot be disabled, but it can be limited so that only very basic data is collected, and none of it personal.

And finally, Microsoft has relented somewhat on its Windows 10 activation policy, allowing for legitimate installs using old, unused activation keys from Windows 7 or 8.

Microsoft, Windows 10

Microsoft to start pushing Windows 10 on business customers

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Microsoft is turning its sights on businesses and other large customers, making changes to Windows 10 that it hopes will entice IT departments to try the new O/S.

With the arrival of build 10586, Windows Update for Business is now ready for use in Windows 10. This is bound to be helpful for business users, since it allows updates to be delayed, but there’s still no way to avoid updates indefinitely. Microsoft is still promising to provide better information about updates, but as yet that hasn’t actually happened.

There’s also now a business-oriented version of the Windows Store. Most importantly, there are options for disabling telemetry and other data sent to Microsoft from Windows 10 computers. Hopefully that change will find its way to regular Windows 10 versions as well.

It’s far too early to decide whether these changes will have any influence over business and corporate decision makers. I certainly wouldn’t recommend Windows 10 for use in business or educational environments; there are simply too many unresolved issues related to privacy, updates, and the user interface.

Ars Technica has additional details.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 7

Update MS15-115 re-released to fix crashing issues

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One of the updates released by Microsoft on Tuesday apparently caused serious crashing problems on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 computers. Microsoft has re-issued the update to resolve these problems. Anyone who already installed MS15-115 on affected Windows systems should run Windows Update again to get the new version.

The MS15-115 bulletin has been updated to show the change.

From the associated knowledge base article:

This security update was rereleased on November 11, 2015, for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to resolve the following issues:

* Resolves crashing that occurred in all supported versions of Microsoft Outlook when users were reading certain email messages.
* Resolves problems that occurred while users were logging on to the system. For example, after a user restarted the computer and then pressed Ctrl+Alt+Delete at the logon screen, the screen flashed and then went black. The user was then unable to continue. There may be other, similar logon issues that are related to this issue.

Adobe, Chrome, Flash, Google, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Security, Windows

Patch Tuesday for November 2015

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It’s that time again. This month’s crop of updates from Microsoft addresses security problems in the usual suspects, namely Windows, Office, .NET and Internet Explorer. Adobe joins the fun with yet another batch of fixes for Flash, and Google releases another version of Chrome with the latest Flash.

The Microsoft security summary bulletin for November 2015 gets into all the technical details. There are twelve separate bulletins with associated updates. Four of the updates are flagged as Critical. One of the updates affects the Windows 10 web browser Edge. A total of 53 vulnerabilities are addressed.

Flash 19.0.0.245 includes fixes for at least seventeen vulnerabilities. As usual, Internet Explorer in recent versions of Windows will be updated via Windows Update. Chrome gets the new Flash via its internal updater. Anyone still using a web browser with Flash enabled should install the new Flash as soon as possible.

Chrome 46.0.2490.86 includes the latest Flash (see above) and fixes a security issue in its embedded PDF viewer.

Hardware, Microsoft, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8.x

Only Windows 10 on new PCs after October 2016

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Microsoft has confirmed that OEMs will no longer be allowed to sell new computers with Windows 7 or 8.x after October 31, 2016. If you buy a new PC after that date, you won’t have any options besides Windows 10.

Support for Windows 7 – including security updates – will continue to 2020, so it’s still a perfectly viable operating system. But it’s unclear whether you will still be able to purchase Windows 7 OEM separately, from Microsoft or any other seller, after October 31, 2016. I certainly hope so, although it seems unlikely. So if you’re planning to build any new Windows 7 computers between October 2016 and 2020, you should stock up on Windows 7 OEM licenses now.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10

Windows 10 build 10586

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Microsoft is happy with the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview build, designated 10586. That means it will find its way to your Windows 10 computer over the next week or so as the Windows 10 Fall Update. This will roughly coincide with next week’s Patch Tuesday.

My Insider Preview test machine is configured to get the latest updates, so I’ve been using 10586, and the builds that were available in the interim since the last public release (10240) for a while. Now that the test computer is running the new release version, the ‘Insider Preview build’ message is once again gone from the desktop. That will change when Microsoft pushes out the next preview version.

There’s not a lot to talk about here. Most of the changes are fairly minor, including coloured title bars, tab previews in Edge, general cleanup in user interface elements, and improvements to the Start menu. Skype will get several enhancements. Several bugs have also been fixed.

Update 2015Nov15: Ars Technica has a list of changes in the new release, and really, there’s not much of interest.

With this release, Microsoft has also changed the way it identifies Windows 10 versions. The previous release was “Version 10.0 (Build 10240).” The new release is “Version 1511 (OS Build 10586.3)” where “1511” refers to the 11th month of 2015. They like to keep us confused, don’t they?

