Category Archives: Recent Activity

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

Copilot+ PCs Bring Better USB4 Support

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When I went to build recovery media for the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Copilot+ PC last week, I dropped a Belkin TB3 dock into one of its 3 USB-C ports. Why? Because I needed a USB-A port into which to plug the Mushkin Atom UFD I targeted for that purpose. The lead-in graphic shows the dock at the “other end” of USB4 host router 1 (right-click the graphic and open in its own tab to see the whole thing). The next screencap shows the Hardware tab from Properties for that recovery drive (E:). Thus, I claim that Copilot+ PCs bring better USB4 support because until USB4 hubs and devices appeared in settings, users had to run a separate (and less informative) Thunderbolt app from Intel to see what was what. This has improved!

Copilot+ PCs Bring Better USB4 Support.e-drive-hwprops

The Mushkin E: drive is an older USB 3.0 Atom device.

So What If Copilot+ PCs Bring Better USB4 Support?

Though I’ve yet to see any laptops or PCs endowed with USB 4 2.0 (you can see version 1.0 in the lead-in graphic) this is now part and parcel of Windows 11 as well. It will also allow channel speeds to double from 40 Gbps (which 1.0 supports) to 80 Gbps (2.0 only, and primarily limited to video links). This probably doesn’t matter much right now, given that these top-of-the-line versions aren’t yet widely available. But for those who need the speed, this will matter once the peripherals and docks gain USB4 2.0 support.

I’ve got a Qualcomm Copilot+ Developer Kit SFF PC showing up here at Chez Tittel in the next day or two (today, even, maybe). I’ll be quite curious to see what Settings > Bluetooth & devices > USB > USB4 hubs and devices has to tell me about what’s inside and the docks and other devices I plan to hook up. Indeed, I’m going to start with a Lenovo P27u20 monitor, with its integrated TB4 docking capability. Hopefully, it will not only provide a great display, but also the means to hook up my keyboard and mouse. Stay tuned! These USB4 adventures will continue…

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Device drivers, Networking, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10

Disappearing Printer Gets IP-based Fix

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This weekend, we went out looking at new housing developments. To prepare for our quest, I went to print street addresses for model homes in Liberty Hill and Georgetown (two small towns north of here). But when I tried to fire off a print job to the Samsung networked printer next to my desk, Devices and Printers told me it was offline. I’ve learned to recognize it as a sign of driver corruption, so my disappearing printer gets IP-based fix. Let me explain…

Why Say: Disappearing Printer Gets IP-based Fix?

My Samsung ML 2850 is old enough that it does not support the Microsoft Universal Print drivers. I have to load a bespoke device driver to make it work. In turn, that means automated discovery of this network attached printer doesn’t work right, either. That’s why you see the IP address info for the device below in the lead-in graphic (courtesy of Advanced IP Scanner). I use the Add a Printer option that depends on its IP address instead.

The drill is familiar and runs something like this:

1. Notice the Printer is offline
2. Basic troubleshooting doesn’t help
3. Right click the icon in Devices and printers, select delete
4. Use the Add a printer dialog to start the process going
5. Click the “Printer I want isn’t found” option
6. Click the use IP address or hostname on the next pane
7. Use the printer’s IP address to install the current driver

This actually takes longer to explain than it does to execute. But it does work, and it seems I have to do this once every three months or so. I guess that’s the outcome of using a 10-year-old printer (that still works like a champ, BTW). Windows has left it behind, but it still keeps chugging along. Kind of like your humble author, I guess…

Windows 11 Proves More Friendly

Just for grins, I tried discovering the Samsung ML 2850 from a Windows 11 host on the same network. At first, it couldn’t see that device, either. But when I clicked the radio button labeled “My printer is a little older. Help me find it.” the Samsung device did turn up. I had to know enough to select the Microsoft PCL6 Class driver (which handles the interface between the Samsung and the Universal Printing stuff). But once I did that, everything worked as it should. Seems like MS has made Windows 11 rather more printer friendly than I expected (and friendlier even, in this case, than Windows 10). A pleasant surprise indeed!

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Restoring Start11 Start Button Proves Tricky

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I have to laugh! I’ve been mucking around with start menu and taskbar settings lately, working on a story for Tom’s. In the process I managed to switch my start button logo on a test machine. When I reinstalled Start11v2 on that PC, I said to myself “No prob: I’ll just use the Start Button item in the left-hand controls to restore the old start button.” But restoring Start11 Start Button proves tricky, because it’s missing from the Start 11 gallery of StartButtons, as shown in the lead-in graphic.

