Posts by Lost in Cyberspace

Three goes to zero as UK mobile provider suffers voice and text outage

Typical!

My broadband 4G backup is with Smarty, just in case my main connection goes down.

Guess when O2/VM decided to cut through my AltNet's fibre connection?

ChatGPT used for evil: Fake IT worker resumes, misinfo, and cyber-op assist

Also seeing it used to scope out businesses

I've noticed a trend of more scammers targeting businesses using ChatGPT, instead of making a quick buck.

More lengthy enquiries, more convincing documents and harder to convince the business that their 'potential customer' never existed.

By the point they notice something is wrong, they've been phished and many of their colleagues and customers have already been duped or compromised, too. Sales, invoice payments and wages have been diverted without raising suspicion. And some still refuse to believe it was a scam at all.

Windows isn't an OS, it's a bad habit that wants to become an addiction

For as long as I can remember...

There have always been apps that install PUPs. If they become unbearable or difficult to avoid, I found an alternative app.

There have also been apps that are outright shady, preying on unsuspecting users for money. I became alarmed when many popular AV brands went down the route of hijacking search results, exaggerating problems, pushing expensive renewals and (often) STILL being a vehicle for selling even more junk. Those got uninstalled, too.

But when the OS does it... and I don't just mean uses the privilege of being the OS - but outright using really shady tactics to push users into subscriptions, accounts, web content (no matter how poor quality) - also doing some weird stuff to lock out the cloud/browser/search/app competition - completely sacrificing the user needs and experience... that's jarring.

I can't quite put my finger on it, but even the way that OneDrive, Bitlocker, and the MS account gets set up, feels somewhat forced, underhanded, and not (always) completely upfront with the user. And it's not really clear what's going to the Microsoft cloud. Is there a central place to check?

Pretty much every Microsoft app and service appears to be influenced by the need to drive users to a subscription or Bing content, with no real thought for the needs of the user.

'Once in a lifetime' IT outage at city council hit datacenter, but no files lost

Re: Once in a lifetime events

I installed a cheap sim 4G backup at home, after a car crashed the local fibre box. Worked quite well for short outages and gave me failover + access to a third mobile network (different to the ones on my phone).

However, when the local area had an electricity outage... My router + 4G failover stayed on (via UPS) but I still had no Internet. Nothing on my dual sim phone either.

The fibre cabinets and phone masts are all installed at the same location. My solution was a 2-mile drive to pick up a signal from a working (but somewhat overwhelmed) cell tower.

Don't want Copilot app on your Windows 11 machine? Install this official update

Let me guess...

The fix will probably reinstall CoPilot, even if you previously - and intentionally- uninstalled it.

Stuff a Pi-hole in your router because your browser is about to betray you

Running Pi-Hole as a pair

Currently running Pi-Hole on 2x RPi4, 4GB. One does most of the work, and the other is the second DNS server, doubling as a failover and upgrade test. It runs well, and I have plenty of resources left to run different VPN access on each one, so I can get in to my home network, PiAlert, NAS and lots more.

I can even ask Siri or Alexa to pause the blocking for 10 mins, with a bit of help from TriggerCMD

BOFH: The USB stick always comes back – until it doesn't

I have a customer like this.

Insists on using a USB stick for their files. Breaks it often. Still insists it's better to 'back up' to memory sticks when it's not even a backup.

The PC is now set to back up every USB he plugs in. Should save me a lot of grief next time.

Microsoft expands Copilot bug bounty targets, adds payouts for even moderate messes

Can I report...

... the unwelcome, automated installs and pop-ups as a bug?

HP deliberately adds 15 minutes waiting time for telephone support calls

AI is not the answer

Companies keep thinking AI and self-service websites can replace people. Well, it can, but not if you want to actually provide good customer support and solve issues.

The main reason I end up speaking to a representative is because the online system didn't work as expected, had limitations, or was just incapable of solving the slightly unusual situation. It's not out of choice. Something needs sorting, and it's beyond the limits of the programming.

Good luck to any representatives having to answer the calls after a fake 15 minute delay.

