18Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Using VPN in 2018

Computer PC Tips - bits and bytes
Using VPN in 2018 What exactly is VPN ? VPN stands for "Virtual Private Network" – the most secure way to connect to the internet without risking your online identity, privacy and personal information. What components would you need to set up a VPN Service To set yourself up for a VPN at your location you will need: VPN Server - Deployed by VPN Provider at different locations VPN Protocols - To create the Tunnel Encryption - To Secure the communication by making it unreadable for everyone except the receiver How a VPN Service works A VPN creates a secure tunnel using most powerful VPN protocols – hides your original IP behind one of its own – encrypts all your communication and passes through the secure tunnel allowing you to surf the web…
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17Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft Surface Pro Celebrate 5 years of Surface with $200 savings

Microsoft Development, News Items
Microsoft Surface Pro Celebrate 5 years of Surface with $200 savings Microsoft is having a huge sale for a pretty good replacement for your tablet or notebook, the surface pro. The benefits of the surface pro are: Up to 13.5 hours of video playback which is dependent on usage. Less than 2 pounds. Up to 16 GB of memory There are 3 different modes that a user can have which are Laptop where you pop in the special keyboard and write up your documents or do whatever you need to do prior to a meeting. Studio Mode which with the Surface pen can highlight sections or write notes.  Finally Tablet Mode which you can put on your lap to watch a presentation or movie. OneNote is a digital notebook for…
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16Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft releases new driver and firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro and Microsoft Build

Microsoft Development, News Items
Microsoft releases new driver and firmware updates for Surface Book and Surface Pro Microsoft released new driver and firmware updates for Surface Pro (Model 1796), Surface Pro with LTE Advanced (Model 1807) and Surface Book devices with Windows 10 Version 1703 (Creators Update) or above. These firmware updates improve system stability and on Surface Book devices provide improved battery reliability. Find the full change log from Microsoft below. Surface Pro (Model 1796): Surface System Aggregator Firmware (v233.2099.256.0) improves system stability. Surface Pro with LTE Advanced (Model 1807): Surface System Aggregator Firmware (v233.2102.1.0) improves system stability. Surface Book: Surface Embedded Controller Firmware (v90.2098.256.0) improves system stability. Surface Integration (v1.1.339.1) improves battery reliability. Microsoft has also released a new version of the Surface Dock Updater (v2.12.136.0) for IT professionals. This update includes fixes for external display stability…
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16Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Google Chrome Browser to Start Blocking Certain Web Advertising

News Items, Software Events, Software Releases
Google Chrome Browser to Start Blocking Certain Web Advertising All Google Chrome Browser users starting on February 15, 2018, your Chrome browser will start blocking ads that don’t meet the standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads. The idea is to improve the browsing experience of web users by getting rid of the worst of the annoyances that they generally object to. These annoyances include ads that provide auto-playing video with audio, ads that block the site you’re trying to reach and ads that cover large areas of the screen.  I am not sure how this will handle something like CNN.com that is famous for putting up some of the worst possible ads.  Even if you hover over the ad it sometimes will automatically start. Remember that CNN as well…
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16Feb 2018 by richard@baronsoftware.com

Microsoft Outlook could be affected by the Spectre-Meltdown bug

Microsoft Development, News Items
Microsoft Outlook could be affected by the Spectre-Meltdown bug The February updates address security flaws in Internet Explorer, Edge, Microsoft's ChakraCore JavaScript engine, Windows, and Office. Two worrying bugs fixed this month affected Outlook. One, a memory-corruption flaw, identified as CVE-2018-0852, could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code.   Microsoft says exploitation of this flaw is "less likely" and that an attacker would need to trick a victim into opening a file or visiting an attack site. However, it also notes that an attack vector is the Preview Pane. The second Outlook bug that could be worth patching immediately is elevation of privilege vulnerability CVE-2018-0850, which stems from Outlook insufficiently validating the formatting of incoming messages before processing them. An attacker could send a specially crafted email that forces Outlook…
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