Why Restoring Start11 Start Button Proves Tricky

Fortunately, the Stardock developers also include a “Download” button on the same page where you can pick from its start button icon gallery. This takes you to the Start Menu Buttons Gallery page at WinCustomize.com. There, I had to flip through to page 5 (of 50!) where I found what I was looking for:

And sure enough, it did the trick! Even though it leaves me wondering why Stardock doesn’t include the Windows 11 default start button by conscious, deliberate choice, it’s always nice to find a way to get where you want to go. Problem solved, and my test PC is back to where it should be, and working as I want it to. Isn’t that just how things go sometimes in Windows-World, where one change often leads to another? Or, where a change that produces the desired effect also causes something else that’s less desirable? Sure enough: it’s true.

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Cool Tools, Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Calc Key Follies Fixed

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Here’s an interesting one. I have a Microsoft Comfort Curve 4000 ergonomic keyboard (and two more in my parts closet: I LIKE them). Lately, though, when I press the “Calculator” (Calc) key on the very top row of long, narrow silver keys at furthest right something odd occurs. Calc shows me a “blank face,” as you can see in the lead-in graphic. Basically it’s just a big blue block of nothing much. Attend, and I’ll explain I I got these Calc key follies fixed.

For the record, I don’t *want* to see the blank face of Calc. I want to see the keypad so I can use the darn thing, like so:

Multiple Methods Get Calc Key Follies Fixed

I discovered these methods partly by searching the web, and partly by experimentation. There are three of them, to wit:

Method 1: Close Calc, then hit the Calc key again. This one’s my favorite so it’s my go-to now. It involves the lease effort and goes fastest.

Method 2: Open the Calc app from the Start Menu. Even though pressing the Calc key shows a blank face, visiting the Calculator app through Start always works. It takes added mouse clicks, though. Until I figured out Method 1 by experimentation, this was my go-to method.

Method 3: Go to Settings > Installed Apps, click on the ellipsis for Calculator, Click the Advanced Options button, scroll down to Reset, then click the Repair button. That’s 5 mouse clicks and a bit of scrolling. Waaaaaaay too long for me, but it does do the trick. But then the question is: why does this condition keep coming back, even after an app reset? I think I know the answer: read on, please.

Special Keys Require a Custom Driver

The Comfort Curve 4000 keyboard has a whole row of elongated, narrow silver keys that use special, driver-based, context-sensitive macros. These do things like jump to the home screen, open a search window, open email, access the volume controls (up and down), and so forth. And yes, at far right you can see the Calc key that’s been acting up lately. They occupy the top row from left almost to the numeric keypad at right, as shown here:

My best guess is that something in the driver is losing its proper connection to the Calc app so that when the key is pressed once, it gets close to launch but not all the way there. Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to get the Calculator working as I’ve described.

But gosh, aren’t these little foibles fascinating? It’s a bit of a pain to run into them, true. But it’s a blast to figure out what’s happening and why, and then to find fixes or workarounds. Just another day here in Windows-World!

 

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

MS Intel/AMD Copilot+ PC Date Drop

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Though the details aren’t terribly specific, MS has provided an inkling of when Copilot+ PCs running Intel and AMD CPUs should ship. In an item about a new incremental update technique dated July 15, MS provides the snippet depicted in the lead-in graphic above. This states that “Windows 11, version 24H2 will be available as a traditional feature update to all devices later this year.” Thus, I call this an MS Intel/AMD Copilot+ PC date drop — of sorts, at least.

What Does This MS Intel/AMD Copilot+ PC Date Drop Mean?

I confess: I’m reading somewhat between the lines as I interpret this. But I’m not alone: you’ll find stories at WindowsLatest, TechRadar, Windows Central, and elsewhere that draw the same conclusions I do. Of course, the words “later this year” could occur any time between now and December 31, 2024, so that stipulation is far from precise or narrowly targeted.

That said, I’m in accord with most industry watchers — including the afore-linked stories — in believing that 24H2 is likely to drop some time in Q4 2024. My best guess would be “after Thanksgiving, but before Christmas” to give room to steer around major end-of-year holidays and associated time off for breaks. But it could happen earlier, to get 24H2 out of the way before the holiday season kicks off in late November. Only time will tell…

Further Points of Possible Confirmation

Intel’s May 20 press release for its Lunar Lake CPUs reads “Starting Q3 2024 in time for the holiday season, Intel’s upcoming client processors … will power more than 80 new laptop designs across more than 20 [OEMs]…” A June 2 press release from AMD steers clear of dates for its Ryzen AI 300 Series CPUs, but does mention partnerships with ” Acer, ASUS, HP, Lenovo and MSI” that will surely ship at or about the time time that Intel’s OEM partners offer up their competing laptops and so forth.