No problems here...

The first result for HP support on Bing took me straight through to a kind lady in an Indian call centre. No 15 minute wait.

As well as installing my printer, they let me know I had 400 viruses in my Event Log and even helped me secure my Internet Banking.

Microsoft declutters Windows 11 File Explorer in the name of Euro privacy

How about real decluttering?

I'd love to see an end to the desperate, needy OneDrive ads.

I've already had more new customers contact me about data loss because of OneDrive - than failed drives - this year.

Microsoft push their 'Start backup' nag screen, but Microsoft are not acting like a responsible backup company.

Instead, files get deleted off the hard drive, or locked behind Bitlocker once the user adds a Microsoft account. When the account becomes lost or stolen, Microsoft really aren't very helpful - even for users paying over £8/month. Consider those files lost for good, all because Microsoft really wanted more users to have a MSA, the users didn't even know the risk until it happened.

How on Earth MS are able to hold personal files to ransom and do nothing to help users when things go wrong - I really don't know.

Tired of begging, Microsoft now trying to trick users into thinking Bing is Google

Dirty tricks

This is all Microsoft seems to know at the moment.

Icons mixed in with apps on the start menu, widgets that open with a hover, big search bars, links on the Lock Screen / wallpaper that open Edge/Bing.

And deceptive 'Start backup now' that moves your files to the inadequate 5GB OneDrive. Even in a Mac, I've seen Office ignore local/iCloud and store files straight in OneDrive without making it clear.

And I can think of half a dozen Microsoft apps that seem to have the capability of changing your local Windows account to a Microsoft one. Before you know it, files are at the mercy of your MSA, thanks to OneDrive and/or Bitlocker.

I frequently have users that don't know how they ended up with Microsoft products and services taking over.

Microsoft declares 2025 'the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh'

Too pushy

Microsoft are pushing junk features too hard. Had it been a straightforward OS like Windows 7 (mostly) was - they may have won more users.

MacOS mostly manages to stick to being an operating system.

Windows 11 is an advertising platform for Bing. Every few months, they find another deceptive way to drive traffic to Edge and Bing. Always at the expense of the user experience.

I quite like the Windows 11 once I've tamed it. But it shouldn't need to take 20+ tweaks to achieve it.

I haven't met anyone who likes ads/MSN in the start menu, ads in explorer, tricks to move files into 5GB OneDrive, a sign-out replaced with a Microsoft Account ad, large Bing search bars, Bing icons on the desktop, widgets that open on hover (with poor quality articles), pestering to add M365, and desperate "don't leave me for Chrome" messages... urgh. I also have my suspicions when Chrome mysteriously disappears back into the depths of the start menu, and convenient shortcuts vanish.

Progress in Windows, Mail/Outlook, Teams etc always feels forced and desperate, somehow... and integration with a Microsoft Account somehow seems to be more confusing / sprawling to the average user than beneficial.

Microsoft adds another problem to the Windows 11 24H2 naughty list

More common than you might think

I deal with home users. Many of those couldn't tell you the Microsoft Account that they used to set up Windows - it may not be their usual email address, the recovery details may have changed since, or it was set up by a retailer (such as Currys) that set them up with a brand new Microsoft Account to get their laptop set up. That bit of paper with the details? Long gone.

Doesn't seem like that big a deal until something goes wrong, everything is locked behind Bitlocker and the files / Microsoft 365 / passwords and bookmarks are all backed up to that Microsoft Account.

I thought that checking for backups / Onedrive sync before doing maintenance was enough. Now I've added 'check for bitlocker' and 'write down the Microsoft account' to that list.

Apple Intelligence summary botches a headline, causing jitters in BBC newsroom

Switched most of it off

I've had too many summaries for my emails/texts that were so inaccurate. The summary has induced panic, I've convinced myself I've missed an important message somewhere because the actual content is so different to the summary. Or it picks up on what I wrote and ignores the reply.

The priority and focus features really don't work for me either, they just add too many places to check. I've found email rules far more effective.

