Worked great, and realising I didn’t want it running all the time on my home PC, I changed the option to ‘Automatically start the app when I log on to Windows’ in the Personal options:
The next day over the weekend, I noticed that Skype for Business had decided to still launch at login. Weird, so I checked what Task Manager had to say:
Skype for Business wasn’t even listed. I started mucking around a bit more, ticking the option to automatically start, pressing OK, turning it off, pressing OK, rebooting – but every time, Skype for Business just turned up, like a strange uncle you never invite to dinner but somehow still finds out and turns up every night.
Maybe it’s in the Startup folder in the Start Menu? Is that still a thing in Windows 10? Yes it is. It’s under C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup – replacing ‘username’ with what you’re thinking you should replace it with. Except, there was nothing there.
I also checked the standard Run locations in the registry, and then even searched for all instances of lync.exe which is still what runs Skype for Business… no hits that make any sense to it running at startup.
Of course, my next step is to complain on Twitter:
Interesting – Skype for Business runs at user login, but it’s not listed in Task Manager > Startup, or in the registry’s Run locations. The app even has ‘run at startup’ turned off. Not in the Start Menu Startup folder either. Don’t understand what’s triggering it…— Adam Fowler (@AdamFowler_IT) April 12, 2020
No winners in the responses – I checked sysinternaltools autoruns as suggested by Neil Clinch, and Guy Leech had a suggestion on how to completely block lync.exe from running ever, but I still wanted to use Skype for Business.
My Googling hadn’t fared any results, and I was getting desperate. I actually took a chance and read some answers.microsoft.com threads (which are usually sfc /scannow or unhelpful answers that didn’t read the question properly) and user Daniel Wherle had responded to a thread with my exact problem.
The answer was a setting called ‘Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device and reopen my apps after an update or restart’. This is hidden in Windows 10 Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options. It’s down the very bottom:
After I turned this option off and rebooted, Skype for Business no longer launched at startup. I even launched it manually, and restarted while it was running.
I turned the setting back on and rebooted, Skype for Business still didn’t autostart – that is, until I ran it with the option on, exited and rebooted.
It’s worth noting that even after completely exiting Skype for Business, lync.exe still ran in the background. I suspect this is part of the problem, because it also won’t re-open until that task is killed. I don’t have any other Office apps open, and it seems like a common enough problem that others will hit it – maybe with other programs too and this Windows 10 option enabled.
A strange one, but probably as far as I’ll dig on the issue.
How to stop Skype for Busines from Autostarting in Windows 10:
To stop Skype for Business from loading at startup:
In Skype for Business – Options go to the Personal option
Untick ‘Automatically start the app when I log on to Windows’
If that doesn’t work:
Go into Windows Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options.
Click Accounts.
In the Sign-in options section, untick ‘Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device and reopen my apps after an update or restart’
How to roll out Windows Hello for Business as optional
To roll out Windows Hello for Business optionally:
In Group Policy, enable the ‘Use Windows Hello for Business’ policy
Tick the option ‘Do not start Windows Hello provisioning after sign-in’
Users will then need to click the Windows Security icon to register
Applies To : Windows 10
When I first looked at Windows Hello for Business at launch, I was impressed by it but also concerned. Turning the option on would prompt all users or devices that had the policy on, strongly encouraging them to go through the Windows Hello for Business setup with their fingerprint/face recognition and PIN.
To roll out Windows Hello for Business, follow Microsoft’s documentation which is quite detailed due to the complexities of scenarios and requirements; such as Single-Sign On, MFA of some sort and Public Key Infrastructure.
It was a bit intrusive to have this almost forced registration process as a user might not be in a position to go through the setup and be trying to do something urgent first thing in the morning, but even more of a concern was the style of the userbase I support – anyone expects to be able to log onto any computer anywhere. Windows Hello for Business doesn’t follow the user around for good reason (you’re tying the things you have to a single device), so each new device will go through the prompts.
I also had concerns around desktop users who didn’t have any other method of authentication beyond the PIN, and the perception than a PIN is less secure than a password (again the PIN is tied to a single device, while the password can be used to log onto any device).
