ISSUE 23.43 • 2026-10-26 PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley We take for granted that our computers will boot and operate efficiently. For all operating systems, from Windows to Apple to your favorite flavor of Linux, the software we most often take for granted is drivers because they power all the things we depend upon. Speakers. […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Will October bring tricks or treats? It’s the season when children in all manner of scary and not-so-scary costumes come to my door at the end of the month to yell “Trick or Treat!” and are handed candy. It’s also the time when I look to Microsoft and wonder whether […]

This month is a clear showcase of why we hold back on patching. Not only Windows, but Apple. An update such as iOS 27 will have side effects because it’s a big update with big changes. Issues are never understood immediately after updating; it always takes days, if not weeks, before issues bubble up and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Microsoft is setting expectations, or is it? The August updates begin the gradual rollout of the first of many promised changes to Windows 11. This would seem to be a matter of setting expectations, but if you don’t know precisely when the changes and improvements are coming, how can you […]

ISSUE 23.29 • 2026-07-20 PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley Well, the benefits of AI are clearly here — at least in terms of bug counts. Microsoft fixed 621 vulnerabilities this time around. However, take a breath — a big breath. Even with all those fixes that encompass both Windows and .NET, the updates are pushed […]