Problems

Broken – Outlook – Needs Emergency Fix

/ Sarah Collins / Leave a comment

I have multiple email accounts. I use one, Outlook, for shopping. Why, because I can use the safe sender list to block most emails from getting to my inbox. Currently, in my Outlook Junk Mailbox, I had over 3200 emails in the Junk folder. Approximately, every 98 out of 100 emails in this box are from spammers.

This morning I woke up to numerous notifications on my phone. I did not see these notifications over night because I have “Do Not Disturb” active on my phone. But once the Do Not Disturb expired the beeping started. My Junk Mail was being routed to my Inbox.

This is a Microsoft Outlook problem. An update broke the Junk Mail routing. I don’t know what they were trying to fix, but now everyone who uses Outlook should be on guard, because Spammers and Hackers are rejoicing this morning. Their email is no longer being routed to Junk Mail and they are reaching more potential victims.

Now it is time to take precautions:

First, if you are sick of the notifications – Turn them off. On most devices you can find Notification under Settings.

Second, don’t open any email that are not from a friend, colleague, or a business where you signed up to receive emails. My security system blocked an URL this morning, because I opened an email that attempted cause havoc. Here are a few examples of Spam emails:

  • If it has Affiliate in the title.
  • If it has Associate in the title
  • If it has Gift Card in the title
  • Renewable by Anderson
  • Back Pain
  • AARP
  • ADT
  • You Won

Third, if you really want the special offer in an Email. Do not click on any links in the email (ever), go directly to company’s site and get the offer directly from their site. If the offer is not on their site, it is probably not a legit offer. Community Coffee is really good about sending emails about their offers. When I go to their site, the same exact offer is published on the top of their page.

Fourth, report the offending emails as phishing. I really hope the technology companies or working on stopping Spammers. I tracked a spammer down to a mailbox in Las Vegas. If I can do that, why can’t the tech companies?

Windows Update – Argh

/ Sarah Collins / Leave a comment

If you ever looked at the homepage, you would have noticed it says Technology is one thing that this blog is about.  Well, I haven’t written about technology in a long time, because I have been drawing.

First the Rant!

Microsoft, why do you make my PC starting acting up the day you release a new Windows Update, even though the update hasn’t been installed on the PC?  The web browser start hanging up and sometimes crashing.  The PC gets so slow, I want to pull my hair out!  It was perfect fine the day before you release the new update.  But, on update day – Argh!  I have to stop everything and update my PC just to get it to work like it did the day before.  If it only takes me an hour to get my PC updated, I am lucky.  But, most of the time it takes me days because of an error.

End of Rant!

It start off as a normal day, a nice day, and a quiet day.  I was going to spend time designing and printing things on my computer.  But, the browser was hanging up.  Programs were slow to open.  I did what I always did when my PC is acting up, I checked Windows Update.  Click Settings -> Update & Security -> Windows Update.  There was an update.  No problem.  I will let the update finish and everything would be good again.  Wrong!  An hour later I checked and the update was at 70%.  Two hours later no change, and Adobe was reporting it failed to install.

The first step, do a web search to find out why it is stuck at 70%. Numerous website wants you to download their product to fix this problem.  I don’t know which ones to trust, so that is not the solution for me.  On one of the sites, it recommended downloading the update directly from Microsoft’s Catalog. 

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/home.aspx

All you need is the Update Number to search and download the update.  For Adobe is was KB4467694.  There are multiple updates for each number, just make sure it matches the description as shown on the PC’s Windows Update.

I tried the Adobe Update first, because it had failed.  It opened a Window stating it was checking the system for updates.  So, I let it run.  Hours later, it was still running.   I rebooted the PC while it was still running.  I checked Windows Update again and the Adobe Error was gone.  I started the Windows Update again.  It failed, but this time I go an error message.  Error 0x800f0984.

The web search results said that Error 0x800f0984 was related to .Net Framework.  That did not help.  I booted my PC into Safe Mode.  I learned that you can’t install Windows Update in Safe Mode.  When I tried to run Windows Update again for the 100th time, maybe not the 100th, I got a new error code: 0x80073712.  That was better, It was pointing to a Windows Component.  

In my previous attempts to get my PC working after a Windows Update, one of the recommended actions was to boot the PC with only the Windows Processes running.

  • In the search box, type in MSConfig and open the System Configuration.
  • Click the Service tab and click Hide all Microsoft service
  • Click Disable All to stop all the remaining services

This time, when I opened the System Configuration, I noticed that it had changed.

Instead of going through the process of disabling the services, I selected “Diagnostic startup”, clicked OK and rebooted my PC.

After my PC rebooting, I ran the Command prompt, as Administrator:

  • Type CMD in search window
  • After Command Prompt displays, select Run as Administrator

In the Command Prompt window, I ran these commands:

  • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth
  • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Both commands gave error messages, but I tried Windows Update again and it successfully updated.  The next time, I may just give in and reinstall Windows.

I do not know if I fixed the problem, or Microsoft fixed the Windows Update.  Now, I off to reboot my PC in the Normal Startup mode.  Yes, I type this blog post in the Diagnostic startup mode.