Thankfully, a new option turned in Group Policy under the ‘Use Windows Hello for Business’ policy, located under both the Computers and Users areas Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Hello for Business. The tickbox ‘Do not start Windows Hello provisioning after sign-in’. (To be fair, this has now been there for a while and I just wasn’t aware):
This will instead provide a little warning in Windows Security under Account Protection, saying Windows Hello isn’t set up. It doesn’t pop up and alert this, but instead shows a yellow exclamation mark against the shield icon in the taskbar. A user can then click through this at their leisure and set up Windows Hello for Business.
To me, this is a great way of allowing all staff the chance to set it up when they’re ready to do so, and in a staggered fashion without really having to manage it. Each business is different of course, and some will prefer or require the heavy handed approach of Windows Hello for Business on all devices – but I’m glad this more relaxed option exists.
What happens when a company you deal with in Australia has a data breach, and their annual turnover is less than $3 million? I thought I’d find out, after this happed to me. Here’s the events in chronological order with some information censored:
The Dropbox Email
I receive an email from my Strata Management company in October 2019 whom I’d already regarded quite low in their digital actions – emailing without unsubscribe options, using email addresses given to them purely for Strata related comms for commercial purposes – but this was more concerning again:
To me this was immediately dodgy and cried out of an account being compromised. The file is still there right now, ~ 6 months later. It’s a standard jump file – redirecting you off to phish your creds.
The credential stealing page you get to from the ‘Access Document’ link above is down – the entire domain doesn’t respond, so at least nobody will get caught by this link.
I email back with what I thought was correct information from a quick Google on it, but the details are their problem to work out and send an email to the address listed on the website, rather than the compromised account:
From: Adam Fowler To: admin@company
Hi,It appears XXX account has been compromised by a third party, which includes my personal contact details on it. You’ll need to comply with the government’s Data breach standards: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/data-breaches/
From: Adam Fowler To: admin@company, person@company
Hi,
Any chance of getting a response on this?
Thanks Adam Fowler
I get an out of office from the person, but it doesn’t take long for their manager to respond:
From: Manager@company To: Adam Fowler
Hi Adam,
Thank you for your email and I apologise for the delayed response – the front office thought it may have been another scam email due to the multiple links and opted to delete and ignore it.
As you are aware, we do have 30 days to respond to this with the breach happening 15 days ago we still have time on our side. In saying that, we actually have our IT guys coming in today again to assist me with the lodgement and I will be finalising it either tonight or over the weekend.
I can confirm we acted promptly on the issue and our IT guys responded extremely fast as well.
Thank you for your concern and notification, I will confirm with you once this has been lodged.
Have a great weekend.
This sounded sort of promising – beyond the weird conclusion my email was another scam, they seemed to be treating this seriously and properly. I was content with this and waited for the confirmation that was promised.
That confirmation didn’t come, so 1 month later I followed it up. This is where it went downhill:
From: Manager@company To: Adam Fowler
Hi Adam,
I did lodge this and I spoke with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
As far as I am aware from them there was no further action required from us on their end.
Kind regards,
OK… that’s great that they’ve met legal requirements, but that’s not really what I cared about:
From: Adam Fowler To: manager@company
Hi Manager,
I’m more concerned if any of my personal data was compromised after your investigation rather than what data breach notification steps you’ve taken with the government?
Thanks Adam Fowler
Another concering response:
From: Manager@company To: Adam Fowler
Hi Adam,
No personal details have been compromised from this. They did not have access to our server.
Kind regards,
This takes me to a conclusion pretty quickly that they really have no idea what they’re talking about, or just trying to get rid of me because I’m a hassle. I call them on it:
From: Adam Fowler To: manager@company
Hi Manager,
That’s obviously incorrect, my email address is personal information, and XXX’s mailbox may have contained other personal information that I’ve emailed them, such as the address of my unit.
Apparently what I’ve asked for hasn’t processed and they’ve given up:
From: Manager@company To: Adam Fowler
What would you like for me to do Adam, I’m not sure on what steps you are asking me to take?
This got me annoyed. I have no idea what data they have on me and what could have potentially been accessed, so I did a bit of research and shot off what I wanted, outlining why I was concerned:
From: Adam Fowler To: manager@company
Advise on what data of mine was actually accessed. “None” isn’t true or I wouldn’t have received a phishing email. The responses you’re giving don’t give me any confidence that you’ve actually had this investigated, or have any reasonable understanding of the statements you’re making. My next step is to lodge a complaint with the OAIC, which I’d rather not bother to do.
