Newsletter Archives

• Planning for the unexpected

  Posted on March 10, 2025 at 02:41 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  We all have a tendency to take many things for granted.

  We take utilities, such as electricity and water, for granted. We assume fuel will be there on demand. We expect our computers and other devices to turn on every time. We assume that our software will run properly the next time we use it. Then comes the day when one or more of these things are impacted. Are you prepared? What can you do without?

  I’m going to discuss several items of technology that I rely on that suddenly failed last week. For some, I had ready backups. For others, I was reminded that I need to take better steps to have a Plan B.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.10.0, 2025-03-10).

  On Security Battery Backup, Disaster Planning, Electricity, Email, Internet, Microsoft 365, Newsletters, Outages, Password management, Patch Lady Posts

• MS-DEFCON 4: Holiday patching

  Posted on November 26, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.48.1 • 2024-11-26

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Thanksgiving in America is a mere two days away. I often use the holiday to multitask while the turkey is roasting.

  One task for you is applying updates. I’m lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4; other than my recommendation to avoid Windows 11 24H2 for now, patching should be safe.

  Thanksgiving signals the approaching end of year. For both home and office, it’s a great time to reflect on the challenges of the past year and develop a technology plan for the upcoming year. In my case, I’ll be looking at retiring some devices that I no longer need or use, upgrading some existing equipment, replacing aging devices with new ones, and looking for simplifications wherever I can find them.

  Anyone can read the full MS-DEFCON Alert (21.48.1, 2024-11-26).

  AskWoody Plus Alert, MS-DEFCON Alerts, Copilot+ PCs, CVE-2024-44308, CVE-2024-44309, Email, iOS, KB5046613, KB5046633, KB5046714, macOS Sequoia, MS-DEFCON, MS-DEFCON 4, Outlook (new), Patch Lady Posts, Recall, Windows Server 2022

• Why Proton means privacy

  Posted on October 7, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  If you want privacy in your email, cloud storage, and other parts of your digital life, then go to Proton’s suite of very secure but easy-to-use services.

  Proton is a Swiss company with a suite of familiar services – email, cloud storage, VPN – but with an important difference: Proton is serious about privacy. Others, such as OneDrive and Dropbox, talk about privacy but aren’t so great in delivering it.

  In this article, I’ll focus on the three important offerings of Proton and its free plans for private encrypted email, secure cloud storage, and properly private VPN.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.41.0, 2024-10-07).

  Microsoft 365 Cloud storage, Email, Email security, Newsletters, Outlook, Outlook (new), Privacy, Proton, Secure Email, Security, VPN

• Microsoft and Apple

  Posted on July 1, 2024 at 02:39 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  APPLE

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Microsoft has spent many years, and made huge investments, trying to bring the Apple ecosystem into work environments.

  In 1985, it brought word processing to the Mac. It has provided the means to allow Word and Excel documents to move seamlessly from Windows to macOS. It brought affordable tools to allow small and medium businesses to control and manage iPhones, thus allowing managed service providers to control devices without needing to invest in specific, Apple-centric management tools.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.27.0, 2024-07-01).

  Apple Apple, Business Computing, Email, Intune, Microsoft 365, Newsletters, Security, Smartphones, Word Processing

• All the places a “missing” email can be hiding

  Posted on February 26, 2024 at 02:44 CST by Peter Deegan • Comment in the Forums

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  If an email hasn’t arrived, there are many reasons why it’s not sitting in your Inbox. Before complaining to the sender, save yourself embarrassment by checking the many other hiding places.

  Over 20-plus years, I’ve had a lot of experience from both sides of a missing email. I’ve traced missing emails sent to me and helped people trace messages that my site, Office-Watch.com, sent to them.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.09.0, 2024-02-26).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Microsoft 365 Email, Email Servers, Gmail, Junk Email, Newsletters, Outlook, Outlook.com

• A change to DKIM requirements looms

  Posted on January 31, 2024 at 02:45 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.05.2 • 2024-01-31

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Tomorrow, February 1, Google and Yahoo will implement a change to make email more secure and to eliminate more spam.

