Microsoft Re-Patch Tues Aug 2014

It seems that due to the BSOD patches being retracted few weeks back, Microsoft had been working hard to restore the status of these vulnerabilities, especially when some of them are critical. Sure enough, we see a new patch that is suppose to replace the previous patch and I think for those who had not uninstalled the patches according to my post here:

http://blog.winston-avalon.com/2014/08/microsoft-aug-patch-tue-could-cause-bsod.html

You should apply this whether or not you had it uninstalled since this is quite critical in my opinion.

Just use your Windows Update and you should see this patch available now!

Microsoft Aug Patch Tue Could Cause BSOD

Yes, no joke~! 4 of the suspected Patch Tue updates for Aug 2014 were suspected to cause some users to crash or BSOD. Judging from the descriptions, it will only be a matter of time when the criteria are met. In fact, it is Microsoft who advise users to UNINSTALL these patches ASAP!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2982791

Don't worry,  let me walk you through this. Hopefully when you are now reading this, your PC has not crashed yet. Then the steps are simpler (I did not say it is simple, just not as complicated).

If your Windows is still alive... Time to uninstall those patches. According to Microsoft:

Open the Programs and Features item in Control Panel, and then click View installed updates. Find and then uninstall any of the following update that are currently installed:

• KB2982791
• KB2970228
• KB2975719
• KB2975331

Well, firstly, not very helpful. The patches are not arranged by KB numbers and the search somehow do not deal with these numbers either.

But luckily, you can still sort them by name and you should be looking for these two:

Security Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2982791)

Update for Microsoft Windows (KB2975719)

Based on the descriptions, it is very likely you will only have one of these:

2975719 August 2014 update rollup for Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2 
2975331 August 2014 update rollup for Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012

So you might want to look for the other one instead if you are still on Windows 8.0

So, I guess its perfectly normal to have just one of them. As for the other missing one:

2970228 Update to support the new currency symbol for the Russian ruble in Windows

It sound like I may not have it because I do not have the Russian language installed? Likely.

Well if you are a bit out of luck and had the BSOD, you will have to go into safe mode to save that. The details are on their page at:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2982791

I strongly suggest you print that out on a working computer. Or be lazy and just system restore back to the previous month... That will probably work.

Download Opera Offline Installer

As more and more of the installers, especially for browsers, goes online, their installers had became smaller and smaller. In fact, most of these installers pulls the actual installation right from the Internet during installation. What you actually download is nothing more than a downloader.

So today, let's visit Opera. The default installer is the one you get when you click the big Blue button in the above screen. But however, do you see a smaller line of text just below it? Yes, that is the link to the Offline Installer. This is very useful when you are in an environment with funky proxy (that doesn't really work) or without Internet. You Opera can still be updated using a Thumbdrive or something along that line.

Grab Opera (both online and offline installer) at:
http://www.opera.com/computer
Or just grab the Offline Installer here:
http://www.opera.com/download/get/?partner=www&opsys=Windows

Turn Off Facebook Video Autoplay

Facebook has recently introduced a new feature which will autoplay video posted as you scroll to it. While there are reasons why this is cool, there are also reason why you may not want to do so. Let me name a few. For example, when you are on limited or charged bandwidth, playing some useless MTV posted yb your friend is definitely not a good idea. But more seriously, if there is a way found to be able to exploit the video codec on your browser, you will be 0wned as soon as the autoplay starts. Without even clicking anything!

Well, its easy to disable this feature actually.
1. Upper Right corner, click on the dropdown settings menu. Select Settings.
2. On the left side, select the Video tab.
3. Check the autoplay to off on your right panel.

That works for Desktop. What about on Android? Well, it is just as easy.
1. Open your Facebook app.
2. On the Left sidebar, tab App Settings.
3. Check Auto-Play Videos on Wi-FI Only.

Now, wait right there. That doesn't disable the autoplay totally. In fact, you can't. It will play when you are in Wifi mode. If I find a way to do so, I will update this blog.

Similarly, you can do it on iOS. Very similar steps. And since I couldn't care less about iOS I would skip the instructions here.

Hope this helps you.