The AI also does stupid things like suggesting someone else has sent the message, or it will tell me I've just missed 29 calls (nope, I've received 29 calls total since this person last called).

The cleanup tool is the most useful feature so far.

Microsoft won't let customers opt out of passkey push

Better security doesn't just stop the scammers

As I've found out, when trying to help end users, the extra security doesn't just inconvenience the hackers and scammers.

It often prevents the rightful owner from getting in, when things go wrong. I've had a few customers completely lose access to dozens of services.

One had their Android phone stolen and they got locked out of their Google account (and the associated saved passwords, passkeys). Google won't let you speak to a real person.

Another had their Microsoft Account hacked (and email address changed). They lost access to their Authenticator app, OneDrive files, 365 apps, Windows Store purchases, email, LinkedIn and Facebook. The hacker relied on the fact that Microsoft are completely useless at restoring the account to the original owner - even a real person just sends you back to a recovery form, which won't work because we don't know the email address and it doesn't ask for anything else to identify the account.

As for Facebook? Again, once an account gets disabled all the recovery options stop working too. And good luck getting a real person to help.

Guide for the perplexed – Google is no longer the best search engine

What's the alternative?

I've not managed to get very good results from Bing, Yahoo, Ask etc - and you often have to scroll a whole screen to get to the first organic result - so what's the alternative to Google?

The 'Safe Search' services are rebranded services with EVEN MORE adverts. Ironically, in those first two pages of extra adverts, it's often quite easy to find a result or two that will connect you to a scam website and/or a fake call centre in India. Several of my Norton/Avast/McAfee Safe Search customers have tried to get help installing an HP printer (for example) and have ended up as victims of fraud.

Suggested Actions fails to suggest its own survival as Windows 11 feature killed

Driven by revenue, not usefulness

Too many features are blatantly released to utilise a Microsoft account, Bing or MSN. Old features are often retired to make way for newer, more cloudy versions that only do useful stuff with an account.

I remember a time when, by default, the search results would be stuff on your computer, the start menu found your apps, and the apps saved stuff on your computer. Web content happened in a browser.

The early warning sign for me was Windows Live Mail, where it would sign you in to a MS Account to send a photo email.

OK, there are certainly some advantages to cloud sync and cloud services - but somehow Microsoft make it feel creepy and pushy.

Outlook is poor for those still on Windows Mail, Calendar, People apps by end of year

Plenty of confused 'home users' here

We've had dozens - if not 100+ - calls from home users about the forced change to new Outlook (from Mail, Calensar and People). The New Outlook makes pretty much no attempt to actually migrate anything beyond suggesting an email address to sign in to.

As you can imagine, lots of people don't know their passwords, or even how to reset them. Several others didn't even know what account their calendars and contacts were actually stored in.

A couple don't remember any passwords at tall, and don't have any recovery details set (Not Microsoft's fault, but they're making it a problem right now). After the transfer, it's game over for checking their emails.

No local emails, contacts or calendars get transferred, it's very hit and miss about anything from the cloud depending on how cloudy your old setup was.

If you've got IMAP, fine. POP? Ah, good luck. Google Calendar? Yep, for the most part you'll still have your data. Outlook.com calendars? Err... no. But isn't that a Microsoft product too? Shouldn't that just work? Adverts - yep, let's hope you like dodgy/fake McAfee adverts injected into your inbox.

So many people have lost data because it hasn't transferred, they don't know where it was really stored. And the real kick in the teeth - MS are now preventing a rollback, even if it's just to check the details.

One-year countdown to 'biggest Ctrl-Alt-Delete in history' as Windows 10 approaches end of support

Re: Hardware is not the issue

I run a reg script that turns off the new style right click, puts the menu to the left, turns off Bing search and suggestions on the menu. It makes Windows 11 so much cleaner and more usable as a base operating system.

It shouldn't be necessary though.

Recently, Windows Security started detecting my reg file as malicious. Hey Microsoft, turning off the annoying Bing/MS account pop-ups is malicious - but not your own needy behaviour? /s

Microsoft admits Outlook crashes, says impact 'mitigated'

Outlook is currently a support nightmare

First we had Outlook (the email service) completing its migration from simple authentication to OAuth2. Plenty of support calls.