  The change affects bulk emailers, including AskWoody. Stricter policies will apply to those who send 5,000 or more emails to Gmail and Yahoo. To be clear, this change does not apply to recipients who use those two services. It applies to those who send bulk email.

  Read the full Plus Alert (21.05.2, 2024-01-31).

  AskWoody Plus Alert Alerts, DKIM, DMARC, Email, SPF

• Zero day in the cloud

  Posted on July 24, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  If you are a consumer, home user, small-business user, or even a medium-sized business user, today’s column may anger you — or at least cause you to mutter, “I told you so.”

  For those of you who work in large companies and government entities, your size allows you to complain more loudly than most. I hope you will, because the event I’m about to discuss, plus all our past and present complaints, should make all cloud vendors, especially Microsoft, take note.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.30.0, 2023-07-24).

  On Security Cloud, CVE-2023-32019, Email, Email security, Microsoft, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts

• Email for the modern world

  Posted on June 12, 2023 at 02:42 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  When we go online, we begin with a basic tool that started us all on the technology journey years and years ago — an email address.

  Some people consider email addresses temporary, changing them often as they switch ISPs or other services. But others, perhaps a vast majority, consider them a matter of identity.

  Having dealt with clients, friends, and family for decades, I have some recommendations regarding the general use of an email address — including using it for authentication.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.24.0, 2023-06-12).

  On Security authentication, DKIM, Email, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts

• Behind the scenes: The site

  Posted on November 28, 2022 at 02:43 CST by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  COMMENTARY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  A newsletter about Windows isn’t run on Windows.

  I’ve always found it interesting to see how something works, and I’ll bet many of our readers do, too. So I’m going to use my space in this bonus issue by giving you a peek into the technology we use to run the site and our forums, to prepare the newsletter, and to get it to your inbox.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.48.0, 2022-11-28).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Commentary Email, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, WordPress

• How to use Vivaldi for your email and calendar

  Posted on September 12, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Lance Whitney • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.37 • 2022-09-12

  SOFTWARE

  

  By Lance Whitney

  Beyond its role as an alternative browser, Vivaldi will help you access your email, contacts, and calendar — all in the same place.

  Those of you in search of a simple but effective desktop email and calendar program probably tend to look at dedicated programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, and even Windows Mail. But instead of turning to separate programs for these features, you may want to consider one that integrates directly with your Web browser. And for that, Vivaldi is worth checking out.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.37.0, 2022-09-12).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Software Calendar, Contacts, Email, Newsletters, Web Browsers

• SPECIAL EDITION: Web Presence

  Posted on July 4, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Will Fastie • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.27 • 2022-07-04

  EDITORIAL

  

  By Will Fastie

  Freedom!

  For our US-based readership, today is a celebration of freedom and liberty. To add our little bit to the festivities, we are “liberating” eight articles previously available only to Plus members. And for Plus members, you’ll now have this entire set in one, ad-free place.

  I’m talking about the “Web Presence” series I wrote for Woody in the second half of 2020. In the series, I tried to provide a comprehensive primer about living on the Web and especially about creating and maintaining your own website, whether for personal or business reasons. The series touches on domains, email, social networks, development, and more.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.27.0, 2022-07-04).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Web Presence Branding, Domains, Ecommerce, Email, Newsletters, Web Development, Web presence

• Why is email authentication changing?

  Posted on May 30, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Susan Bradley • Comment in the Forums

  ON SECURITY

  

  By Susan Bradley

  Throughout the lifetime of Internet-based email, we’ve been told over and over that it was dying, or soon to be dead.

  Then why are we still on a dead platform? Why aren’t we using some new, whiz-bang thing that was touted as so much better than email? There have been some proposed ideas, but they died off.

  I have a rather simple theory: Email comes to you — you don’t have to go find it. And it’s ubiquitous, too. No matter what device you’re using, what vendor it comes from, or what operating system it runs, email works.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.22.0, 2022-05-30).

  On Security authentication, Email, Newsletters, Patch Lady Posts, Security
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