Category Archives: Updates

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

Busy Week Brings 9 WinGet Updates

Leave a comment

It’s been a busy week, so I’ve been doing stuff more, and playing less with Windows. How do I know? I just ran WinGet on my production desktop and it tossed up a new personal high. That’s right: my busy week brings 9 WinGet updates to my Windows Terminal PowerShell session. You can see the intro part in the lead-in graphic. Wow!

When Busy Week Brings 9 WinGet Updates, Install Them

So that’s what I’m doing right now, as I write this blog post. The whole 9 items took about 2 minutes to complete. It brought 8 successes and one failure. Because I have numerous M365 components open right now, the M365 Apps for Enterprise install failed. That’s probably because I’m using a different subscription version tied to a different MSA. The one I’m using cheerfully reports itself all caught up.

It’s the one I’m NOT using that reports itself out-of-date (which is perfectly OK, because I’m not using it. Maybe I should remove it?) Isn’t it funny how using multiple MSAs in a Windows PC can occasionally make life interesting when you login with one such account, and use assets tied to another such account?

It’s All Part of Windows’ Inestimable Charms…

Learning where the eccentricities reside or potholes lie, and steering around them, gives me countless opportunities for learning and enjoyment when it comes to working with Windows. But less so than usual this week: I’m busy. In fact, I need to go do some paying work as soon as I’m done here. Cheers!

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, PowerShell, Updates, WED Blog

PowerShell Install Goes Cancelled to Abandoned

Leave a comment

Here’s a good one. Take a look near the bottom of the lead-in graphic. It shows what happens at the end of a WinGet upgrade sequence with the PowerShell installer. But whereas that installer used to say “Installation cancelled” it now says “Installation abandoned.” Hence my assertion: PowerShell Install Goes Cancelled to Abandoned. In truth, this simply means the Windows Terminal window must be closed and re-opened for a new PowerShell version to take effect.

What PowerShell Install Goes Cancelled to Abandoned Means

Things get interesting when a program that’s currently running gets updated. Generally, for the code to take over from the old, the old must first stop. Then, the new must start up and run, so it can use all of its newly-minted capabilities and capacities. The “cancelled” and “abandoned” stuff is text for an error message that indicates the installer itself had to terminate in some kind of unexpected, unusual, or surprising way.

Look at what comes up when I close Windows Terminal, and then re-open it. Just for grins, I add WinGet list microsoft.PowerShell and another WinGet upgrade … check. The former shows the new version 7.4.2.0 is present (as does the lead-in prompt above it). The latter shows that a new WinGet check no longer reports that PowerShell needs an upgrade. Case closed!

PowerShell Install Goes Cancelled to Abandoned.follow-up

The new PowerShell version is running so it no longer generates an update notification. [Click image full full-size view.]

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

Reboot After NVIDIA 552.22 . . . Or Else!

Leave a comment

I updated my production desktop with its RTX 3070 Ti GPU yesterday. When that process completed, the installer asked me if I wanted to restart now or wait until later. Because I was busy working, I elected later. Then in the usual crush of a frenetic afternoon, I completely forgot that reminder. It came back crashing down upon me this morning when I noticed that graphics performance was discernibly laggy. “Aha!” I thought to myself: “The reminder should have said ‘Reboot after NVIDIA 552.22 . . . or else suffer the consequences.”

Why Reboot After NVIDIA 552.22 Update?

That was the question I asked yesterday when the installer gave its reminder. I got my answer this morning when I noticed that graphics performance was visibly slower than usual. Turns out that while the 552.22 release notes don’t explicitly say “You must reboot upon installing,” it’s considered a best practice to do so when updating a big, complex driver like the one that drives a relatively modern GPU.

That’s probably why the installer asked me to reboot when it finished. I got my demonstration this morning, after forcing my system to sleep at 4-something AM this morning when I saw the monitor was on after wandering around on a predictable nocturnal mission.

Next Time, I’ll Do It When I Quit for the Day

Upon reflection, I now realize something obvious. When I got up from my PC in the evening, with no intent to return until the next morning, that would’ve been the ideal time to reboot. As it is, I had to wait around 90 seconds, all told, for the machine to shut down, restart and reboot to the desktop. Tolerable, but not the smartest way to take the NVIDIA installer’s apt advice.

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

Beta Channel Rollback Follies

Leave a comment

Found myself in an interesting pickle after running an in-place repair install on the 2018 vintage X380 Yoga for Build 22635.3495. Before the repair, DISM . . .  /AnalyzeComponentStore was showing me bogus reclaimable packages (see lead-in graphic). After the repair install, those bogus packages were gone — but alas, so were my start menu and task bar icons. Thus, I found myself engaged in Beta Channel rollback follies as I returned to the earlier status quo.