Microsoft, Privacy, Windows 10

Windows 10 privacy concerns are legitimate

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Microsoft Corporate Vice President Joe Belfiore has finally admitted what we’ve known all along: Windows 10 talks to Microsoft servers even if you’ve disabled every available privacy-related setting.

Of course, Belfiore says that this is nothing to worry about, since it’s being done to make Windows 10 work better for everyone. He’s probably not lying about Microsoft’s intentions, but all the same, I don’t want my O/S to do this kind of thing. And I don’t care if blocking this unwanted communication makes Microsoft’s work more difficult.

Unless Microsoft relents and provides a method for disabling all of this anti-privacy communication, your choices are: a) give up and stop worrying about it; b) avoid Windows 10 completely; or c) use one of the available third-party methods, such as Spybot Anti-Beacon, to block all of this ‘phone home’ behaviour.

Normally, I’d go for option C. But I’m running Windows 10 as part of the Insider Preview program, and blocking all communication to Microsoft would almost certainly result in my being kicked from the program. So it’s option A for me.

Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8.x

If you don’t want Windows 10, disable Automatic Updates

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Microsoft is really ramping up the annoyance factor lately. The latest is that some time in 2016, Windows 7 and 8.x computers will start seeing Windows 10 as a ‘Recommended’ update in Windows Update. If you have Windows Automatic Updates enabled, your computer will be upgraded to Windows 10 on some arbitrary night in early 2016, while you’re asleep.

This is bad for several reasons. Here are a few:

  • For anyone not interested in upgrading to Windows 10, this renders Automatic Updates unusable. Yes, there are people who want to use Automatic Updates, but don’t want to upgrade to Windows 10. Lots of them. Including a lot of grandparents.
  • There have already been reports of problems with Windows 10 being installed when it wasn’t wanted. If Microsoft messes this up somehow, a lot of people are going to be mighty annoyed when they wake up to Windows 10 on their computer.
  • There are loads of reasons not to upgrade to Windows 10, including incompatible software and hardware. An unwanted Windows 10 upgrade could mean a lot of time wasted downgrading or looking for alternatives.
  • Microsoft has started talking about Windows 10 in business and education settings, saying they’ll provide workarounds for these types of problems. But it can’t be very encouraging to business IT folks to hear announcements like this.

The Verge has more.

Edge, Microsoft, Patches and updates, Windows 10

Edge automatically imports Chrome bookmarks for all users

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I just ran Edge – Microsoft’s new web browser – on my Windows 10 test computer, and the ‘Favorites’ bar went berserk for a few seconds. At first I thought there was some kind of display bug, but then I clicked the arrow at the far right end of the bar, and could see a lot of new Favorites, including many in folders. Some of those favorites were familiar, and some were not.

I eventually realized that Edge had automatically imported all the Chrome bookmarks from every Google account that had ever logged into Google, using Chrome, while logged into Windows with my Microsoft account. I leave the computer logged in, which is normally not recommended, but this is also my main media computer, and there’s nothing personal on any of its drives. Also I trust my roommate.

Chrome knows when you’re logged in to Google, and shows bookmarks and other settings specific to the current Google user. These settings are stored locally, keeping each Google user’s settings separate, but storing the data in the profile of whichever Windows user is currently logged in.

There are two problems with this. First, I don’t think this import process should be automatic. It’s the kind of thing that I want to do strictly on demand, and in fact you can do that: in Edge’s Settings dialog, click the ‘View favorites settings’ button to see the import feature. Second, Edge should not assume I want to import Chrome bookmarks for all Google profiles. Now I’ve got a mess to clean up, and I can’t be sure it won’t happen again. So I’ll stop using Edge.

I’m running Windows 10 Insider Preview build 10576, which just installed itself earlier this morning. I can’t be sure the Edge problem is related, but it seems likely.

Microsoft, Windows 10

Microsoft wants you to try Edge

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If you’ve ever chosen a default Windows web browser that wasn’t Internet Explorer, you know that Microsoft has an annoying habit of resetting that choice to Internet Explorer when updates are installed.

Microsoft upped the annoyance level with Windows 10, in which changing default applications can no longer be automated. This is good from a security standpoint, but makes it more difficult for competing applications to get a foothold on user systems, and browser developers aren’t exactly thrilled.

A new build of Windows 10 adds another layer of annoyance to this ongoing battle for application dominance: when you try to change the default browser to something other than Edge, you’ll now see a message asking you to give Edge a chance. Granted, that’s much less annoying than unilaterally forcing the default, but it’s still not going to give anyone warm fuzzy feelings.