Glad you find it funny! I wanted to do this kind of formatting. But - I know it was going to cause a few little problems. Unfortunately, there's no way to fix it -- I'd have to use standard headings or images. On a web page where I controlled the full HTML, I could style it.
But - since I want to try this fun formatting, that sort of thing is the cost.
Great tips, as usual. Like the new format. Unfortunately, I cannot support you at this time. If things change I will. Hope you and yours have a wonderful weekend.
Hello Chris! Congratulations on the successful launch of your new site! Your topics always spark interest, and I find your writing style easy to digest. I enjoy reading about all the tips, tricks, and shortcuts in Windows and the apps and websites that offer value as well. And through in a little nostalgia for us older kindred spirits? Yes please! Keep up the great work. Proud supporter here.
Regarding Dark Mode: Unfortunately, after poking around, I'm not sure Substack supports automatic theme switching on article pages -- I can set it to one color scheme for everyone.
I think you should be able to use the Substack web reader at https://substack.com/inbox , the Substack app, or even a browser extension like Dark Reader ( https://darkreader.org/ ) to get a darker theme.
Thanks for that tip. I joined Substack to keep your content coming to me. So I will be exploring what it has to offer. What was your main reason for going with Substack? Keep in mind, at this point, I know nothing!😁
This is a little "inside baseball," but one reason is cost. With a reasonably large list of free subscribers, it would cost me thousands of dollars per year to use a more traditional email delivery service for my newsletters if I went with something like Ghost or Beehiiv. In other words: Substack will let me email all my free subscribers for free - that's huge!
If you've been keeping up with Paul Thurrott's work at thurrott.com , you may also have noticed that he has talked about potentially switching to Substack in the future -- and he also has a Substack publication he works on on the side, too. See: www.eternalspringcdmx.com So there's a lot of potential overlap with Paul Thurrott's current and future work here, too.
Hey Chris, just FYI, the Eternal Spring hyperlink above doesn't work. It seems that Paul's DNS doesn't have a record for the root domain name, just for the www host. So, slapping a www. in front works, but you may want to let him know because using WWW is so 1998. LOL! Hope this is helpful.
Kind of! But you're free to disable services if that's what makes you comfortable. I just don't think people should feel obligated to dig through this stuff. I personally don't.
So let's go through 'em:
• *Connected User Experiences and Telemetry: This is the service that sends some (but not all) telemetry data to Microsoft. (Partially, this is controllable under Settings > Privacy & security > Diagnostics & feedback on Windows 11.) Even if you disable this one, Windows may actually turn it back on during updates, and Windows will send some telemetry data to Microsoft in other ways anyway.
• *Remote Registry: This one sounds spooky but makes sense on corporate networks. It's disabled by default unless system admins turn it on, so you don't have to go out of your way to turn it off.
• *Server: This is for file and printer sharing stuff in Windows. The firewall blocks if it if you're on a Public network, so you don't need to go out of your way to disable it. If you're using traditional Windows file and printer sharing on a home network you'll need it enabled. If you don't plan on using that, it's fine to fully disable.
• *SSDP Discovery: This discovers nearby devices and shows them in certain places, like under Network in File Explorer. This isn't really a security risk -- it's just detecting nearby things and showing you them -- but if you don't care it doesn't matter if you turn it off.
• *TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper: This is used for traditional Windows LAN file and printer sharing stuff. Assuming you set a network as "Public," the firewall blocks access to it. if you're on a home network and want to dabble with file and printer sharing, you'll need this activated.
• *WLAN Autoconfig: This is mandatory for Wi-Fi, I believe! Of course, if you don't use Wi-Fi, you don't need it.
So ultimately, a PC is protected from the big risks out of the box (Remote Registry is disabled, and file and printer sharing is protected by the firewall.) Some of these services are critical -- like WLAN Autoconfig being mandatory for any PC with Wi-Fi.
And the Telemetry service is hard to turn off directly, and Windows will send some telemetry data to Microsoft in other ways, I believe, so that isn't a silver bullet. Enterprise versions of Windows can, I believe, turn off telemetry data collection entirely.
Hi Stephen, there's a monthly fee option but feel free to stick around - the standard newsletter is free and that's really important to me! No pressure.
When you have Substack read the article it articulates each equals sign in the Heading separately. Hilarious!
Glad you find it funny! I wanted to do this kind of formatting. But - I know it was going to cause a few little problems. Unfortunately, there's no way to fix it -- I'd have to use standard headings or images. On a web page where I controlled the full HTML, I could style it.
But - since I want to try this fun formatting, that sort of thing is the cost.
Great tips, as usual. Like the new format. Unfortunately, I cannot support you at this time. If things change I will. Hope you and yours have a wonderful weekend.