Before Beta Channel Rollback Follies, Some Flailing Around

Before I went to System > Recovery > Go Back to return to the previous status quo, I tried a bunch of repairs on the affected PC. None of the traditional usual suspects gave up the goods:

  1. Turned off Start 11v2 and went back to default Start menu
  2. Tried jacking around with Start11v2 settings galore
  3. Ran explorer.exe from Run box/Task Manager run

Whatever I tried, I was stuck with an invisible Start menu and no visible Taskbar icons. In the end it proved to be more trouble to run Windows without easy menu access than to put up with those bogus reclaimable packages.

Follies, Enumerated and Excoriated

Along the way back to where I started, I had a few bumps in the road. Because I typically run my test PCs through an RDP window on my main desktop, I had to remember “Oh yeah, you have to run Recovery options from the physical desktop.” I also stumbled around numerous Start11 menu settings that didn’t work as they’re supposed to — simply because the underlying Start menu was itself out of order.

Once I realized local repairs weren’t getting me anywhere, I knew enough to say, “Time to roll back.” I’ll stand pat on my current situation until MS comes out with a new Beta update (it usually happens once every week or two). Then, I’ll try again. Hopefully the next one will work properly and not show a bunch of spurious reclaimable packages, either. We’ll see…

A Terrible Trade-Off

Normally, running an in-place repair install results in a Windows image that’s pristine and works well. This is the first time I can ever recall that such a repair took a mildly bollixed image and left it unable to work properly after it was applied. As I’ve been thinking about what this might mean, I’m pondering a clean install on this test PC as an alternative to waiting for the next Beta Channel release. It will probably depend on how much free time I have this week. Stay tuned! I’ll keep reporting on this one…

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

PowerToys Puzzle Locks Together

Leave a comment

Last week I blogged about how two quick back-to-back Powertoys releases seemed  to have left WinGet one release behind. No more! What I described as an “interesting PowerToys Puzzle” was indeed a function of lagging manifest updates. This morning,that former PowerToys puzzle locks together as you see WinGet update it from v0.80.0 to the current v0.80.1 in the lead-in graphic.

After PowerToys Puzzle Locks Together, WinGet Gets It Right

If you look at the top block of text in the lead graphic, you’ll see WinGet  recognizes the PowerToys version 0.80.0 needs an update to version 0.80.1. And indeed, that’s exactly what WinGet does in the center block of text just below the list of possible/pending updates that WinGet finds.

I did get a reply to the afore-linked April 11 blog tweet from WinGet team lead Demitirus Nelon. As I had guessed there was a lag between the second release and the WinGet manifest definitions. And it was apparently a completely routine fix, too.

So now, when the “What’s new” document shows v0.80.1 in its lead paragraph that actually agrees with the version that’s running on the target PC. Ain’t it great when things work the way they should? Three cheers for the PowerToys and WinGet teams for working quickly and accurately to fix this sooner rather than later.

I continue to be impressed with the dispatch and dedication of these folks. All I can say is “Keep up the good work!” I’m enjoying being part of the process.

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

Interesting v0.80.x PowerToys Puzzle

Leave a comment

I’ve just stumbled upon — and confirmed — and interesting v0.80.x PowerToys puzzle. Given that every picture tells a story, my lead-in graphic attempts to show what’s going on here. Let me explain, in three sections:

1. Top white text shows the info that pops up after Winget upgrades PowerToys to Version 0.80.0. Notice it reads “Release v0.80.1”.

2. Winget clearly shows it’s upgrading PowerToys to version 0.80.0 in the black text section in the middle.

3. Opening settings in that upgraded version of PowerToys, it self-reports as v0.80.0, and offers the “Install now” button to upgrade the program to v0.80.1. Not coincidentally, that install and upgrade actually work, and result in  a self-report of v0.80.1.

Note: you may have to show the graphic in its own browser tab or window to see the whole thing. Some important stuff is on the bottom edge (v.0.80.1 update notification and install button).

Interesting v0.80.x PowerToys Puzzle Gets Cracked

The way I see it, there are two possibilities here, and Ockham’s razor leans heavily toward one of them. First, it’s possible that winget is actually installing version 0.80.1 but misreporting same. I doubt it. My best guess is the second one, which is that v0.80.0 is showing the documentation for v0.80.1 when it should be showing a downrev version.

I think I just confirmed this because I did click the “Install now” button in PowerToys > Settings. It ran a tool called “PowerToys (Preview) x64 Setup” complete with progress bar.

And when it was finished it showed me the same “What’s new” document shown above, also labeled Release v.0.80.1. What’s different this time is that PowerToys > Settings > General now self-reports as follows:

Seems pretty conclusive to me. I’m guessing that the development team hasn’t yet updated their manifests for WinGet to switch things over from v0.80.0 to v0.80.1. At the same time the new “What’s new” has probably pushed out the old one, so it’s showing even on the v0.80.0 version. Go figure!

