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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

WinGet Weirdness Finally Whacked

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Every once in a while, Windows throws you a problem so strange, so deep in the plumbing, that you can’t help but treat it like a spelunking adventure. Over the past week, I’ve worked through one of those rare cases. Copilot ultimately helped diagnose it as a completely broken WinGet (aka Microsoft.AppInstaller) stack. Apparently, it came from corruption inside the WindowsApps directory. That’s the protected, TrustedInstaller‑owned home for all MSIX/AppX packages. I worked through a recovery  process that touched ACLs, reparse points, Safe Mode, user‑level activation, and the PATH environment itself. Ultimately and fortunately, it ended with WinGet weirdness finally whacked.

Getting to WinGet Weirdness Finally Whacked

The symptoms were deceptively simple: WinGet wasn’t recognized, App Installer wouldn’t register, and the user‑level WindowsApps folder lacked key shims. Alas, the root cause was far deeper. The system‑level C:\Program Files\WindowsApps directory had partially corrupted ACLs, preventing enumeration that blocked TrustedInstaller from working. Even elevated tools couldn’t see its innards.

The breakthrough came in Safe Mode, where Windows releases some of its usual locks. Using takeown and icacls, I forcibly reclaimed ownership and permissions long enough to inspect the directory. Hundreds of previously invisible entries suddenly appeared — confirmation that the ACL choke point had finally broken open.

From there, I rebuilt the directory’s security model: restoring SYSTEM and TrustedInstaller with full control, removing inheritance, and returning ownership to TrustedInstaller. With the system-level store healthy, I exited Safe Mode (after discovering that msconfig, not BCD, was trapping the machine there) and rebooted into normal Windows.

Repairing WinGet/Microsoft.AppInstaller

Next came the App Installer repair. The system package was still resident, but user-level registration was MIA. I downloaded the official MSIX bundle, reinstalled it, and then manually re‑registered the package using its AppxManifest. That restored the user‑level WindowsApps directory and recreated the shims — including winget.exe.

But one last puzzle remained: even with the shim present, Windows still didn’t recognize the command. The culprit turned out to be the PATH. During the earlier corruption, Windows had silently dropped this critical entry:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps

Without that, no packaged app alias can resolve. Adding it back with setx, signing out, and signing back in finally brought the entire chain back to life. winget -v lit up instantly.

In the end, the repair touched nearly every layer of the Windows package‑servicing stack: NTFS ACLs, TrustedInstaller ownership, AppX registration, user‑level activation, and environment variables. It was a rare, deep, and oddly satisfying recovery — the kind of fix you document not just for others, but for the story it tells.
And now WinGet is fully operational again.

I’m celebrating the occasional “happy ending” that’s so rare in Windows-World. If you’re lucky you’ll never have cause to do likewise. But if this ever happens to you, here’s a trail of breadcrumbs to lead you out of that forest…

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

CrapFixer Gives ASUS A14 Low Bloat Rating

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One of the “interesting parts” of new machine intake is the process of removing things the system maker installs that you don’t want. This is often called “debloating” or “degunking.” I’m adding this to my intake process going forward, and reporting on it today, because I’m mostly convinced that the GitHub CrapFixer project does a good job of taking stock and reporting on unwanted apps (among many other things). I just ran it on my newest Copilot+ PC, and I’m pleased to report that CrapFixer Gives ASUS A14 low bloat rating. I’ll explain…

How CrapFixer Gives ASUS A14 Low Bloat Rating

I’m basing my “low bloat rating” on the information that appears in the lead-in graphic. It’s the CrapFixer “Analyze” output that shows up under the “APPS ANALYSIS” heading. Indeed, there are 17 entries there. BUT inspection reveals that none of these items come from third parties: they are items included by default in a normal Windows 11 installation.

That ties into the definition or bloatware or crapware that I think makes most sense. That definition: software apps from third parties that at least some user neither want nor need on their PCs. Frequent examples include:

  • Trial AntiVirus Suites: McAfee, Norton, Trend Micro, etc.
  • Cloud Storage trials: Dropbox, Box, etc.
  • Media/entertainment trials: Netflix, Spotify, etc.
  • Game trials or freemium games: Candy Crush, Hidden City, etc.

The ASUS A14 Zenbook includes none of these, except stuff that Microsoft bundles with the OS. That’s about as low as bloat gets. For the record, my recently-added Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo 50q gets the same rating, for the same reason.

Here in Windows-World bloatware is not uncommon on new PCs and laptops. It’s nice when little or none presents. And both ASUS and Lenovo make third-party offers available for owners thru their update apps (MyASUS and Lenovo Vantage, respectively). But they don’t preinstall them on their PCs. Good -oh!