The Old Dragon
Thank you, Dragon - I've appreciated your kind words for the last few years!
Hello Chris! Congratulations on the successful launch of your new site! Your topics always spark interest, and I find your writing style easy to digest. I enjoy reading about all the tips, tricks, and shortcuts in Windows and the apps and websites that offer value as well. And through in a little nostalgia for us older kindred spirits? Yes please! Keep up the great work. Proud supporter here.
Thank you for the support!
You have my support. Note: Dark mode is not working in Edge for me and your article. Perhaps just me.
Thank you for your support!
Regarding Dark Mode: Unfortunately, after poking around, I'm not sure Substack supports automatic theme switching on article pages -- I can set it to one color scheme for everyone.
I think you should be able to use the Substack web reader at https://substack.com/inbox , the Substack app, or even a browser extension like Dark Reader ( https://darkreader.org/ ) to get a darker theme.
Thanks for that tip. I joined Substack to keep your content coming to me. So I will be exploring what it has to offer. What was your main reason for going with Substack? Keep in mind, at this point, I know nothing!😁
This is a little "inside baseball," but one reason is cost. With a reasonably large list of free subscribers, it would cost me thousands of dollars per year to use a more traditional email delivery service for my newsletters if I went with something like Ghost or Beehiiv. In other words: Substack will let me email all my free subscribers for free - that's huge!
If you've been keeping up with Paul Thurrott's work at thurrott.com , you may also have noticed that he has talked about potentially switching to Substack in the future -- and he also has a Substack publication he works on on the side, too. See: www.eternalspringcdmx.com So there's a lot of potential overlap with Paul Thurrott's current and future work here, too.
Hey Chris, just FYI, the Eternal Spring hyperlink above doesn't work. It seems that Paul's DNS doesn't have a record for the root domain name, just for the www host. So, slapping a www. in front works, but you may want to let him know because using WWW is so 1998. LOL! Hope this is helpful.
I fixed the link in my comment and will give him a heads up about the domain record, thanks.
I still turn off these services for privacy/security on a standalone Win11 Pro PC. Am I being paranoid?
• *Connected User Experiences and Telemetry
• *Remote Registry
• *Server
• *SSDP Discovery
• *TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
• *WLAN Autoconfig
Kind of! But you're free to disable services if that's what makes you comfortable. I just don't think people should feel obligated to dig through this stuff. I personally don't.
So let's go through 'em:
• *Connected User Experiences and Telemetry: This is the service that sends some (but not all) telemetry data to Microsoft. (Partially, this is controllable under Settings > Privacy & security > Diagnostics & feedback on Windows 11.) Even if you disable this one, Windows may actually turn it back on during updates, and Windows will send some telemetry data to Microsoft in other ways anyway.
• *Remote Registry: This one sounds spooky but makes sense on corporate networks. It's disabled by default unless system admins turn it on, so you don't have to go out of your way to turn it off.
• *Server: This is for file and printer sharing stuff in Windows. The firewall blocks if it if you're on a Public network, so you don't need to go out of your way to disable it. If you're using traditional Windows file and printer sharing on a home network you'll need it enabled. If you don't plan on using that, it's fine to fully disable.
• *SSDP Discovery: This discovers nearby devices and shows them in certain places, like under Network in File Explorer. This isn't really a security risk -- it's just detecting nearby things and showing you them -- but if you don't care it doesn't matter if you turn it off.
• *TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper: This is used for traditional Windows LAN file and printer sharing stuff. Assuming you set a network as "Public," the firewall blocks access to it. if you're on a home network and want to dabble with file and printer sharing, you'll need this activated.
• *WLAN Autoconfig: This is mandatory for Wi-Fi, I believe! Of course, if you don't use Wi-Fi, you don't need it.
So ultimately, a PC is protected from the big risks out of the box (Remote Registry is disabled, and file and printer sharing is protected by the firewall.) Some of these services are critical -- like WLAN Autoconfig being mandatory for any PC with Wi-Fi.
And the Telemetry service is hard to turn off directly, and Windows will send some telemetry data to Microsoft in other ways, I believe, so that isn't a silver bullet. Enterprise versions of Windows can, I believe, turn off telemetry data collection entirely.
Thank you, Chris. I really appreciate your detailed reply!
Would you consider a monthly fee? I'd be prepared to give it a go for a month but to sign up to a year is a bit too much for me right now.
Hi Stephen, there's a monthly fee option but feel free to stick around - the standard newsletter is free and that's really important to me! No pressure.
Ok, thanks. I'll take a look at the monthly option.
Sorry I can't support you as I just read too many lists....I wish there were micropayments .... where we can read a summary and then pay-per-view ...
Hi Tom. I definitely wish the web had been built with a sustainable micropayments system, too -- if so, we'd definitely be in a different spot today.