ISSUE 23.38 • 2026-09-21 RATIONAL AI By Michael A. Covington Pope Leo XIV has issued an encyclical about digital culture and artificial intelligence. In what follows, I’ll summarize what computer professionals need to know about it, referencing its sections for those who want to dig deeper. I won’t address religious or political claims, theology, whether […]

LEGAL BRIEF By Max Stul Oppenheimer, Esq. If I had to guess, I’d say that the majority of people are tired of hearing about AI and have yet to see any significant benefits. I myself am tired of getting erroneous answers from a chatbot, responding “that’s wrong,” and getting back “you were right to question […]

PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston A new study says quantum computers now in development will enable hackers to steal bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies without knowing the passwords or even the names of the rightful owners. No quantum computers exist yet. But when they do, one estimate is that 32 percent of all bitcoins and a […]

ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley Not a day goes by without a prompt to set up a passkey. As with everything in security, there are trade-offs. These mostly have to do with balancing security and convenience. This will manifest itself in the decisions you must make when setting up passkeys. Some decisions are made for […]

ISSUE 23.37 • 2026-09-14 PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Is AI pushing us to patch faster? Recently, I sat down with Richard Campbell of the RunAsRadio podcast to talk about patching, security, and whether we should patch faster just because of AI. I made the point that vulnerability counts do not equate to exploitation. The […]

EDITORIAL By Will Fastie There is a wealth of information at AskWoody. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to find. If you have a long memory, you know I have mentioned a “forthcoming” search capability. Budget constraints and other priorities have delayed implementation, and we’re not quite sure when conditions will ease. In this brief […]

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen Every now and then, I come across a free utility that does one useful thing so well that I wonder why the ability isn’t already built into Windows. This is one of those programs. Nyrna is a free, open-source utility that lets you suspend a running game or application and […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Do you want large or small bug counts? Microsoft released the September updates with 12 Azure vulnerabilities, 22 developer-tool vulnerabilities, 9 Exchange server vulnerabilities, 111 Office vulnerabilities, 16 SharePoint server vulnerabilities, 10 Skype for business vulnerabilities, 62 SQL vulnerabilities, 9 “other” vulnerabilities, and — last but not least — 723 […]

ISSUE 23.36 • 2026-09-07 PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston Spirit Airlines, an ultra-low-cost carrier that served nearly 90 destinations in the US, Latin America, and the Caribbean, went bankrupt and ceased all flight operations on May 2, 2026. Google, the search giant, won a competitive bidding process and will pay $10 million to buy Spirit’s […]

WINDOWS 11 By Mary Branscombe Task Manager isn’t the only option for tracking down memory usage. Other tools give you more details. The next time your PC feels slow, you could just assume it’s due to too many open tabs in your browser and look at Task Manager to see if you’re right. But that […]

MICROSOFT 365 By Peter Deegan Microsoft is finally fixing a mess of its own making by merging two Copilot apps into one. Less obvious are other changes happening at the same time: reducing Microsoft’s costs and nudging more people toward paid AI services. Just so you’re not caught unawares, let’s go through the Copilot app […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley You know me by now. I don’t jump on the latest and greatest. I test on sample machines and then decide when the time is right to deploy the updates. So, before I talk about 26H2 and how it’s coming up soon — probably in late September or early October […]

ISSUE 23.35 • 2026-08-31 SOFTWARE By Nathan Segal Six years ago, I reviewed Affinity Photo for AskWoody. Much has changed. In March 2024, Canva acquired Affinity from Serif. A year later, Canva’s intent became clear when it released Affinity Studio. The most notable change from my report in 2020 is that instead of three separate […]

COMMENTARY By Will Fastie Join me for a few excursions into my life. I was checking my contract the other day, and I realized it has no clause specifying exactly what I must write about for this newsletter. In fact, it doesn’t say anything at all about me writing! Editing? Yes. Writing? No. Freedom! Free […]

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT By Deanna McElveen Attacks on your computer usually try to get you to do something that you know you probably shouldn’t do — such as opening an email attachment, downloading a cute elf game, or clicking a 100%-off coupon link. I’ve been warning people about this stuff for years. You’re AskWoody readers, so […]

TAME YOUR TECH End-of-summer wrap-up By Susan Bradley Are you ready for 26H2 and new Apple devices? The end of August has always been a time for me to stop, reflect on the summer, determine if I got anything on my summertime to-do list done, and see whether I’m ready for fall. When I was […]

ISSUE 23.34 • 2026-08-24 ON SECURITY By Susan Bradley It all started when I was assisting someone who was trying to determine whether their Wi-Fi mesh routers were operating at the best possible speed. I tried to log in to the Web-based interface to the mesh system, which indicated that browser access was disabled. Uh-oh. […]

PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston Public water utilities in several US states were hit with coordinated hacker attacks on July 26–27, 2026. The intrusions temporarily knocked Internet-connected control devices offline, forcing some agencies to warn customers to boil tap water. No permanent poisonings occurred, but the exploits may be a hacker group’s test run or […]

WINDOWS 11 By Lance Whitney Bumping into problems trying to use your mouse or touchpad? Windows 11 offers an array of tools and settings that could help you resolve whatever challenges you’re facing. My desktop mouse and my laptop touchpad don’t always behave properly. You, too? Yep, these essential devices that let you navigate your […]

BEN’S WORKSHOP By Ben Myers The power goes out where you live. When it comes back on, you can no longer use your printer. Then what? In the area where I live, we lose electrical power frequently. Many people cannot afford, do not have room for, or will not put up with a large uninterruptable […]