Security News
For some people, this is disappointing as they prefer the new updated, while others are happy as the new Windows 11 taskbar is missing some features from the Windows 10 taskbar. Get-appxpackage -all *shellexperience* -packagetype bundle |%. This PowerShell command was used to resolve Start Menu problems in Windows 10 and should apply to Windows 11.
Iran, Turkey and both North and South Korea are bases for nation-state cyber attacks, Microsoft has claimed - as well as old favourite Russia. "After Russia, the largest volume of attacks we observed came from North Korea, Iran and China; South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam were also active but represent much less volume," said MS in a post announcing its findings.
Microsoft says that Russian-sponsored hacking groups are increasingly targeting US government agencies, with roughly 58% of all nation-state attacks observed by Microsoft between July 2020 and June 2021 coming from Russia. "Russian nation-state actors are increasingly targeting government agencies for intelligence gathering, which jumped from 3% of their targets a year ago to 53% - largely agencies involved in foreign policy, national security or defense," said Tom Burt, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President for Customer Security & Trust.
Microsoft will soon begin disabling Excel 4.0 XLM macros by default in Microsoft 365 tenants to protect customers from malicious documents. Excel 4.0 macros, or XLM macros, were first added to Excel in 1992 and allowed users to enter various commands into cells that are then executed to perform a task.
Microsoft has fixed a bug blocking some Azure Virtual Desktop devices from downloading and installing monthly security via Windows Server Update Services since early July. Microsoft also provides two workarounds that allow customers to apply monthly security updates on Azure Virtual Desktop systems using WSUS if they can't immediately deploy the KB5005565 CU that fixes the known issue.
Microsoft has published a new support webpage where they provide an official method to bypass the TPM 2.0 check and have Windows 11 installed on unsupported systems. Visit the Windows 11 software download page, select "Create tool now", and follow the installation instructions.
Microsoft says Windows 11 customers might experience networking speed issues if Dell's SmartByte software runs on their devices. Microsoft has now also found compatibility issues between the SmartByte networking software and Windows 11, version 21H2, that could lead to slower than expected Internet speeds on impacted devices.
Right after officially releasing Windows 11, Microsoft has added three know issues to the Windows 11 12H2 release health dashboard. Microsoft has released Windows 11 worldwide yesterday and is now rolling it out via Windows Update to new Windows 10 devices and those pre-loaded with Windows 11.
Microsoft has officially released Windows 11 and ISO images that allow you to create bootable media to perform clean installs of the operating system and troubleshoot bugs and problems. Go to Download Windows 11 page in your favorite web browser.
Microsoft has released the optional KB5005611 Preview cumulative update for Windows 10 2004, Windows 10 20H2, and Windows 10 21H1. This update fixes bugs in Microsoft Outlook and makes it easier to mitigate the PrintNightmare vulnerability. This cumulative update is part of Microsoft's September 2021 monthly "C" update, allowing Windows users to test the upcoming fixes before they are automatically deployed in the forthcoming October 2021 Patch Tuesday.