Could it be that interesting options for end-of-year gifting might include snazzy new technology toys? MIght you or I want one? For sure!

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Intermittent Mouse Needs New Battery

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I have a kind of love-hate relationship with mice. Because I work on a desktop PC by choice, I’m more or less forced to use a USB-attached pointing device. I’ve switched back and forth between wired and wireless models because their weaknesses sometimes vex me. For the wired meese, the wire tends to snarl up with other cables on my desk. For wireless models, what frosts my jowls is intermittent or imprecise cursor stuttering or movement. I started to experience that on my current mouse this morning: a usually unflappable (and wireless) Microsoft Mobile Mouse 4000. Then I noticed a dimly pulsating red indicator light atop the device. Oho! This intermittent mouse needs new battery to work properly.

Why My Intermittent Mouse Needs New Battery

According this MS Community thread, the light is a battery life or status indicator. When you plug a new battery in, it shows green for 5 seconds, then turns itself off. Ditto when you power the mouse back on. When the battery is starting to fail, it shows red for the same interval upon power-up. And when battery levels are going critical — that is, it’s about to die — the dim red pulsations begin. Good to know!

We shop at Costco, so we always have lots of batteries around. As soon as I swapped out the old AA for a new one, I got the green glow for 5 seconds. Now it’s dark again. And presto! The mouse is no longer stuttering, and it’s tracking exactly where I want it to go. Yay!

The Best Issues Get Quick, Easy Fixes

Working with PCs in Windows-World means there’s always something in need of fixing or figuring out. Once you identify an issue, the troubleshooting process begins. Over my decades working with this stuff, I’ve learned to appreciate problems that are easy to recognize, diagnose and fix. Today’s successful battery swap definitely falls in that category, even if another one bits the dust as a result.

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Networking, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Pondering Post-Hurricane Internet Outages

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The old saying in my home state of Texas is “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes. It’ll change.” Things took a turn for the worse on Monday and Tuesday, when Hurricane Beryl tore through the Gulf cost then Houston. At one point, over 2M locations (households or businesses) had no electricity. That number is still about 1.2M as I write this screed according to PowerOutage.us. One unexpected effect caused most Internet Service in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio to fail from about noon Tuesday until after 7PM that day. As a member of an affected household, it has me pondering post-hurricane Internet outages.

Fortunately, our 5G service stayed up and continued to provide Internet access. So I was able to limp along during the outage, using my iPhone 12 as a hotspot for minimal connectivity. Failing over from a nominal GbE link to something that delivers 5 MBps if we’re lucky stings, though.

If Pondering Post-Hurricane Internet Outages, Think Failover

Until last year, I had a Inseego MiFi M2100 mobile hotspot through my Verizon account. I kept it around as a fallback when the pandemic hit, because we had to have Internet access, guaranteed, while my son was attending high school remotely. He’s off to college now, and we’re doing our best to cut recurring expenses — like most American families nowadays. So we dropped the hotspot when we switched over from Verizon to Spectrum for cellphone service last year. The iPhone isn’t quite as robust as the MiFi device, but it does the job in a pinch.

Looking at news coverage of Tuesday’s Internet outage, Spectrum is quoted as saying it arose from “a third-party infrastructure issue caused by the impact of Hurricane Beryl.” My guess is that an Internet POP/peering location got flooded, or lost power, and backup generators couldn’t or didn’t pick up the slack. The afore-linked story also tells me that the affected area also included Laredo, San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley, and Corpus Christi.

Resilience Matters

As somebody who makes his living at least partly thanks to Internet access — I use it for research and learning, for business communications, to obtain and deliver work assignments, and a whole lot more — ongoing access is essential. I’m glad I could use the iPhone as a failover device, but it definitely battered my productivity.

It’s enough to get me thinking about doubling up on fiber-optic coverage, and bringing in the AT&T Uverse fiber service alongside Spectrum’s CATV-based GbE service for redundancy’s sake. The question then becomes: it it worth the extra expense? I’ll have to think on that…

 

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

Notepad Gets General Spellcheck

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Since March, 2024, or thereabouts, MS has been testing spellcheck within the venerable Notepad app in Windows 11 Insider Preview versions. As of the latest Store version (11.2405.13.0) however, it is now popping up in production/stable Windows 11 builds (22631.3380, as I write this item). Hence, my proclamation that Notepad gets general spellcheck for Windows 11. The lead-in graphic shows what this looks like for a simple sentence with 2 typos.

