TweakHound

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Windows

Tuesday Morning Random Stuff…

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Rollout Status as of December 17, 2018:
Windows 10, version 1809, is now fully available for advanced users who manually select “Check for updates” via Windows Update.

O&O ShutUp10 v1.6.1400
Download | Changelog

Wise Disk Cleaner v10.1.4.760
Download (I use portable) | Release Announcement

Macrium Reflect v7.2.3954
Download | Release Notes

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Google CEO Sundar Pichai: Fears about artificial intelligence are ‘very legitimate,’ he says in Post interview
“but the tech industry should be trusted to responsibly regulate its use.”
The fox in charge of the hen house analogy was never more apt than here.

Apple Warns iPhones Have A Serious Problem
What Apple is changing is how users will be able to resize pictures and manage applications on their iPhones. How will these functions be altered? Apple hasn’t said, other than to confirm the update and describe this functionality as “minor” when it is clearly anything but.
So what is going on? In short: Apple is trying to win favour with judges and iPhone users are the test subjects for this.
Those “judges” are in China.

Google isn’t the company that we should have handed the Web over to
Microsoft adopting Chromium puts the Web in a perilous place.
Agreed but it may be too late.

Former Edge intern says Google sabotaged Microsoft’s browser
LOL at a Microsoftie whining about web standards.

Social media is turning a generation of children into liars, leading headmistress warns
teenagers tend to “curate” a certain image of themselves on their social media accounts, such as the photograph sharing platforms, Instagram and Snapchat.
They become used to covering up any perceived imperfections, and there is a danger is when this attitude trespasses into other aspects of their life too.
“If you get used to showing one image of yourself on social media, you may begin to believe that is completely aligned to reality,”
Just how is this different than adult social media users? #DeleteFacebook

Polar vortex could unleash winter wallop by January
“Confidence is growing in a significant #PolarVortex disruption in the coming weeks. This could be the single most important determinant of the weather this #winter across the Northern Hemisphere.”
I’m gonna need thicker socks.

Best Christmas Yard Display Ever (Image credit Instagram via Brobible)

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)

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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Windows 10 Updates
1809 – December 5, 2018—KB4469342 (OS Build 17763.168)
1803 – November 27, 2018—KB4467682 (OS Build 17134.441
1709 – November 27, 2018—KB4467681 (OS Build 16299.820)

Graphics Drivers
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition Optional 18.12.1.1 (05DEC2018)
Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 417.22 WHQL (03DEC2018)

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

VCU knocks off Texas, Shaka Smart 54-53 in Austin
Facing former VCU coach Shaka Smart and Texas on Wednesday night at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, the Rams kept the game close and took some slight leads.
Then, with 4:38 to play, a 3-pointer by Sean Mobley gave the Rams a 3-point advantage. They never relinquished the lead.
Hook’em indeed!

Is NOTHING private any more? Shocking extent of how big firms harvest your data
Examples include:
– Pregnant women’s due dates being farmed out by Asda to mystery third-party companies for marketing;
– Children’s voices recorded on the YouTube Kids app being used by Google to promote other apps;
– Passport copies given to PayPal for account verification purposes being shared with Microsoft for facial recognition products;
– Health details, ethnic origin and political views of Facebook users being used by the social network for targeted advertising;
– Viewers of BT television being profiled for advertisers according toprofiles of their television watching and telephone call records.
Actually not shocking but definitely reinforcing.

Paul Thurrott – Tip: Download Windows 7 and 8.1 ISOs
“I’m not sure when this happened, but Microsoft now has ISO downloads available for Windows 7 and 8.1, and not just Windows 10.”
It happened over 3 years ago.

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

Thursday Morning Random Stuff…

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EasyBCD 2.4
This is the program I use to dual-boot. First update in over 3 years!
Download. Requires registration.
EasyBCD 2.4 (November 28, 2018)
– Fixed: bcdboot paramters in RepairBootDrive call
– Fixed:/NLT crashes on malformed XML translation files
– Fixed: partitions with 64-bit extensions are not supported
– Fixed: Detect <= Windows 7 and disable metro bootloader to prevent hidden boot menu
– Fixed: Statusbar height shrinks when blank under Windows 10
– New: Add autocompletion to all path textboxes
– New: Add Ability to turn on/off hypervisor state for entries
– New: Verify destination of “change boot partition” is at least 75 MiB
– Include Bulgarian in BCD/BOOTMGR locale list
– Include XML validity checks as part of build process
– Custom SWF high-DPI support in EasyBCD
– High-DPI support in EasyBCD setup
– Do not repeatedly apply existing settings when modifying entry attribute

Intel Graphics Driver for Windows 10
Download | Release Notes
DRIVER VERSION: 25.20.100.6444
DATE: November 28th,2018
12 newly supported games
I reckon this is also supposed to stop your Win10 October 2018 update from being blocked for older drivers.

