ISSUE 22.40.1 • 2025-10-09 By Susan Bradley Social media is replete with complaints about how Microsoft shoves feature releases and updates, and reboots computers, at will. It makes me shake my head. It’s as if everyone were thinking they had no control over the process at all. That’s not true. You have ample time to […]

ISSUE 22.38.1 • 2025-09-23 By Susan Bradley For consumers, it’s the end of the road for 23H2, and a deadline looms. After nearly a year of urging you to delay the upgrade to Windows 11 24H2, I’m now giving you the all-clear. Accordingly, I am lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4. I’m also suggesting a […]

WINDOWS 11 By Ed Tittel As the sun sets on Windows 10 support in mid-October 2025, many users face a pivotal decision: upgrade in place or start anew. Although upgrading seems simpler, it often drags along outdated baggage — Registry remnants, legacy drivers, and misconfigured services — that can hinder performance and block new features. […]

PATCH WATCH By Susan Bradley September may be back-to-school for many students, but I’m back to testing Microsoft updates. As usual, my eyes and ears (in fact, all my senses) are glued to the latest patching news, reports, social media posts — all my sources — looking for the tiniest hint of trouble. You know, […]

ISSUE 22.35.1 • 2025-09-04 By Susan Bradley Despite the headlines and my caution last week about lowering the MS-DEFCON level too far, another wave of patches is right around the corner. Accordingly, I’m raising the MS-DEFCON level to 2. This is not different from any other month’s recommendation — I always suggest deferring patches before […]

ISSUE 22.31.1 • 2025-08-07 By Susan Bradley Windows 11 24H2 is a large update that takes some time to install. Don’t do this close to Patch Tuesday. And because new patches are a mere five days away, it’s time to defer everything except critical or emergency patches until I’ve spent the time to understand any […]

ISSUE 22.26.1 • 2025-07-03 By Susan Bradley There are times when Microsoft drives us crazy, and then there are times when we don’t give Redmond enough credit. This is a time when we probably don’t praise the company enough for doing the right thing. I say this because I recently installed the July Insider preview […]