Audit and Lock Down App Permissions & Privacy Settings in Windows 10/11
Difficulty: Intermediate | Time Required: 15 minutes
Introduction
Apps asking for access to your camera, microphone, location, files, and other data can be convenient — but they’re also a privacy and security risk if left...
advertising id
app permissions
background apps
controlled folder access
data collection
diagnostics and feedback
file system privacy
group policy
microsoft account privacy
per app permissions
privacy audit
privacy settings
registry tweaks
securityhardening
system restore
telemetry
windows 10
windows 11
windows privacy
windows security
Windows 11’s next annual feature update is now moving from staged preview into its final validation ring: Microsoft has made Windows 11, version 25H2 available to Release Preview Insiders and commercial customers for targeted testing, delivered as an enablement package on top of the 24H2...
Microsoft will remove support for the StrongCertificateBindingEnforcement registry key on Windows domain controllers on September 10, 2025, forcing a permanent switch to stricter, strong certificate-to-account mappings that will break legacy certificate-based authentication setups unless...
1.3.6.1.4.1.311.25.2
802.1x
active directory
ad cs
altsecurityidentities
always on vpn
certificate-based authentication
kerberos
ndes
pki
scep
securityhardening
sid extension
strongcertificatebindingenforcement
vpn
windows domain controllers
windows server
x509issuerserialnumber
x509ski
Microsoft’s latest move to automate and AI‑assist Windows Server 2025 upgrades promises to cut the friction and risk that have long dogged enterprise patch cycles, but the effort is also a reminder that automation without clear metadata and robust controls can make things worse as quickly as it...
active directory hardening
ai in it
automation
azure arc
governance
hotpatching
hybrid cloud
kb5044284
management tools
metadata
patch cadence
patch management
rollback
securityhardening
smb over quic
system center 2025
upgrade planning
windows admin center
windows server 2025
CIQ’s hardened variant of Rocky Linux has taken a decisive step into the hyperscaler world: Rocky Linux from CIQ – Hardened (RLC‑H) is now offered through the major cloud marketplaces, giving enterprises a pre‑configured, supply‑chain‑validated Enterprise Linux image designed to reduce manual...
Windows Server 2019 has entered a new phase of its lifecycle: mainstream support ended on January 9, 2024, and Microsoft will provide security-only updates during the extended support period through January 9, 2029. After that date the product reaches full end of life (EOL) and will no longer...
application compatibility
azure arc
azure migrate
azure migration
compliance
end of life
esu
extended security updates
extended support end date
in-place upgrade to 2022
ltsc
mainstream support ended
migration paths
on-premises to cloud
securityhardening
software licensing
vendor recertification
windows server 2019
windows server 2022
windows server 2025
Microsoft’s Exchange team has taken a decisive step toward finally letting organizations retire the last Exchange server in hybrid environments by adding cloud-managed remote mailbox support — a per-mailbox “flip-the-switch” that transfers Exchange attribute authority to Exchange Online while...
Microsoft’s Exchange team has given hybrid administrators a clear-but-urgent migration mandate: switch to the dedicated Exchange hybrid app and update on‑prem servers now, or face temporary disruptions in September and October followed by a permanent enforcement that will stop rich coexistence...
TrustedTech’s pivot from a licensing-focused reseller to a full-service Microsoft-first systems integrator is more than a new logo — it is a deliberate repositioning into the fast-growing market for Microsoft Copilot enablement, Azure tenant migrations, managed security, and onshore certified...
azure migrations
cloud migration
co-sell incentives
copilot governance
enterprise it
identity management
intune
licensing advisory
managed services
microsoft 365 optimization
microsoft cloud partner program
microsoft copilot
microsoft managed partner
onshore support
partner ecosystem
securityhardening
tenant migrations
trustedtech
zero trust
TrustedTech’s decision to rebrand and recast itself as a Microsoft-first cloud and AI systems integrator marks a deliberate pivot from transactional licensing to outcome-driven services aimed squarely at Copilot deployments, Azure migrations, and managed security — a move the company unveiled in...
