[GTALUG] Really funny email from Microsoft

D. Hugh Redelmeier hugh at mimosa.com
Fri Apr 6 14:29:14 EDT 2018


I got email from Microsoft.  Maybe you did too.

	Subject: URGENT—Action needed before April 10 to help protect your PC

	Your final Windows 10 security update is on April 10, 2018
	...

It sure looks like a scam but it really is from Microsoft.  It is very
badly worded.

- it really only means that an old version of Win 10, "Anniversary
  Edition" will receive its last update on April 10 (one year after
  release).  This explanation is nowhere in the email -- I had to
  infer it from googling.

  This is no big deal because the updates system will automatically
  take the system to the newest released version anyway.

  Well, it will try.  The Windows Update system regularly chokes on my
  small systems.  Mostly because Microsoft mandated 2G RAM and 32G
  disk for cheap licenses and update does not reliably work within
  those resources.  Its failure modes are various, pathetic, and
  undocumented.

- the message does not tell me which of my systems are still on old 
  versions.  I have lots of systems with Windows licenses that barely get 
  used. Oops, in the HTML salad of the email was a link to a web
  page showing the status of all my devices (but it doesn't highlight the 
  ones "at risk").

  My major use-case for Windows on those machines is updating Windows.

  A secondary use-case is updating firmware of systems whose
  manufacturer is smart enough to release firmware updates but dumb
  enough to require Windows for those updates.

- if the final update is to be released on April 10, should I not
  update on or after that date, not (just) before?

In no way is this my final Windows 10 security update unless I scrub
Windows from my systems.  Or something more important ends (me,
Microsoft, the world, ...).


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