ISSUE 23.17.1 • 2026-04-28 By Susan Bradley The April updates continue to dribble out more fixes for Secure Boot certificates for some systems. But once you receive the April updates, you still may be waiting for the new certs to be installed. That happened to me on some systems. Nonetheless, the patching world is relatively […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley One of my complaints on behalf of consumers is that information about the new security certificates for Secure Boot has been vague — nearly hidden. Unless you are an AskWoody reader, you might not even be aware that there is an issue with Secure Boot certificates — not to mention […]

ISSUE 23.12 • 2026-03-23 PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Secure Boot continues to be confusing — and sometimes alarming. Nevertheless, here’s some reassurance for consumers and home users: For the most part, you can ignore all this Secure Boot patching advice. Your computer will boot if you get the update. Your computer will boot if […]

ISSUE 23.11.1 • 2026-03-19 By Will Fastie Great care must be taken when conversing with AI bots. In what can only be a galactic coincidence, I corresponded with two people this past Monday, both of whom had chatted with bots. One was an 87-year-old Plus member with a long background in technology and the other […]

ISSUE 23.09.1 • 2026-03-05 By Susan Bradley For once, I don’t anticipate any issues with the forthcoming March updates. Nonetheless, I’ve raised the MS-DEFCON level to 2. It’s always wise to pause updates until thorough examinations are made and any bugs have been worked out. A little patience goes a long way. I’m excited by […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley If you are a bit timid about February’s patches and not looking forward to installing them, I don’t blame you. The last few months have been bumpy, to say the least. But neither I nor the five Windows 11 and two Windows 10 machines at my house, the one Windows […]

ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley The idea behind Secure Boot is that attackers can’t gain access to your system through the boot process. As Microsoft puts it in a support post: Secure Boot is a security feature in Unified Extensible Firmware Interface​ (UEFI) based firmware that helps ensure that only trusted software runs during a […]

ISSUE 22.45.1 • 2025-11-13 PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley This is the first month for updates from the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) plan. If you’ve signed up for the ESU, you should start seeing them as you would have seen any updates in the past. But that doesn’t mean you should install them […]

ISSUE 22.44.1 • 2025-11-06 By Susan Bradley This month marks the first time that security updates will be released to Windows 10 under Microsoft’s Extended Security Update program. If you’ve enrolled in the ESU plan, you should see them offered in Windows Update. But that does not mean you should install them now. Nothing has […]