Ask Paul: July 19 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Hopefully, you're not bogged down by the CrowdStrike screwup too much and can enjoy an early start to the weekend.
Crowdstruck
cloxter asks:

CrowdStrike lol, how the media was quick to jump all over Microsoft, granted there were M365 outages, but M$ copping the global media outrage....hmm.

Sure. What can do you? When the world runs on your infrastructure, they turn to you when it goes down. Plus, Microsoft has lost a lot of security credibility this year thanks to its mishandling of the late 2023 security breach and its subsequent misreporting of what happened.

We all laugh and make fun of Microsoft when we see a Blue screen in a subway station or whatever, but those incidents also highlight how widespread Windows (and related software) is. It's honestly not that common.

Anyway. We'll see how this shakes out. CrowdStrike originated the update that caused the outrage. But it's not clear what role, if any, Microsoft played in deploying it without any oversight.
Specs
ken_loewen asks:

As I consider my next laptop, I've got a couple of qualifiers - running sizeable data models (though not "big data") in Power BI and driving two external 28" monitors. Is there any way to squeeze the information out of specs to enable me to know what the maximum RAM is and the max number of external monitors that can be driven?

Not easily. When I review laptops, I try to document what the specification possibilities are, but when it comes to this sort of thing, what you need isn't so much whatever ports but what the capabilities are. This morning, for example, I was writing part of the coming Surface Laptop 7 review, and I was trying to figure out a few of the component capabilities and noticed that Microsoft doesn't document certain things I need to know in the information it sent me, including the size (in Whr) of the battery. And while the Type-C ports get a lot of information, the Type-A port is just listed as "USB-A 3.1," which could be two different speeds and may or may not have always-on capabilities. Unfortunately, you often have to do some homework. And with needs like yours, it can be more difficult to get specific answers, depending on the hardware you're looking at and how good the documentation is.
Scripting updates
ianceicys asks:

I have a question regarding maintaining up-to-date software on multiple devices.

I've been using a script that runs UniGetUI (formerly WingetUI) once a day while I'm sleeping to keep my software current. I've noticed that applications like Zoom, GitHub, Elgato, and Teams are updated frequently, sometimes multiple times a week, and they genuinely run better with the latest updates.

However, I'm curious about how you handle this for your setup, especially if you also manage other family members' computers and phones. Do you have a specific strategy or scripts you use to ensure everything stays updated smoothly across different devices including your kids and wife's machines?
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