SSD failures – a reality?

Beware of headlines.

Windows 11’s Latest Security Update Is Reportedly Causing Several SSD Failures When Writing a Large Number of Files at Once

https://cybersecuritynews.com/windows-11-24h2-security-update/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2025/08/17/windows-11-latest-update-more-critical-issues-now-emerging-report-claims/

I’ve seen these reports of SSD failures after the August updates for Windows 11 24H2. But I am not seeing them in my testing, nor at patchmanagement.org, nor on Reddit’s threads, nor here.

My take: This is a side effect being triggered by a vendor-specific issue and is not widespread.

TPM, PTT, AVX, BitLocker, Secure Boot, UEFI — and Windows 11

BEN’S WORKSHOP

By Ben Myers

The expiration of Windows 10 support is nigh.

In 2021, Microsoft announced Windows 11. with considerable emphasis on its improved security compared to that of Windows 10. With announcements and promotional material, Redmond targeted government enterprises and large corporations as candidates to buy huge volumes of Windows 11 computers.

Windows 10 first shipped in the summer of 2015. With the then-existing Windows life cycle, we knew that the end of support would come about 10 years later. The exact date turned out to be midnight on October 14, 2025.

Windows 11 did not get off to the same fast start as Windows 10, despite the flurry of Windows 11 PCs sold during the 2021 Black Friday season. However, both achieved market penetration of 50 percent in about the same time period, four years.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.33.0, 2025-08-18).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Web apps

MICROSOFT 365

By Peter Deegan

The browser-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint have come a long way from their simplistic early versions.

This means you can do a lot with your Office documents on almost any machine, without installing any software. It’s worth a little time to familiarize yourself with these Web apps because they can give you invaluable replacement or emergency access to your Office documents.

If your Office/Microsoft 365 for Windows or your Mac apps misbehave, switch to their browser-based cousins to keep working. More than once, I’ve seen a speech saved at the last minute by switching to PowerPoint in a browser when the main software or computer fails.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.33.0, 2025-08-18).

FocusOn Renamer Portable — give your photos proper names

FREEWARE SPOTLIGHT

By Deanna McElveen

The folders containing my pictures are named according to their contents, but I want to rename the photos to include some extra information in the name. Is that too much to ask?

Apparently not. FocusOn Renamer by Pintosoft (made portable by OlderGeeks.com) is just what I need! Let me show you how to use it.

First, grab FocusOn Renamer Portable’s ZIP file from OlderGeeks.com.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.33.0, 2025-08-18).

Say goodbye to the Blue Screen of Death

PATCH WATCH

By Susan Bradley

For decades, the one constant of a crashing Windows PC has been that telltale blue screen. Windows 11 24H2 gets a revamped BSOD.

Thankfully, they’ve become rarer. At the same time, they are strangely visible. I’ve walked by digital kiosks in shopping malls and airport signs hung at a BSOD. They even have a history! But they’ve always been blue.

Until the August updates, that is. For Windows 11 24H2, they will be black.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.33.0, 2025-08-18).

Peer to peer maps broken in Windows 11

After the install of the August updates on Windows 11 24H2, I’m seeing that it’s flipping the network connection from private to public. If you have mapped drives or other peer-to-peer sharing enabled on your home network, this will appear to break the connections.

To set a network to private in Windows 11, navigate to Settings | Network & internet | Ethernet (or Wi-Fi, depending on your connection) | Properties. Then, under Network profile type, select Private. This will enable network discovery and sharing on your local network.

To do the same via PowerShell:

Get-NetConnectionProfile
Set-NetConnectionProfile -Name "NetworkOrWifiNameHere" -NetworkCategory Private

Flip the profile back to private and it will fix it back up.

Might means it does fail

Windows 11, version 24H2 known issues and notifications | Microsoft Learn

Update 8/15/2025 — this has now been fixed per Microsoft, no additional action needs to be done other than to trigger a resync.

The August 12, 2025 Windows security update for Windows 11, version 24H2 (KB5063878), might fail to install with error code 0x80240069 when installed via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). WSUS allows Servers with the WSUS role to defer, selectively approve, and schedule updates for specific devices or groups across an organization.

Home users are unlikely to experience this issue, as WSUS is designed for use across business and enterprise environments.

I’ll translate.  No, there is no “might” it’s a “it does fail”.  But the good news is that this does not impact those using Windows update (consumers) or businesses using Intune or Windows update for Business.

This issue is mitigated using Known Issue Rollback (KIR) for enterprise-managed devices managed by IT departments. IT administrators can resolve this issue by installing and configuring the special Group Policy listed below.