Microsoft’s August 2025 hotfixes for Skype for Business Server introduce a security-first change that will force organizations with hybrid deployments to act quickly: a new, customer-managed Dedicated Hybrid Application model replaces the long-standing Microsoft-managed shared service principal...
app registration
auditability
aug 2025 hotfix
dedicated hybrid application
entra id
esu
ews
exchange online
hybrid configuration
hybrid enforcement
hybrid security
microsoft entra id
october 15 2025
on-prem to cloud hybrid
securityhardening
skype for business
skype meetings application
TrustedTech’s move from a licensing-focused reseller to a full-spectrum Microsoft cloud and AI services partner marks a deliberate pivot into higher‑value professional services, signalling ambitions to capture demand for Copilot deployments, Azure migrations, and enterprise managed security—an...
ai services
azure migrations
cloud adoption
cloud modernization
co-sell
copilot
copilot readiness
data governance
enterprise it
it modernization
licensing to services
managed services
microsoft 365
microsoft partner
onshore support
securityhardening
trustedtech
vendor consolidation
zero trust
A critical local privilege‑escalation flaw has been disclosed in Rockwell Automation’s FactoryTalk ViewPoint (versions 14.00 and prior) that allows an attacker with local access to escalate to SYSTEM by abusing Windows MSI repair behavior — the issue is tracked as CVE‑2025‑7973 and has been...
Microsoft has quietly but decisively reworked how Active Directory domain controllers answer certain Netlogon RPC calls — a change rolled into the July and August 2025 cumulative updates that hardens the Microsoft RPC Netlogon protocol, closes an unauthenticated resource‑exhaustion vector...
active directory
compatibility issues
cve-2025-49716
dc outages
dns ldap kerberos
idmap ad
netlogon
network segmentation
patch management
rpc netlogon
samba
securityhardening
smb/cifs
vendor advisories
windows server
windows server 2022
August 12, 2025, saw Microsoft publish KB5064010 — a hotpatch for Windows 11 Enterprise LTSC 2024 that advances the OS to OS Build 26100.4851, delivering targeted security hardening without the broad-feature changes or mandatory restarts that administrators dread. This release is part of...
Microsoft’s security portal lists CVE-2025-25007 as a Microsoft Exchange Server spoofing vulnerability caused by improper validation of syntactic correctness of input, but public technical detail and third‑party analysis for this specific CVE remain sparse at the time of publication —...
Microsoft has published a security advisory for CVE-2025-53730, a use‑after‑free vulnerability in Microsoft Office Visio that Microsoft describes as allowing an unauthorized attacker to execute code locally when a specially crafted Visio file is opened.
Background
Microsoft Visio is a widely...
Microsoft has released KB5065499, an Image Processing AI component update that advances the component to version 1.2507.797.0 for Qualcomm-powered Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11, version 24H2. The patch is targeted specifically at the on-device imaging AI stack that Windows uses to scale...
Microsoft has pushed a targeted component update — KB5065500, which advances the Image Processing AI component to version 1.2507.797.0 for Intel‑powered Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11 version 24H2, delivering a modest set of improvements to on‑device image scaling and foreground/background...
1.2507.797.0
ai component update
ai components
ai hardware optimization
amd
amd copilot+
amd drivers
amd ryzen ai
auto super resolution
background extraction
background removal
camera effects
camera pipelines
cocreator
copilot+
copilot+ pcs
driver compatibility
enterprise it
enterprise rollout
foreground background segmentation
foreground extraction
hardware acceleration
hardware optimizations
image processing ai
image scaling
image upscaling
imaging pipeline
intel
intel copilot+
intel powered
intel-powered
it administration
kb5064644 replacement
kb5065499
kb5065500
kb5065501
modular ai
modular servicing
modular updates
npu
npus
on-device ai
os ai features
paint
patch management
photos and paint
photos app
privacy
privacy telemetry
qualcomm
securityhardening
segmentation
software updates
studio effects
super resolution
super-resolution
windows 11
windows 11 24h2
windows studio effects
windows update
The end of free security updates for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025 is forcing millions of perfectly serviceable PCs to make a decision: pay for Extended Security Updates, retire the hardware, or find a way to install Windows 11 on devices Microsoft no longer “supports.” The good news is that...