 

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Diving Into Recovery Media Rabbithole

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I went down a number of dead ends yesterday, trying to restore WinGet to proper operation on my Flo6 AMD desktop. One of the more interesting and frustrating alleys I banged around in involved building bootable recovery media for Windows 11. At first,  I tried to get Copilot to steer me through, but found myself wandering in circles. So I turned to the built-in RecoveryDrive.exe tool. Diving into recovery media rabbithole took longer than I wanted, but gave me what I needed. I’ll explain…

Diving Into Recovery Media Rabbithole Requires Escape

Copilot had me formatting two partitions (UEFI: 1024MB; NTFS: rest of UFD), copying files, creating boot configuration data, and more. Only problem I had was that creation and management of the runtime environment ramdisk kept falling over sideways.

After my third failed attempt to create such a drive from scratch, I turned to the built-in Recovery Drive facility inside Windows 11 itself. (Visit Settings, search for “recovery drive” and it’ll take you right there.) This took a long-ish while to complete (about 45 minutes, all told). But it did what I needed it to do, and let me attempt AppX provisioning and repairs on a quiescent Windows image. That didn’t work out so well for me, but it did make it possible for me to learn some new PowerShell and Command Prompt tricks. I even got a couple of chances to dig into Safe Mode boot on my production desktop.

File layout for the Recovery Media looks like a typical Windows Setup disk (it can do that, too).

Desktop Fights Alternate Boot-ups: I Fight Back

At first, I was a bit stymied by the unwillingness of the Windows repair boot screen to field function keys (F1 for UEFI, F11 for boot menu, and so forth). But after a while, I learned how to work around those hurdles. Msconfig came in handy for getting into Safe Mode, while various flavors of the shutdown command let me access UEFI, alternate boot options, troubleshooting menus, and more.

The day was not a total loss, but it did throw me behind schedule on some project work. Today, I’m nosing the grindstone as I start to catch up. And isn’t that just the way things too often go, here in Windows-World?

 

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OCuLink versus Thunderbolt

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I just learned something new (to me, anyway). In reading about a mini-PC at Neowin today, I ran across mention of an OCuLink port. It looks alot like DisplayPort (full-sized) but it’s not. As Sydney Butler at How-to Geek explains things “OCuLink…[is] short for ‘Optical-Copper Link,’ [and] is a peripheral connection standard that allows you to connect PCIe devices using an external cable rather than an internal slot.” Thus, it uses raw PCIe signaling instead of protocol based channel communications, which makes it faster and cheaper than Thunderbolt 4 (but not 5. where it’s cheaper but slower).

Why Compare OCuLink versus Thunderbolt?

OCuLink can do many of the same things that Thunderbolt does — notably make fast NVMe and eGPU connections — often more cheaply. It can handle external GPUs (eGPUs) faster than TB4 (not TB5), and at lower cost.

OCuLink is not as widely used in laptops, however, and depends on a PCIe (X4 or X8 usually) adapter to make such ports available for use. A new standard, called CopperLink, is on the way to support PCIe 5.0 and 6.0 (and compete directly with TB5). Indeed you can even buy an OCuLink eGPU dock with dual OCuLink and TB5 ports, an M.2 NVMe SSD slot, 2.5Gbe (RJ-45), and even dual USB 3.0 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports for US$240. That’s about half the price of a TB5 dock (e.g. CalDigit, Anker, Lenovo, etc.) nowadays…

Does Slow Thunderbolt Uptake Open a Door?

A good TB4 enclosure costs upward of US$60 these days, and includes a cable. A good TB5 enclosures costs upward of US$150 and includes a cable. A decent OCuLink enclosure costs US$40 or so, but needs a US$20-40 cable to work. It runs faster than TB4 but slower than TB5. The same general scenario applies to running external GPUs: here again, OCuLink falls between TB4 and TB5.

For desktop and mini-PC users with access to open PCIe X4 slots, OCuLink is worth considering. Laptop and tablet owners will probably opt for TB4 because that’s what the majority of OEMs support nowadays. In the future, it’ll be interesting to see if CopperLink gains traction at the expense of TB5. It’s an Open Standard, so OEMs don’t have to pay to license the technology for inclusion in their devices. On such small factors big decisions sometimes rest here in Windows-World. Let’s see what happens!

 

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Notepad++ Update Stalls WinGet

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Ha! I just learned something new. Because Notepad++ uses a Win32 installer, when WinGet tries to update the app, it will hang if Notepad++ is open. That’s how a Notepad++ update stalls WinGet. Fortunately, I was able to get over that hump pretty easily. Let me explain…

Why Say: Notepad++ Update Stalls WinGet?

WinGet stayed on the first update until I realized the program was open. Then I closed it, and about 30 seconds later, progress resumed. According to Copilot, Notepad++ uses a “classic Win32 installer” that’s downloaded and run silently. That installer tries to replace files in C:\Porgram Files\Notepad++, including notepad++.exe. If the file is running, Windows won’t let the installer overwrite that file.