Other Software Updates
AMD Ryzen Master 1.5.1.0862
EMDB 3.27

Don’t Be Evil and Don’t Be Hypocrites
4,000 Google employees concerned about the U.S.Defense Department’s Project Maven.
Only 1,400 Google employees concerned about Google’s Project Dragonfly, a Chinese censorship program. As of this writing, 514 signed petition. Now we see Google employees actually supporting the censorship efforts in China.
People are seriously arguing that a censored internet is better than no internet. This while we are still discussing Russian trolls influencing our elections with “disinformation and propaganda”. I’m astounded by this nonsensical argument.

Some info here: iVerge – Dueling employee petitions have revealed a deep divide within Google over China

Wednesday Random Stuff…

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Win10 Updates
Many “Addresses an issue” fixes.
Build 1809 – None
Build 1803 – November 27, 2018—KB4467682 (OS Build 17134.441)
Build 1709 – November 27, 2018—KB4467681 (OS Build 16299.820)

Nvidia GeForce Game Ready Driver 417.01 WHQL
“Provides the optimal gaming experience for Darksiders III”
Download | Release Notes

Macrium Reflect 7.2.3897
Download | Release Notes

FinalCrypt 2.6.3
Free, open source encryption software.
Download & Info

Stuff I bookmarked recently. Some off topic, some not:

Instagram Rich List 2018

Samsung 860 EVO 500GB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
List Price: $109.99
With Deal: $72.99
You Save: $37.00 (34%)

Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD
List Price: $199.99
Price: $127.98
You Save: $72.01 (36%)

DEF LEPPARD – The Stories So Far Episode 1 with Joe Elliott
Joe tells all about the making of Pour Some Sugar On Me.

Def Leppard – The Story So Far CD comes out Friday
Track Listings
Disc: 1
1. Animal
2. Photograph
3. Pour Some Sugar On Me
4. Love Bites
5. Let’s Get Rocked
6. Armageddon It
7. Foolin’
8. Two Steps Behind
9. Heaven Is
10. Rocket
11. Hysteria
12. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
13. Make Love Like A Man
14. Action
15. When Love And Hate Collide
16. Rock Of Ages
17. Personal Jesus

Disc: 2
1. Let’s Go
2. Promises
3. Slang
4. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
5. Rock On
6. Nine Lives
7. Work It Out
8. Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)
9. Dangerous
10. Now
11. Undefeated
12. Tonight
13. C’mon C’mon
14. Man Enough
15. No Matter What
16. All I Want Is Everything
17. It’s All About Believin’
18. Kings Of The World

Windows 10 Quality

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This blog post by Microsoft VP Michael Fortin has gotten Geeks Irish up. The entire post is delusional and tone-deaf. It spends half the time telling us we think Win10 is great and the other half telling us what a great job Microsoft is doing.
Geeks and Windows Experts have savaged Microsoft for the fiasco that is Win10 and this latest post just made things worse. Some recent comments from the Windows Expert / Geek world:
Paul Thurrott
“You can’t trust anything these people tell you. They literally have no idea what they’re doing.”
Woody Leonhard
“The past four months have shown, repeatedly, that you’d have to be crazy — or ignorant of the past — to continue applying Windows patches as soon as they’re released.”
Chris Hoffman
“We want Microsoft to understand the problem, take it seriously, and make some real changes…We’d be happier if Microsoft would stop breaking things.”
Ed Bott
“Customers who are running an officially released version of Windows should not have to sign up as beta testers to get critical fixes…And don’t get me started on the Microsoft Answers forum, where overwhelmed volunteer moderators routinely paste boilerplate replies to customers reporting genuine issues. Good luck finding actual help there. Mainstream customers running a released version of Windows shouldn’t have to spend hours hunting down information about issues and updates.“

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)