Yammer Highlights October 2021

Dennis Parsons

Windows

With the move of our services from Microsoft to Google based the use of Melb PC e-mail addresses for a Windows login will cease to work. Turns out Windows Home users aren’t affected as our Microsoft account type is “work” rather than “personal” and can only be used for the Windows login on Pro or Enterprise Windows versions.

Initially I thought we’d be able to simply change affected Windows accounts from Microsoft login to a local one, problem solved, but it’s not that simple. Organisational accounts such as ours can’t be changed, which makes sense in hindsight from an organisational security perspective, so unfortunately you’re going to lose the account, but it’s not the end of the world as you can create a new local admin account, copy all your data across to the new account and continue to use your locally installed programs. Any desktop customisation will have to be recreated and of course you’ll no longer have access to any web based apps associated with the old account, but at least all your locally stored data with be available.

A further complication is the use of BitLocker as the recovery key is stored online in the associated Microsoft account which would potentially be a huge problem if it was needed at some stage in the future when the account was no longer available.

I was curious and wanted to get a feel for the number of our members who might be affected so created another of my infamously quick and dirty polls, asking whether people used Home or Pro, if they logged in using their Melb PC address and if they also used BitLocker in conjunction with it.

The results were somewhat surprising as I expected most to be using Home, but it turns out of the thirty members who responded, only a third used Home. Five reported using their Melb PC address for logging in but none reported using BitLocker, so hopefully that translates to the wider Melb PC membership.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1485079698350080>

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1476472712167424>

Computer Help

Following the successful installation of Win11 on an officially non-compliant system using a modified ISO, as reported on last month, I can report that one month on it’s still working exactly as if it were compliant. The “patch Tuesday” updates installed correctly, manual update checks works, the system continues to show as activated and functions with no apparent anomalies, noting I only use it occasionally.

Of course MS could potentially introduce changes in the future that render such systems inoperative or reduces their functionality but for the present it works as a way of using Win11 on older hardware.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1428868101455872>

Jan was wanting to replace her tablet which was getting rather long in the tooth and she’d had enough suffering with only 16GB of storage. She was willing to spend a reasonable amount so was spoilt for choice and wanted some help in narrowing the field. After a bit of to-and-fro she settled on a Lenovo M10 128GB FHD – she was happy until she noticed she’d be given the 64GB version so had to take it back and exchange it, fortunately a painless experience. One big advantage in buying from a bricks-and-mortar store.

Another member mentioned he’d recently purchased the 64GB version of the M10 (the price difference with the 128GB was larger at the time than Jan found) and was coming to grips with his first Android device having been using iOS for nine years.

<https://www.yammer.com/melbpc.org.au/#/Threads/show?threadId=1471585658609664>

Coronavirus Discussion and Comments

The Service Victoria app had an update recently that might prove useful to members who have other family members accompanying them to places where they need to check in. The app has had the facility to check in multiple people for some time but you could only have one vaccination certificate uploaded. Now you can upload multiple certificates allowing you to not only check in multiple people on the one phone but also show the vaccination status for each one. Hopefully big green ticks for all.

The process is much the same as uploading the first certificate – tap to add a certificate, open the myGov app and log in, upload the certificate to the Service Victoria app from the Medicare section and select which person from the listed names the certificate is for.