So it waits a while (30, 60 and 90 seconds, according to Copilot) and retries after each interval expires. When the third try fails, the installer reports failure and closes. I was able to close the app before the second try, and then that attempt succeeded, which is how it took a while to complete the update process.

Moral of the story: when certain apps pop up in response to WinGet ugprade it’s a good idea to make sure they’re closed. Indeed, if such updates fail, they’ll most likely succeed if you close them before a retry. And man, isn’t that just the way things work here in Windows-World? Some of the time, at least…

Another Stall, Another Reason…

I ran WinGet again on another PC and once again it hung. But Notepad++ wasn’t open on that PC. So I went digging into the log file named WinGet-2025-12-29-11-42-19.224.log. There, I found a long sequence of the following two information lines (I skipped the timestamp info for brevity:

[REPO] Attempting to open pinning database: C:\Users\ed\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.DesktopAppInstaller_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState\pinning.db
[CLI ] Terminating context: 0x8a15002b at C:\__w\1\s\external\pkg\src\AppInstallerCLICore\Workflows\UpdateFlow.cpp:be

This started at 11:42:22.609 and ended at 11:42:22.929 (0.320 seconds) and repeated every .002 seconds (160 times). It seems that, for some reason, WinGet couldn’t access its pinning database during that time period. Thus, WinGet stalls until that condition is addressed. Another stall, but another reason, too. Cheers.

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Presence Sensing Pitfalls

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OK, then. I just returned from a 10-day hiatus during which time we drove to California and back. Purpose: to pick up number-one son at college and bring him home for the holidays. When I sat down at my desk, I noticed that the ThinkPad T14s would sense my presence, and start itself up unprompted, even though I was busy on my desktop. This illustrates one of the various presence sensing pitfalls that Windows 11 sets up, and the ThinkPad enables. Let me explain…

Working Around Presence Sensing Pitfalls

In theory, presence sensing uses the PC’s camera to figure out when you’re close by, and to start itself up when you move into some distance from the device. (See lead-in graphic.)  In practice, things are a little more complex and interesting. Why so? Here are some reasons:

  • Inside Settings, if you look for presence sensing through brute force, not much appears. If you search, that leads to Privacy & security > Presence Sending.
  • You can’t get to “Presence Sensing settings” directly, because they appear under System > Power & battery > Turn off my screen when I leave. There’s a section entitled “Wake my device when I approach” with other entailments, too. That’s where the real action is.
  • Looks like presence sensing works best when it’s for a primary machine, but not so much when it’s a secondary beast. I’m turning it off on the laptop for that reason.

Long story short: to defeat the presence sensing (I mostly use this unit via RDP anyway), I had to turn off “Wake my device when I approach.” That not only stops it from firing up while I’m sitting at my desk, it also keeps it from popping up and doing stuff every 30 seconds or so (mildly vexing).

It just goes to show that not all Windows controls are completely intuitive. Nor are they always labeled as you think they should be. I’m convinced that’s why MS had to put a link to “Presence Sensing settings” on the eponymous screen (“Presence Sensing”) in the Privacy & Security silo in Settings. Here in Windows-World, the only way to get where you need to go may be indirect. This is one such path…

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Screen Change Breaks Advanced IP Scanner

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Ooo wee ooo… Things got weird here at Chez Tittel this week. On Tuesday, I blogged about moving my Main display from left-hand monitor (1) to right-hand monitor (2). It gives improved visibility to the notification area. Alas, that screen priority change breaks Advanced IP Scanner, a favorite remote access monitoring and management tool of mine. Buckle up, kids: this is how the weirdness crept in…

How Screen Change Breaks Advanced IP Scanner

It drove me crazy, in fact. After the switchover, if I ran Advanced IP Scanner (I’ll abbreviate it as AIS from now on), it would launch. I’d see the window open briefly, and move to the right of my right-hand screen. Any attempts to bring it back into a visible spot on either monitor didn’t work. And it showed up on the Taskbar thumbnail as an empty white box.

Only when I went back to Settings > System > Display and reset the left-hand monitor as “Main display” did AIS reappear in viewable form. I’ve seen some quirks and oddities in my 30-plus year history with Windows, but this one ranks right up there near the top.

Because I have to choose between using AIS and easier access to the Notification area, I’m going with AIS (and have restored (1) as the main display). Why? Because I’m always messing with other PCs on my LAN and I like to remote into them. AIS makes it dead simple to open a Remote Desktop Connection into them via their current IP address. Local address tables get flaky when, as I often do, I switch units between Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet. So I’m choosing convenience over visibility.

And boy howdy, is that the way things sometimes go here in Windows-World. All I can say is “Happy Friday!”