Then, the Windows Mail, Calendar and People apps were forcefully migrated to New Outlook (ie, enter your password and re-sync... very little in the way of proper migration). Lots more support calls, and some missing data.

Now the New Outlook stops, which appears to be a window to a web interface, with reliance on an Internet connection to Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft's AI and Microsoft's Ad services.

UK watchdog fears Voda-Three merger will balloon phone bills for customers

Re: "Two strong players and two weak players"

They are the two companies I avoid, after bad experiences.

Vodafone were incapable of providing an accurate bill.

Three's cancellation team wouldn't take no for an answer (so I used a STAC code instead).

AI bills can blow out by 1000 percent: Gartner

Customer service is not a place for AI

People are there for when the pre-programmed bits aren't enough to sort the issue automatically. Someone takes over, bends or breaks the 'rules', sorts the problem and makes the customer happy. I see two common outcomes for replacing people with AI, in customer service and tech support:

1. It gives the same answers already available on the FAQ pages, and the same useless options as the automated phone support.

2. It gives the wrong answers.

Windows Patch Tuesday update might send a user to the BitLocker recovery screen

Will somebody think of the (home) users

I know a few retailers that initially set up computers using new/generic Microsoft Accounts - all because MS make it very difficult to set up laptops with a local account.

Once in a while, these BitLocker screens appear and we have absolutely no way of finding out the MS account used, let alone the BitLocker key. OneDrive backups? In that same account. And, unsurprisingly, we get blank stares when asked about HDD backups.

Despite OS shields up, half of America opts for third-party antivirus – just in case

Even paid AV has become an ad platform

I recently checked out Norton, McAfee and Avast.

All 3 hijacked the search engine and/or default browser. The search results added so many sponsored results INCLUDING support scams.

All 3 premium apps still suggested that the protection wasn't optimal, and tried to sell extras - such as driver updaters, Privacy protection tools, and so on.

If a user believed it all, bought all the extras, and then allowed it to renew at full price - all 3 were in the region of £300/year.

iFixit divorces Samsung over lack of real commitment to DIY repair program

Short sighted

Cheap, official repairs can kill a market for cheap-and-nasty repairs. And improve brand loyalty.

But I suppose if a company loses one big replacement purchase, they'll gain one from a competitor that does the same thing.

Actually, that's probably why some companies have several brands. When someone gets fed up with the poor experience of one brand, the manufacturers get another chance.

Now all Windows 11 users are getting adverts to 'make the Start menu great again'

Here we go again

I've got quite a list of registry keys in a custom reg file, to remove various annoyances. I run it on every new Windows install (home users, not enterprise).

It seems that I'm adding to the reg file every couple of months now.

Microsoft touts migration to Windows 11 as painless, though wallets may disagree

With the ads disabled, it's pretty good.

Windows 11 itself is finally starting to look quite polished. At least it does once I've switched off all those 'experimental' features that trade a great user experience in favour of pushing Bing search, news results and 365 at every opportunity.

It's a shame that I have to run a reg file with 20+ tweaks to switch all that junk off, just so I can use Windows 11 as an operating system for my apps, instead of a platform for Bing ads.

Microsoft pulls the plug on WordPad, the world's least favorite text editor

Re: It's all crap

That's the second thing I do, too.

The first is running a reg file, containing 20+ tweaks to turn off anything Bing, Copilot, Suggested apps, Search, News and other annoyances.

Ofcom proposes ban on UK telcos making 'inflation-linked' price hikes mid-contract

About time

I've always thought this increase to be highly unfair.

You can sign up for something - £22 for 24 months for example. Small print: prices may change.

Er, they WILL INCREASE. Not 'may change'. And you can't figure out the actual amount unless you sign up in February/March, in which case the prices will increase almost immediately after signing up.

I'd much rather see £22/month until March, £24/month for 12 months, then £26 for the remaining 10 months. I'm willing to bet it'll be at least as much as inflation, though.