Group Policy downloads with Group Policy name:  

Download for Windows 11, version 24H2 — Windows 11 24H2 and Windows Server 2025 KB5063878 250814_00551 Known Issue Rollback
The special Group Policy can be found in Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> <Group Policy name>

Sigh.  Lovely. What a lovely way to treat the operating system you all want us to be on.

Master patch listing for August 2025

I’ve updated the master patch list here.  Please note I am not recommending installing updates at this time, we are just testing and reporting.

So far in August we’ve seen a failure in WSUS to properly sync the Windows 11 24H2 updates.  They are failing to download to WSUS and SCCM with an error key of 0x80240069.  Note this is for businesses ONLY and you will not see this in a consumer network, or in a business network that isn’t behind WSUS or SCCM.

As always, thank you all for supporting the cause! Remember we use the “name your price” model where you can choose how much you will pay for a membership. Plus membership gives you full access, And if you donate $50 or more, you’ll get a special code to enable text messages sent to your phone each time the Master Patch List gets updated and when I change the MS-DEFCON level.

More details about these updates in Monday’s newsletter.  You are missing out if you don’t sign up. All content is human made with our own blood, sweat, tears, fingers, and brain power — and it’s 100% AI free.  Therefore, if I’ve fat fingered any KB numbers or if you have any questions, as always post in the forums and I’ll follow up!

August 2025 security updates

And it’s patch day!

Remember at this time we are in test mode only.

The August updates for Windows 10 should be (hopefully) turning on the spigot from “dribble”  to full stream for offering of the Windows 10 extension for consumers. If you are a business (domain joined computers) there will be a three-year offering that will be available for purchase in September.

Windows 10 – KB5063709  

Includes:  [Extended Security Updates] Fixed: An issue impacting the Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) enrollment wizard. Some users experienced a problem where clicking “Enroll now” caused the wizard window to open, begin loading, and then close unexpectedly. This occurred due to incomplete app registration, which prevented the wizard from loading correctly. This update addresses that issue to ensure a smoother enrollment experience.

Windows 11 24H2 – KB5063878

Note a cosmetic issue: included in the August updates:

Windows 11 23H2 – KB5063875

Vulnerabilities of interest – CVE-2025-53766 

“An attacker could trigger this vulnerability by convincing a victim to download and open a document that contains a specially crafted metafile. In the worst-case scenario, an attacker could trigger this vulnerability on web services by uploading documents containing a specially crafted metafile (AV:N) without user interaction. When multiple attack vectors can be used, we assign a score based on the scenario with the higher risk.”

As always more analysis and review on Monday… and now we test.

Making Windows 11 uniquely yours

TAME YOUR TECH

By Susan Bradley

A few weeks ago, I had “the talk” with Dad.

This is a 97-year-old man who has gone from mechanical (not to mention heavy) 10-key calculators that he had to lug around — along with slide rules — to mainframe computers, then to portable computers, and now iPads and iPhones. He can handle transitions.

“Dad,” I asked, “Do we stay on Windows 10, assuming we go for the additional year of ESU, or do we get a new computer and give Windows 11 a shot?” He was eager for Windows 11.

Nonetheless, there were a few tweaks necessary to get him his ideal computing experience.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.32.0, 2025-08-11).
This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

The many legacy methods to back up your Windows 11 PC

WINDOWS 11

By Lance Whitney

Microsoft offers a number of methods to back up your files in Windows. Here are the tools I use — and how I use them.

I’m a firm believer in backing up files. By that, I mean my files. You’ve probably heard that advice hundreds of times. But imagine if some glitch put the kibosh on your rare photograph of the Loch Ness monster or that 2,000-page novel you’ve been working on for the past 10 years. The potential for loss is the reason you want to back up your files, at least the ones that can’t be replaced.

To assist you with this task, Microsoft provides different tools to back up and restore your system and files.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.32.0, 2025-08-11).

Spotify takes musicians’ money to scuttle Shuffle

PUBLIC DEFENDER

By Brian Livingston

Spotify, the world’s largest music streaming service, charges fees to artists for more airplay than they would otherwise get. Worse, Spotify randomly turns off its Shuffle mode to give 20 or so fee-paying songs “heavy rotation” in your playlists.

Unfortunately, other major streaming services also take money to give certain performers a most-favored-nation status in playlists. None of the majors offers a persistent Shuffle mode that delivers a truly random selection from whatever playlists you happen to prefer.

But there are ways to get a truly random Shuffle mode, which I’m revealing to you today.

Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.32.0, 2025-08-11).