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Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) Handles ARM PCs

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At the end of yesterday’s hopefully thrilling episode, I said I’d follow up on my experiences with Hasleo Backup Suite. I got it installed on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (a Snapdragon X based ARM PC). I’m pleased to report it works as it should. Not only did I make and restore a backup, I also built — and successfully booted into — the program’s emergency disk. So far, looks like the Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) handles ARM PCs just fine. As you can see from its tools menu above, it even includes boot menu placement, image handling of all kinds, MBR and VSS repairs, and more. Good-oh!

Proving Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) Handles ARM PCs

How do I get from saying “it looks like Hasleo works” to asserting that the program actually, definitely does the job? That’s going to take time and repeat experience. I’m setting up a daily backup schedule. I’ll be messing around with its other tools and facilities on an ongoing basis. If something is wonky, that will probably clue me in.

I do have one additional piece of positive evidence about Hasleo, however. User Stigg at ElevenForum.com started a long-running and active thread (33 pages, 645 posts) on July 8, 2023 entitled Hasleo Backup Suite. He reports on “extensive testing of Hasleo Backup Suite over the past months” and opines that “it’s looking very promising.” Subsequent long-term traffic and interactions on the thread bear that out.

Indeed, I am coming around to the idea that Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) is a worthy successor to Macrium Reflect 8 (Free), which is no longer being updated (nor works with ARM PCs — one must purchase a license for Reflect X to gain awesome ARM access). I’ll say this, though: Reflect X is at least twice as fast at backups and restores as Hasleo, so those for whom time is money might want to ante up anyway. ‘Nuff said.

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Another ARM Boot Boondoggle

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Right. So I’m in the process of covering my ARM PC assets to prevent further boot and BCD issues. One important tool in that coverage is backup/restore. Alas, I’m learning that most such toolsets — including all of the free ones I try to use by preference — don’t work (or work well) with ARM PCs. Yesterday, in fact, I got caught in another ARM boot boondoggle. Indeed, it produced the dread STOP error message “INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE” (0X0000007B). Let me explain…

Recovering from Another ARM Boot Boondoggle

Here’s the deal: most of the free backup/restore toolsets — including AIOMEI Backupper, EaseUS ToDo, Paragon Backup and Recovery Free, Cobian Backup and so forth — don’t work (or work well) with ARM-based PCs. What caused the boot error yesterday was EaseUs ToDo, which injects additional drivers into the Windows boot process. Not only does that not work on ARM PCs, but the program offers no warnings, nor informs users that proceeding with install results in an unusable system.

“Good thing I’ve got the Lenovo USB Recovery Key,” I thought to myself. At least I knew how to dig myself out of this mess. As far as I can tell, only the Hasleo Backup Suite Free and Macrium Reflect X (free trial, but pay for real use) offer backup/restore and rescue media capabilities that work on ARM-based PCs. Go figure!

One Reflect X License Left…

I just checked my Macrium Reflect account, and I’ve got one X license left. Right now, I have two ARM laptops here at Chez Tittel. I think I’ll give Hasleo a try on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s. Shoot! I know from repeated use that the Lenovo USB Recovery Key will bail me out of any trouble I might get myself into.

Stay tuned: I’ll let you know how this adventure continues. It’s started to get interesting. And I mean more interesting than I’d hoped or expected. Sigh.

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Moving Windows 11 Main Display

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OK, then: now that my vision is limited thanks to cataract surgery last year, I’m adjusting what I can see without reading glasses. One of those things is relocating the notification area. Turns out it’s easier to see on the right-hand monitor in my dual-display setup. Moving Windows 11 main display — see the lead-in graphic for the source of this terminology — works through Settings > System > Display.

Moving Windows 11 Main Display, Step-by-Step

When you click into Settings > System > Display, your available monitors will appear in their positions as you’ve established them (or as Windows has done so on your behalf). The current “main display” (see greyed out first line under the Multiple displays heading) is highlighted in blue.

When I first entered that pane in Settings, Display 1 was highlighted. Here’s how I changed that to what you see in the lead-in graphic, step by step:

1. Click on monitor 2 at right (moves highlight from 1 to 2)
2. Click on the checkbox to the left of “Make this my main display” shown below unchecked

Once you’ve clicked that checkbox, your displays will pause for a second or two. They’ll also shrink for a moment. Next, Display 2 becomes main and that checkbox appears greyed-out. Done!

Accommodating Aging Eyeballs

I’m learning all kinds of tricks to make it easier for me to see what’s happening in Windows-World. The Zoom option in Outlook messages and Word documents, and the page Zoom functions in browsers like Chrome and so forth — all of which I blow up to 150% — are particularly useful. I can keep chunking along productively, as long as I can see what I’m doing. Learning how to make Windows work to those ends is helpful and lets me stay on the playing field.

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