If You Don’t See that Notepad Gets General Spellcheck

Whenever I read about new features or capabilities showing up in Windows, I like to go look for myself and confirm their presence or absence. So when I read about this yesterday in a story from Sergey Tkachenko at WinAero, I tried it out to see what was what. At first, spellcheck didn’t work.

First thing: I checked Settings to make sure it was turned on. Indeed, it was. So I toggled it off, then toggled it back on. That did the trick — and produced the spell-checked text you see in the lead-in screencap. If you find yourself facing the same circumstances, that simple operation will hopefully produce visible spellcheck output, too.

One more thing: spellcheck is sensitive to file extensions. It does spellcheck text types. But it does not check scripts, programming language source code, or log files (e.g. .ps1, .py, or .log/.evt). You’ve been warned! So far, I like I what I see when Notepad does its spellcheck thing. Check it out!

 

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Word Gets Seriously Weird

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I should know better, so I have no one to blame but myself. Yesterday, I was beavering away on an MS Word project for one of my regular customers. An update notification popped up in Word and I confess: I clicked “OK” before I really thought about what that might mean. Alas, I was about to find out — the hard way. My project entailed “rolling up” three tech briefs into one single, larger document which made it mostly a cut-n-paste exercise with some minor reformatting, intro/outro content creation, and a QA pass over about 6,000 words of copy. Then, as MS Word gets seriously weird in the wake of the updates, I notice things aren’t working correctly.

When Word Gets Seriously Weird, Start Over

As somebody who’s been writing professionally in MS Word since the mid-1980s (40 years or so), I’ve seen my share of Word weirdness. Because I was heads-down, trying furiously to hit a deadline, I didn’t really notice what was going on. But slowly it dawned on me that:

  • cut-n-paste boundaries were off
  • item selection was acting strange
  • keyboard and mouse responses were slow and cranky
  • menu commands were sluggish

Finally I thought to myself “Maybe updating Word while I was working wasn’t such a good idea.” I did close and then reopen all files, but apparently that was insufficient. So I went for the first step in any real Office repair: a reboot. I closed all open apps, initiated a restart, and crossed my fingers.

Shoulda Done That in the First Place!

After the reboot, it took a while to set my content elements back up. I opened three source files, a target file, and a template/go-by file, and then started over on the target file. Everything worked just like it was supposed to. I was able to finish the second try at the project in about an hour and half, more or less in line with my original estimate.

What I hadn’t counted on — and won’t get caught on again for a while — is that permitting Office to update itself while I was trying to hit a deadline wasn’t a good idea. I ended up losing another 90 minutes to that debacle. But eventually, I figured out what was up, and responded appropriately. And isn’t that just the way things go sometimes — especially when deadline loom — here in Windows-World? You bet!

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AI, Cool Tools, Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

UUPDump Covers ARM64 ISOs

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OK, then: now that I’ve got a Copilot+ PC with Snapdragon X Elite CPU, I’m paying attention to backups and restores, plus repairs and rebuilds. Thus when I saw Paul Thurrott’s (Premium) post this morning The Windows 11 on ARM ISO Conundrum I immediately jumped over to UUPDump.net to check ARM64 status. To my great relief, UUPDump covers ARM64 ISOs — along with other kinds — as you can see in the lead-in graphic. This is doubly valuable, because neither the Windows 10 nor the Windows 11 download pages provide ARM64 ISO options. Thus, they can’t build ARM64 ISOs, either (10 offers x86 32- and 64-bit, 11 x86 64-bit only).

Thank Goodness: UUPDump covers ARM64

I used the search string “24H2 arm64” at UUPDump.net to produce the lead-in graphic. Checking my Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X Copilot+ PC using winver.exe, I see it’s running Build 26100.1000 right now. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, that’s the top/most recent version of Windows 11 24H2 available at present.

Just for grins, I’ll visit the site and generate myself an ISO for this version later today. Who knows? It may come in handy for repairs and/or as the basis for a bootable flash drive. Lord knows they’re handy whenever Windows gets weird as it will sometimes do on its own. And when I’m beating on a review PC I do have a tendency to break things a-purpose, just to see what happens. Repair/recovery media are always good just in case they’re needed, right?

Other News on the ARM64 Front

I’ve got some deadlines today, but I’ll be reaching out to Lenovo tomorrow. I still haven’t been able to get into a VM on the Slim 7x. I keep getting hung up at the Start screen, which goes straight to PXE boot and then gets nowhere. There’s got to be a trick I haven’t been able to figure out on my own, so I’m going to ask the real professionals for help — namely the support SMEs who try to help hapless reviewers like yours truly who dig themselves into the occasional hole.

Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted on my ongoing adventures with limited-access Windows 11, as well as all the other versions I’m running around here.

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