You hold money that is partly mine, my personal details and I’m not sure what else.
Access your personal information — OAIC Australian privacy law gives you a general right to access your personal information.This includes your health information.. An organisation or agency must give you access to your personal information when you request it, except where the law allows them to refuse your request.www.oaic.gov.au
Please let me know what other details you need from me for this request.
Three days later I get this answer:
From: Manager@company To: Adam Fowler
Hi Adam,
Below is all of the information we have for you.
Salutation: Mr Fowler
Mr Adam Fowler
*My home address*
*my mobile*
*email address different to the one they’ve sent this email to*
We don’t have your bank details and as I mentioned, they did not have access our server so they would not have received the above information.
I’ve searched XXXs emails over the past two days and you do reference your unit, but never your home address.
It was obvious they weren’t doing this properly. They didn’t list the address of the ACTUAL PROPERTY they managed for me, nor the email address they’d just emailed me on. I decided to just stop responding and lodge a complaint with OAIC; I didn’t really have anything to lose by doing so. Lodging a complaint was pretty easy, there wasn’t too much info I had to provide and I included the email thread above.
The next day after filling in the form, I received a fairly generic email which contained the case number I’d been given:
From: OAIC To: Adam Fowler
Dear Adam Fowler
Thank you for your correspondence received on 2 December 2019. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has registered this matter as a privacy complaint by you about STRATA MANGEMENT COMPANY
We aim to contact you further about your complaint as soon as we are able to. Information about what happens to your privacy complaint is available on our website, www.oaic.gov.au.
Actions you can take now
· Generally for us to consider your complaint you first need to have complained to the respondent. While waiting to hear from us, we recommend that you continue to pursue resolution of your complaint with the respondent organisation.
· You may also be able to lodge your complaint with a recognised External Dispute Resolution (EDR) Scheme. A list of recognised EDR schemes is available on the OAIC’s website. These EDR schemes cover financial services (including credit reports), telecommunications, and energy and water providers. If the OAIC considers your complaint would be more effectively or appropriately dealt with by a recognised EDR scheme, we may decline to investigate the matter.
· If your matter relates to consumer credit, please forward a copy of your credit file to this office, as well as copies of any correspondence you have received from the credit provider, credit reporting bodies and any dispute resolution body you have complained to about this matter. You should also include the relevant password if the copy of your credit file is password protected.
Next steps
Unfortunately we are not able to allocate all complaints to a case officer as soon as they are received. At present there are delays on some matters being allocated because we have had an increase in the number of complaints we have received.
At this time, it may be several months before an officer contacts you about your matter. We will contact you earlier if we are able to.
Once your complaint is allocated a staff member will contact you to discuss the next steps in our complaints handling process. The OAIC aims to resolve privacy complaints by conciliation, whereby the parties resolve the matter through discussion and negotiation. Unless we consider it inappropriate to do so, your complaint will likely be referred to the respondent for it to contact you directly to try and resolve the matter.
Please let us know if your contact details change, if the matter has been resolved directly with the respondent or if other circumstances change.
You can write to us or call on our Enquiries Line on 1300 363 992 (local call cost, but calls from mobile and pay phones may incur higher charges). If you do contact us it will help us if you quote your complaint reference number which is found at the top left hand side of this correspondence.
We will arrange for letters and telephone calls to be translated if you would like to communicate with us in a language other than English. You can also let us know if you need other assistance, including documents in other formats or larger fonts.
Yours sincerely
Enquiries Team
Office of the Australian Information Commissioner
That didn’t give me much hope, so I left it at that and moved on.
2 months later, I received a call on my mobile. It was from the OAIC who had started to review my case. We had a chat, she understood the situation, completely agreed they hadn’t appeared to have done their due diligence in the data breach or provide me with my personal data as requested.
It sounded promising and I was a bit nervous. Their standard approach was to talk to the company and somehow come to an early resolution. She emailed me what was discussed too:
From: OAIC To: Adam Fowler
Dear Mr Fowler
I refer to your privacy complaint about STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY , made under s 36 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
I am conducting preliminary inquiries under s 42 of the Privacy Act. The purpose of the inquiries is to establish whether this matter can be resolved quickly by the Early Resolution Team.