It definitely shouldn't be down to the customers to shoulder an unpredictable increase though. The businesses should have at least some idea about their business costs for the next 24 months. Commitments should work both ways.

Or better still, just offer 12 month contracts instead and just fix the price.

What's really going on with Chrome's June crackdown on extensions – and why your ad blocker may or may not work

Risky products will fill the gaps

As a Pi-Hole & Ublock Origin user, I've settled on these because I can just turn them off if they break something.

I can see people turning to DNS blockers, VPNs, antivirus with built-in adblockers... and some really dodgy alternatives in desperation.

At best, it will break connections. At worst, customers will fall for privacy-reducing products and outright scam products.

There will be some risky products filling the gaps

As a Pi-Hole & Ublock Origin user, I've settled on these because I can just turn them off if they break something.

I can see people turning to DNS blockers, VPNs, antivirus with built-in adblockers... and some really dodgy alternatives in desperation.

At best, it will break connections. At worst, customers will fall for privacy-reducing products and outright scam products.

Hey Apple, what good is a status page if you only update it after the outage?

Same with FAQ pages

"90% of our customers found what they wanted in the online help pages, and didn't need to call us"

More like 90% of customers failed to find the phone number (or the online chat was closed).

Bank of Ireland outage sees customers queue for 'free' cash – or maybe any cash

Poor old Bank of Ireland

The customer(s) will ultimately pay, though.

During the financial crisis they were quick to hike my UK mortgage SVR by 2% relative to the base rate, and blame in on the crisis. It's never gone back down.

Microsoft rethinks death sentence for Windows Mail and Calendar apps

Urgh, more rebranding and confusion

My regular clients, home users, often get confused between the apps and their email provider.

I put this down to the names of the apps.

Windows Live Mail/Windows Live Hotmail

Outlook/Outlook Express/Outlook.com

Rebranding the mail client with virtually every new Windows version, Outlook Express/Mail/Windows Live Mail/Mail/Outlook, and going from Hotmail/Live/Outlook online...

No wonder some people get confused with it all!

Malwarebytes may not be allowed to label rival's app as 'potentially unwanted'

Where do we draw the line?

It seems like every antivirus app could now be regarded as a PUP for adding extra features without making it completely clear and/or to sell extra features (even though the program was initially touted as complete protection).

Even Malwarebytes does this (despite being one of my preferred cleanup tools). It tries to add browser add-ins and a VPN service.

The Avast/AVG/CCleaner group have a particularly harmful business model. What starts as a free AV ends up selling 5 or 6 services and a browser that pops up on startup. I've even seen clients with several copies of apps doing the same thing, just branded as CCleaner or AVG instead. £200+ a year! That is a PUP I would not install.

TotalAV - £149 a year and difficulty getting refunds.

Even Norton and McAfee hijack your search results and replace your preferred SE with 'Secure Search' - full of junk results, plus a whole page of sponsored spam and scams. Definitely not as safe as Google or DDG.

No more feature updates for Windows 10 – current version is final

Windows 10 will continue getting new features

Bing related features.

Adverts, pop-ups and search tools. All using Bing.

Microsoft begs you not to ditch Edge on Google's own Chrome download page

It won't be long...

At this rate, Edge will start overlaying ads on other companies' websites. Just like malware has done for years.

Once had a client complain about all the inappropriate adverts all over my site. I don't have adverts - they had adware/malware/dodgy add-ons.

Still bad for the company reputation though.

Up to 18,000 Amazon workers in firing line as it chops cost

Redundancies vs natural wastage

I assume the cuts would allow them to get rid of the worst employees, rather than wait for (relatively talented) staff to leave?

Five British companies fined for making half a million nuisance calls

No surprises

2 of the companies are being wound up.

Separately, 2 of the others are controlled by the same people so they got caught twice.

Commercial repair shops caught snooping on customer data by canny Canadian research crew

I always ask...

If I feel like the computer would benefit from a software check, I'll ask if I can log in. Often the systems I see are riddled with malware or very out of date.

