Aug 31 2021

Windows 11 Security Scare—MS Nixes Fixes on Older PCs

Category: Information Security,Windows Security — DISC @ 9:33 am
Windows 11 Security Scare—MS Nixes Fixes on Older PCs

Windows 11 won’t auto-update on slightly old PCs. It appears this includes security updates—although Microsoft PR is doing its usual trick of ghosting reporters who ask.

This sounds like a terrible idea: A fleet of unpatched Windows 11 PCs connected to the internet? That’s a recipe for disaster.

Stand by for Redmond to walk this one back in an embarrassing climbdown. In today’s SB Blogwatch, we hope against hope.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Olivia vs. Paramore.

MSFT MBEC+HVCI FAIL

What’s the craic? Sean Hollister reports—“Microsoft is threatening to withhold Windows 11 updates if your CPU is old”:

Why leave us in the dark?”
Windows 11 won’t technically leave millions of PCs behind … so long as you download and manually install an ISO file. … But it turns out even that technicality has a technicality: Microsoft is now threatening to withhold Windows Updates … potentially even security updates.
…
It’s quite possible this is just a cover-your-ass measure. … But it’s also possible Microsoft genuinely does mean to withhold patches. … Microsoft declined to clarify things further.
…
Windows 11 could theoretically be an operating system where you go back to the days of manually downloading [security] updates. … Feature updates are probably less of a big deal. [But] why leave us in the dark?

Windows 11 Security Scare

Tags: Windows 11

Jun 26 2021

WhyNotWin11 is a better replacement for Windows 11’s PC Health Check

Category: Windows Security — DISC @ 12:24 pm
WhyNotWin11

An open-source application called WhyNotWin11 acts as a better drop-in replacement for Microsoft’s PC Health Check app to determine if your hardware is compatible with Windows 11.

This week, Microsoft announced that the next version of Windows is Windows 11 would be the next version of Windows and that it would be released as a free upgrade this fall.

As part of this announcement, Microsoft also published Windows 11’s minimum hardware requirements needed to upgrade or install Windows 11.

Microsoft released the PC Health Check app to check your computer’s hardware and tell you if it is compatible with Windows 11.

Unfortunately, Microsoft’s first version of the PC Health Check app did not tell users what hardware was failing tests, leading to even more confusion.

For many people, the issue was that they did not have a required TPM 2 compatible security processor enabled on their computer. As a result, Microsoft released an updated PC Health Check app that specifically warned users that a TPM 2 device was missing.

PC Health Check App reporting a TPM 2 not installed

Source: WhyNotWin11 is a better replacement for Windows 11’s PC Health Check

Microsoft Introducing Windows 11

Tags: PC Health Check, Windows, Windows 11, Windows 11's PC Health Check