The Early Resolution team aims to resolve matters within 4 weeks. If the complaint cannot be resolved by 28 February 2020 and the OAIC determines further review or investigation is required then the matter will be referred to an investigations officer in another team.
If the matter is referred to another team, it can take several months to be allocated to a case officer. We therefore encourage both parties to try and resolve the matter through this early resolution process.
Next steps
We have provided a copy of your complaint to STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY and requested it provide the OAIC with a response to your allegations and to your proposed resolution.
We have also invited to contact you directly to try and resolve this matter. In our experience, direct contact between the parties leads to a higher chance of resolution.
We have requested STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY provide an update in a week’s time.
I am happy to discuss this matter and to clarify any questions you may have about our Early Resolution process. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly on XXX or email to oaic.gov.au.
Yours sincerely
Investigations Officer Dispute Resolution Branch
The same day though, my hopes of anything were completely shot down:
From: OAIC To: Adam Fowler
Dear Mr Fowler
In my conversations with STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY it appears it is a small business operator and may therefore not have any obligations under the Privacy Act 1988 (the Privacy Act).
The APPs apply to businesses and not-for-profit organisations with an annual turnover of more than $3 million and to all private health service providers irrespective of turnover.
I have asked STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY to respond to questions to confirm it is a small business operator and to provide evidence of their turnover or a statutory declaration.
If STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY is a small business operator we will be unable to take any further action in the matter. I will write to you to let you know if this is the case along with our intention to decline to investigate the matter.
I was rather confident this company didn’t turn over $3 million a year. However, the manager did still call me and after advising he didn’t have to respond legally. I didn’t really say much since I had no legal standing now and in the laws eyes, they were in the right. They attempted to reset the password so I could access my own data from their systems – he couldn’t get that working so I did a password reset myself. Their password reset process actually sent me an email that contained my old password in plain text – ‘dontsendthisout’ – which I’d set a few years ago after they’d sent me my password in plain text via snail mail, along with the username and login URL. As I said at the start, I didn’t expect much from this company.
The data they had on me they said, would all be in this app. Again this of course isn’t true because of the data in their emails, but I felt defeated and didn’t press on this.
It was of course confirmed that they didn’t turn over $3 million a year:
Dear Mr Fowler
I refer to your privacy complaint about STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY, made under s 36 of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act).
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) conducted preliminary inquiries into your complaint under section 42 of the Privacy Act.
I have reviewed your complaint and I do not consider there has been an interference with your privacy on the basis that STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY appears to be a small business operator. The reasons for this view are explained below. You now have an opportunity to comment before I make a final decision.
Small business operator exemption
The Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in the Privacy Act cover many private sector businesses in Australia, but there are exceptions. In particular, many small businesses are exempt from the obligations outlined in the APPs in the Privacy Act. Under the Privacy Act, a small business operator is a business with an annual turnover of $3 million or less that:
· is not a health service provider
· does not trade in personal information
· is not a contracted service provider for a Commonwealth contract
· is not a credit reporting body
· is not related to a body corporate that carries on a business that is not a small business
· does not operate a residential tenancies database.
In response to our inquiries, STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY provided information, including its Business activity statements (BAS) to establish that its annual turnover and activities are such that it meets the Privacy Act’s definition of a small business operator.
This means that STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY is not covered by the APPs in the Privacy Act and therefore there can be no interference with your privacy under the Privacy Act through STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY’s actions in this instance.
Next steps
Section 41(1)(a) of the Privacy Act gives the Commissioner the discretion not to investigate a complaint if she is satisfied that the act or practice complained about is not an interference with privacy, as defined in the Privacy Act.
As STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY appears to meet the Privacy Act’s definition of a small business operator, I intend to decline to investigate your complaint under section 41(1)(a) of the Privacy Act.
However, before I make a final decision I invite you, should you wish to do so, to provide a written response to this email. I would appreciate receiving any response by 11 March 2020. If I do not hear from you by this date, the OAIC will make a decision based on the available information and close your complaint.
If you would like to discuss your complaint, I may be reached XXX during business hours, or email oaic.gov.au.
Yours sincerely
Investigations Officer Dispute Resolution Branch
I briefly responded saying I couldn’t dispute their annual turnover, and the act is the act.
