Microsoft's September 2019 Patch Tuesday comes with 80 fixes, 17 of which are for critical bugs.
Catalin Cimpanu

By Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day | September 10, 2019

ZDNet.com: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-patches-two-zero-days-in-massive-september-2019-patch-tuesday

No More Ransom project has prevented ransomware profits of at least $108 million:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/no-more-ransom-project-has-prevented-ransomware-profits-of-at-least-108-million/


The No More Ransom Portal from which anti-ransom decryption tools can be obtained:

https://www.nomoreransom.org/

Alan's Tip of the Day:

"Tip of the Day...
Have you checked the batteries in your devices lately? When you grab your flashlight, which has been in your vehicle for years, and find it barely produces light. You open the flashlight to change the batteries and find corrosion throughout the flashlight which may not be easily cleaned or has permanently destroyed your device. Check your batteries in your TV remote control, emergency radio, mice, keyboard, clock, garage door opener, etc. You might be surprised to find the dating, the leaking or corrosion on the batteries."

My pointer:

Oftentimes, the corrosive material from the batteries transfers to whatever device you were using the batteries to power. Unless effectively treated, the corrosion will return from the contact points to whatever batteries you might use to replace the corroded ones with. You can very often completely remove the corrosive material from the device's contact points and area around same by using clear vinegar. Apply a vinegar wet cotton swab to get around the nooks and crannies of the contacts and adjacent areas. Use it generously as it should evaporate fairly quickly. You can also use an air can to dry the area of application and force the residue out of corners and cracks. Once I figured out that vinegar did the trick, I have been able to salvage a number of good quality instruments and devices (flashlights, remotes, etc.).

Microsoft warns about Astaroth malware campaign. By Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-warns-about-astaroth-malware-campaign/

With new feature update calendar, Microsoft finally settles on a sensible Windows 10 release schedule:

Ed Bott:  https://www.zdnet.com/article/with-new-feature-update-calendar-microsoft-finally-settles-on-a-sensible-windows-10-release-schedule/

Windows 10: Microsoft is bringing back one of Windows 95’s most popular features:


https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-microsoft-is-bringing-back-one-of-windows-95s-most-popular-features/

There are several steps that I find essential to preserve folders with files that are not functional for the system itself.

     1. Set your programs, such as Word, Excel, etc., to save their files to another partition, preferable on a second hard drive, the idea being to not let the program save them to a folder in the system partition.  After producing a Word document, save it to at least two other partitions, on two other drives, if possible. I sometimes still use Turbo Navigator for this purpose. There are doubtless quite a few other such programs available for backing up small numbers of files. You can also just open a window showing the files to be saved and copy them to a destination window on another partition/hard drive using Windows File Explorer.

     2. Copy your One Drive folders/files to a backup partition on another hard drive. This saves documents, pictures, videos, etc., that might have been saved to the system partition from having their folder overwritten with no content within, or otherwise lost.

     3. Enter the Program Files folder on Windows partition C:\ and locate the email files within your email program and back up your main folder for these up at least once a week. For Thunderbird, this entails following a long trail of sub-folders under the "Users" folder. The .MSF file has to be included for both Inbox and Outbox. This preserves your emails, both sent and received, from being deleted by system restore or even possibly by an upgrade of the email program. If your emails are lost, you can simply copy the backed up Inbox, Outbox files (with .msf files) to the freshly restored email program. 

Since you might have lost valuable documents by using system restore (?), you could search around to determine what has been lost and what else might still be there. This gives you an idea as to what needs to be backed up regularly.  In my view, the only way you can be sure that your documents, pictures and downloads will be saved from an unwanted deletion is to copy  them onto backup partitions. If the product manufacturer decides to get rid of unnecessary files from its perspective, without consulting the computer operator first and offering an option to save all existing files, then it bodes well to pay heed to the disclaimer window that usually pops up advising the user to back their files up before installing, upgrading or repairing.

If anyone else knows of a program that will copy preset file folders and files directly to a backup file folder, whenever you  simply mouse-click for a pre-set copy routine, please let me know. It would be nice if the save by copying to a backup partition or two was that easy.

 

Next for Windows 10: What to expect from the April 2019 Update -- aka version 1903

ZDNet's Ed Bott:  https://www.zdnet.com/article/next-for-windows-10-what-to-expect-from-the-april-2019-update-aka-version-1903

The new features:  https://www.zdnet.com/pictures/windows-10-april-2019-update-the-new-features-that-matter-most