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 […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Someone recently asked whether they could install just the security part of Apple updates and ignore all the other parts. Just as with Microsoft Windows, the ability to get just the code that pertains to security issues, without changing anything else, is no longer an option. Neither Microsoft nor Apple […]

ISSUE 23.12.1 • 2026-03-24 By Susan Bradley This month has been relatively quiet for Microsoft Windows updates. Sure, there are the occasional “won’t install the update” situations that are usually fixed with a repair install over the top. I’ve become tired of seeing them. And there were two out-of-band updates for Windows 11 Enterprise 25H2, […]

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 […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Businesses will be happy to learn that the March updates include no new zero-day bugs. A zero day is a security issue that is under active attack as of Patch Tuesday. This means that unpatched systems are potentially vulnerable. However, you know from my past patch-risk analyses that zero days […]

ISSUE 23.08.1 • 2026-02-24 By Susan Bradley I’m not a superstitious person. But there are times — especially around printers, copiers, or other technology devices — when I jokingly say, “Shush, don’t talk about how they are working. It will jinx them.” And there are times I talk about how well the devices are working […]

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 […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley The second week of January is when patching returns to business as usual. That’s generally true for patches and updates from all sources — Windows, Apple, Adobe, Google — pretty much all the majors. Patches arrive for operating systems as well as for apps and Web browsers. As usual, I’ll […]

ISSUE 23.01.1 • 2026-01-08 By Susan Bradley The holidays are behind us, so now we can get back to business as usual. You know — when to pause updates so we can test and evaluate the January patches. Thus, the MS-DEFCON goes up to level 2. For those of you still running Windows 10, rest […]

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 […]