The final emails redeemed themselves a bit, when the CEO emailed me without further prompt:
Dear Adam,
I understand you have made a complaint in relation to the dropbox email that was sent out when XXX’s email was hacked. As you were not satisfied with our responses, I have contacted my IT team and asked them to email me an explanation of what happened and what would have been hacked. Please find below an email from our IT Company. YYY is happy for you to contact him directly if you need, but I would ask that you cc me in on any email. I have not copied him into this email to protect your email address.
I have inserted his email below.
Hi Adam,
It is our understanding that the breach was caused by XXX clicking through a link in a scam email and it tricked her into putting in her email password. As such that gave the hackers access to her Office 365 based email account. Once noticed, that day, we changed her password and confirmed they didn’t have access anymore.
It did not give them access to any other email accounts, though we changed all passwords to be sure anyway.
And it did not in any way give them access to the server where STRATA MANAGEMENT COMPANY store files and run their management databases. The server is not linked to Office 365 at all, and even if she used the same password for 365 as her PC/server then it wouldn’t matter as she didn’t have remote access allowed on her account, and our remote access also requires a certificate that the hackers didn’t have access to. So I am certain they never had access to the server.
Subsequently there has also been no signs of any breach of the server or anything further on her email account.
So in short you can be assured that only her email was breached.
As for what they did access or download from her email I cannot say, we can’t tell that from the logging available in 365. It seems unlikely to me they did download information. The usual thing with these hacks is they use the compromised account to perpetrate another scam to force a bank transfer. I’d say that they worked out she wasn’t responsible for bank transfers and so instead used her account to try to hack more email accounts.
So the only data that they could have about you is anything you emailed to XXX, with the exception of anything she deleted after you sent it and before they hacked in.
Let me know if you want any more information.
I felt that at least they’d now had a better understanding as to what happened, and MAYBE cared a bit more about the impact of it.
From: Adam Fowler To: CEO@comany
Hi CEO,
Thanks for the additional details and the explanation makes sense. I’d also expect they’d do basic searches for things in an account like credit card information and bank details which is why I was asking what XXX may have had in her inbox in relation to me.
The other question is why you didn’t have MFA in place on your Office 365 accounts – easy to do and protects the data that I send your company from these threats. I hope you’ve implemented it since, as it’s a relatively easy setting to turn on.
Thanks Adam Fowler
The CEO thanked me for this email and said they’d pass it on to their IT department. I hope they’ve actually implemented MFA now as it seems their external IT support is reasonable, and I wouldn’t expect a smaller company to have advanced Office 365 logging features available in an E5 plan to see what was accessed exactly. They’re still the company that holds the money for the Strata pool of funds, so I care that our money isn’t stolen.
Finally, the OAIC closed the case:
Hi Adam
Thank you for your emails and feedback on the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) 26 February 2020 view that there had not been an interference with your privacy on the basis that STRATA COMPANY, is a small business operator.
As a small business operator, STRATA COMPANY does not have to follow the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), so it does not have to provide you with a copy of your personal information, or follow any of the other APPs in relation to security, use or disclosure of your personal information in the Privacy Act. It may have other legal obligations in relation to how it handles personal information.
I acknowledge your concerns and view that regardless of the technicalities of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (the Privacy Act), your privacy has been breached.
However, as defined in the Privacy Act , an interference with privacy can only occur when an APP entity breaches an APP in relation to personal information about the individual (section 13). As STRATA COMPANY meets the definition of a small business operator in the Privacy Act, it is not an APP entity which is subject to the provisions of the APPs in the Privacy Act, and it cannot interfere or breach your privacy as specified in the Privacy Act.
Decision
Section 41(1)(a) of the Privacy Act gives the Commissioner the discretion not to investigate a complaint if she is satisfied that the act or practice complained about is not an interference with privacy, as defined in the Privacy Act.
As STRATA COMPANY is exempt from the provisions of the APPs in the Privacy Act, I have decided under s 41(1)(a) of the Privacy Act not to investigate the complaint on the grounds that there is no interference with your privacy as defined in the Privacy Act.
The file is now closed.
Thank you for bringing this matter to the attention of the Commissioner. I am sorry we are unable to assist you.
Yours sincerely
Investigations Officer Dispute Resolution Branch
Although I could say that nothing happened out of this 5 month experience, I hope it was a valuable lesson for the staff there – and the CEO knows a bit more about it.