If I don't do this, many clients say 'it's still got problems' - unrelated to the original issue reported.

Happy to do this in front of the client though. Builds trust.

Re: Chucklefucks like this

Do try to update the BIOS and any SSD/HDD firmware. This has caused more odd issues than anything else. Then use all the manufacturers drivers - even if they are Windows 8.1/2015 editions.

tsoHost pulls plug on Gridhost service with just 45 days' notice

Similar story here with TSO

A couple of years ago, lots of my web features suddenly stopped working. I was unable to access FTP nor edit my website. Over Christmas, when I needed to edit our availability and certain other pages.

2 weeks like that. Apparently, it was because we were on a 'legacy' plan that I'd recently renewed 3 years upfront, no longer supported. I should've been told, but clearly wasn't.

I moved my whole site asap.

No, working in IT does not mean you can fix anything with a soldering iron

I'm the opposite...

I deal with domestic, self employed and small business. Removing viruses, setting up the correct settings for 100s of different email providers, tuition, fixing laptop hinges/screens/touchpads/HDDs, dealing with the quirks of Windows/Mac/Chromebook/iOS/Android/Linux is more my thing. I get strange looks when I won't look at AD, SQL, and so on. Not all IT is the same.

Yet, a busted HDMI cable would still get replaced with a £10 braided cable from the van. Why anyone would prefer the effort and resources of a re-solder is beyond me.

Mouse hiding in cable tray cheesed off its bemused user

Many years ago...

A customer had a really cheap wireless keyboard that would reppeeaatt keys as it typed. Worked fine on another system though.

Turned out, the keyboard had already been replaced with the same but there were 2 receivers plugged in.

Hopefully no offices bought a bunch of these...

Smart thermostat swarms are straining the US grid

After looking at all the smart thermostats...

I replaced mine with a dumb on that had 7-day schedules and -finally- separate controls for hot water and heating. Common sense applied to the schedule.

Saved me plenty and no downtime when a service goes offline.

This is the military – you can't just delete your history like you're 15

Porn is often the cause

Recently called out to a slow PC, in a old chap's home, with lots and lots of pop-ups. Some porn, some dating, some virus warnings. All Chrome push notifications.

The cause was obvious, loads of porn tabs and granny dating going on. A quick cleanup - removing notifications and clearing the history/cookies/cache - sorted that all out.

That wasn't the most notable part though.

The next time the guy saw me, he 'told me off' for looking at porn on his PC. I was very confused, I'd never use a customer's computer for that. I'm a professional.

His reasoning is that he's now getting pop-ups for teens in his home town wanting to meet up for sex.

Vendors are hiking prices up to 30 percent and claiming 'it's inflation'

Yep, there is inflation

Perhaps some of it is just in case prices go higher. Some of it is an excuse, some of it is jumping on the bandwagon.

I'd imagine everyone is affected differently at the moment.

Is inflation really 10%? Personally, I have very few works costs - but those that I do have include electricity, fuel, and phone bills. My work costs have gone up nearly 30% in a year. And lots more personal costs too, due to interest rates and food costs etc, so I've got to build that in too.

EU lawmakers vote to ban sales of combustion engine cars from 2035

Queuing is the least of our worries.

Petrol stations won't be the destination for recharging... car parks will. Supermarkets, public car parks, workplaces and so on will be all have chargers on nearly every space (or a lot of spaces, anyway).

Still concerned about battery lifetimes, about how we get the raw materials, how we get so much electricity on to the grid, into homes and so on.

And those that aren't rich enough to charge their cars in a driveway will end up paying a premium to recharge via a third party service...

Start your engines: Windows 11 ready for broad deployment

Dealing with novice users...

My novice users don't like change.

I quite like the look of Windows 11 with the rounded corners - it looks nicer than 10.

But hiding File Explorer and right-click options to make things 'look better' is a bit of a disaster, as is removing text labels for things.

And why is that widget button now on the bottom left of the screen, where the start button lived for 27 years?

I install a reg file on every Windows 11 setup, to undo 15+ annoyances and make follow-up support just a little bit easier.