Lenovo’s Thinkbook brand is aimed at the SMB market – it’s as close to being a ThinkPad without being an actual ThinkPad, and the price reflects it.
The Thinkbook 14 follows up from the Thinkbook 14s (compare on Lenovo’s site here) which I saw while I was at Lenovo Tech World and was the first time I’d even heard of the Thinkbook brand. A few months later, I managed to get my hands on one as a trial unit from Lenovo to have a play with the hardware, as it was at a price point that I was looking at, and above the minimum specifications I needed.
Let’s start with the hardware, and then I’ll dive into what I liked/disliked about the laptop:
Processor
Up to 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1065G7 Processor (1.30GHz, up to 3.90GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8MB Cache)
Operating system
Windows 10 Pro
Display
14″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, 250 nits
Graphics
Integrated Intel® UHD GraphicsIntegrated Intel® Iris Plus Graphics
Memory
Up to 16GB DDR4 2666MHz
Storage
Up to 512GB SSD PCIe-NVMe M.2
Battery
Up to 9 hours* with 45Wh battery* Based on testing with MobileMark 2014. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage, and other factors.
Audio
Stereo speakers with Dolby® Audio™Dual-array mic, Skype for Business certified
Ports
USB 3.1 (Gen 2, USB-C + DisplayPort + Power Delivery)USB 3.1 (Gen 1, USB-C)USB 3.1** (Gen 1, Type-A, always-on)USB 3.1** (Gen 1, Type-A)Hidden USB 2.0 (Type-A)HDMI4-in-1 card reader (SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC)Headphone / mic comboRJ45Power DC
Connectivity
802.11AC (2 x 2)Bluetooth® 5.0
Camera
720p HD
Dimensions
326mm x 230mm x 17.9mm / 12.83″ x 9.06″ x 0.7″
Weight
Starting at 3.3 lbs (1.5 kg)
Keyboard
Full-sized keyboard with backlightOne-piece touchpadHot Keys for Skype for Business****Requires Skype for Business account, not pre-installed by Lenovo
Security
ThinkShutter Camera CoverSmart Power Button with Fingerprint ReaderActive Protection System (APS)Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (firmware)
As you can see from above, this isn’t a low end laptop. Processor wise, I only need an i5 CPU rather than an i7 which is fine for my requirements (I went with the i5-10210U), and it’s running the latest 10th GEN Intel CPU.
Display again I only need a 1080p screen, this isn’t a laptop designed for 4K video editing (although possible with a 4K screen attached) and for business requirements, most people want a 1920 x 1080 screen.
The older Thinkbook 14s only supported up to 8GB of RAM, but this supports 16GB which is what I promote as the standard you should aim for these days, which Chrome/New Edge using a lot of the RAM in our web driven world.
Storage, battery, webcam etc are all standard good specs and nothing notable there.
The keyboard is backlit which I always like. The inclusion of Skype for Business keys is a little strange with Skype for Business Online ending in July 2021, leaving only on-premises users; and if you’re running Skype for Business yourself as a phone system you’re probably a medium sized company or bigger, and this is a SMB laptop. Regardless, I personally am a fan and still use Skype for Business so it’s great for my use case, and I expect future models will instead have Microsoft Teams buttons. Maybe these buttons work with Teams anyway – I haven’t tested that yet. The buttons are secondary functions on the ‘print screen’ and ‘insert’ buttons, so worst case you can easily ignore them as they aren’t intrusive in any way, and there’s no dedicated buttons to Skype for Business.
Here’s some side shots of the Lenovo Thinkbook 14:
Front: Looks nice, not much else to see here!
Lenovo Thinkbook 14 Front
Back: No ports here either!
Lenovo Thinkbook 14 Back
Left Side: From left to right we have an RJ45 ethernet port which opens up when needed – seemed solid enough that it wouldn’t snap off easily, full sized HDMI, USB 3.1 with always on, USB-C, USB-C + DisplayPort + Power in, audio jack.
The one complaint I have is that the power in USB-C is the more front of the two ports, where every other Lenovo laptop I’ve had it’s been the one closer to the back. I initially plugged in the wrong one for power and wondered why it wasn’t charging! A minor issue though.
Lenovo Thinkbook 14 Left Side
Right Side: USB 2.0, card reader, USB 3.1, Power.
Yes, behind that little panel is a hidden USB 2.0 port, more on that below. You can also use the older rectangle shaped charger on this laptop, and it’s in it’s rightful place at the back.
Lenovo Thinkbook 14 Right Side
Base: nice long rubber stoppers to stop the laptop sliding around on a desk.
Lenovo Thinkbook 14 Base
Hidden USB 2.0 Port:
This seems like such a simple idea, yet I’ve never seen it before: a port that’s great for your wireless keyboard/mouse dongle, which is recessed into the laptop and has a cover. You’ll no longer have that awkward dongle sticking out of the laptop, asking to be knocked and bent out of shape. All laptops should have this!
Other notable features are the camera shutter so you can avoid feeling like someone’s watching you, and the ‘Smart Power Button’ which has a fingerprint reader, but also briefly ‘saves’ your fingerprint when turning the laptop on, to use when logging in. This means you can turn on and login to the laptop at the same time, getting to your desktop quicker. Another feature that seems simple and hopefully we see more of in other models.
There’s also two Dolby Audio speakers and dual array microphones, as one of the use cases for this is to be a reliable audio/video calling device without needing a headset.
The laptop feels solid and sturdy enough, but not as nice as a high end ThinkPad. You can feel the join where the top and bottom halves of the laptop were joined together, as one layer is on top of the other – but how often are you gently caressing the case of your laptop? Only every few days if you’re me.
Overall I’m very impressed with the ThinkBook 14 for the price point I can see at the time of writing with promotions applied. You won’t get military-spec testing, but you’ll still get a decent laptop fit for SMB.
Lenovo claim that “ThinkBook undergoes stringent tests to withstand spills, bumps, drops, dust, and extreme temperatures.” but I have yet to test the hardyness myself – maybe I will inadvertently.
Although Lenovo provided a demo unit, this was a trial only and the unit returned.
If you haven’t come across these file formats already, you probably will soon. Created by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and adopted by Apple amongst others, it’s looking like a replacement for the old JPEG image format.
The format was added in iOS11 and created when doing things like taking a photo. Early on the files were being converted back to JPEG in many situations, including OneDrive Photo Roll syncs.
I expect something else has changed recently, as I’m seeing the files turn up over email from other parties where I’d never seen them before. If I find out more I’ll update this post.
.HEIC and .HEIF files ‘appear’ to be the same thing, but at this stage I can’t clearly find information explaining if there’s a difference, and if so what that is.
These files can’t be natively opened on Windows 11 or earlier, but there’s a few options you have to view them.
OneDrive
If you have access to OneDrive or OneDrive for Business (which doesn’t take much, a free Microsoft account will do), you can copy these files into OneDrive, right click and ‘View Online’. Via your browser, you can then view the image in OneDrive without any extra software required. However, Microsoft documentation currently does not list the formats as being supported, and I’m also asking questions about this in a few areas. (Update 3rd March 2020 – Microsoft updated this page after I asked :) )
Windows 10 & 11
The native Photos app was supposed to have support for this as per these Insider Build notes. I’ve tested on a few different PCs including a fully patched standard Microsoft build laptop, and Photos doesn’t recognise the files. I’ve been told the support of the files needs the two Windows Store apps, and that matches my testing:
Both are created by ‘Microsoft Corporation’ so they’re not third party, and both are free. Once installed, HEIC and HEIF files work everywhere I’ve tried, including in the native Photos app.
There is also a paid HEVC Video Extensions version from Microsoft that costs $1.45AU, I’m not sure why you’d need this one over the one ‘from the Device Manufacturer’.
Frustratingly, the ‘HEVC Video Extensions from the Device Manufacturer’ app doesn’t seem to be available to add in Windows Store for Business, but the HEIF Image Extensions is. I’m asking around to try and have that resolved, if I can find someone to listen to me :) (Update 3rd March 2020 – this probably won’t change anytime soon for licensing reasons)
Converting
One final option is to convert a HEIC to JPEG. Here’s a quick guide using Linux via a Debian WSL image, installed from the Microsoft Store (thanks Purana for the tip!)
I’ve got a lot of unanswered questions in the above, but hoping this at least helps others that might get stuck in finding a working solution in the meantime.