 

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Cool Tools, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

MS Store 22043 Speeds Things Up

Leave a comment

I just read online that MS is pushing a new and faster version of its Microsoft Store out through the Insider Preview hierarchy. Figuring out which version I was running on my Canary Channel test PCs showed me that (a) I was running the new version, and (b) that indeed, MS Store 22043 speeds things up notably. Good stuff. The lead-in graphic shows the version number after the app restarted itself following that upgrade.

If MS Store 22043 Speeds Things Up, Then What?

On both of my Canary Channel test PCs (Lenovo Thinkpads: X12 Hybrid Tablet/11th Gen i7 and X380 Yoga/8th Gen i7) , the store was uniformly quicker than before the upgrade. Search times were shorter, update downloads and installs quicker, and navigating around the UI snappier. It still takes a while to download app info in the Library view (but not as long a while as before).

There’s even a new “What’s new…” page that explains new features and improvements in the MS Store, to wit:


Interesting stuff! Thanks to Sergey Tkachenko over at WinAero, whose MS Store story this morning clued me into this new regime.

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10

Dropbox Drops Gentle Reminder: RTFM

2 Comments

I have to laugh. I’ve been trying to get a beta version of Dropbox installed on my Windows 10 production desktop this morning. Trying, and failing, with nothing to show in Reliability Monitor, either. Then I decided to read the whole article about the new beta, which appeared on MSPowerUser on April 1 (no joke, alas). In a manner of speaking, Dropbox drops gentle reminder RTFM (read the fabulous manual).

Here’s what it says:

Note: Windows 10 users will need to uninstall earlier Dropbox desktop applications before installing the updated version to ensure optimal performance.

Guess what I didn’t do before trying the install? You got it in one: I did not first remove the old version before overlaying the new one. Sigh.

Heeding When Dropbox Drops Gentle Reminder: RTFM

Creature of habit that I am, I used winget uninstall Dropbox.Dropbox to remove the old version. Worked like a charm. Then I re-tried the Dropbox 196.3.6883 Offline Installer.x64.exe installer file. It too, then did its thing. And it took its sweet time, too.

But when all was said and done Dropbox came up just fine in Windows 10. It was smart enough to keep the old version’s login data, too, so I was able to get in and start working just like the old version. But by looking at the program’s about info I can see I’m running this latest (beta) version. Problem solved. Like I said: RTFM.

It never hurts to know precisely what you’re doing, before you start doing it. Otherwise, like me sometimes, you’ll have to figure it out as you lurch from one step to the next. Sigh again…

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 11

Windows 11 Insider Preview Channel Switching

1 Comment

OK, then: I HAD to do it. I read this morning that MS is releasing a redesign of the  All Apps aspect of the Start menu in the Beta Channel. Naturally, I kicked one of my production laptops upstairs to join the channel to see that change for myself. Along the way I got to remember (or relearn) what’s involved in Windows 11 Insider Preview channel switching. (Hint: no remote control needed.)

Getting Into Windows 11 Insider Preview Channel Switching

It’s been a while, so I had to go through the motions to remember them. First, I had to join that PC to the Insider Preview program. Then I had to select my Insider Preview channel — Beta, in this case. Then I had to restart the PC and run WU again. In fact, I had to do that twice (run WU, that is — only 1 restart required at that point). And finally, as you can see in the lead-in graphic:

  1. The Update Stack Package that makes the Insider Preview installable
  2. The actual Insider Preview package itself (Build 22635.3420)

Of course once all that stuff gets installed, I’ll reboot again and go through the post-GUI installer stuff. That’s what actually upgrades the OS from the current production version 22635.3374) to the aforementioned Beta build.  When all that’s done I can go look for the new Start menu All apps stuff. As is typical, this takes a while (I’m about 12 minutes into the process and “Installing” for the OS is at 35% complete right now. Thus, it could be another 20 minutes before it’s done.) In the meanwhile, I’m standing by… And indeed it took a total of about 26 minutes to go from start to desktop for that process.

What About All Apps?

It’s another one of those things where MS may still be testing internally only, or doing another of its gradual rollouts. Thus, you guessed it: I still get the left-justified all apps list on my freshly-upgraded test PC. I can’t say I’m surprised, but it’s always disappointing to go looking for something new only to see the “same old, same old.” Sigh.

Of course, I’ll keep checking back and see when the switchover happens. Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted…

Note Added 1 Hour Later

As I continue catching up with Windows news, I see over at NeoWin that a vivetool hack is required to enable the All apps grid in the latest beta version. I don’t do that on my beta machines to keep them in line with MS releases (it’s an MVP thing). So I guess I’ll have to wait awhile. Rumor has it this might hit “for real” on Patch Tuesday (April 9). We’ll see!

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog

Digesting WinGet Updates Gets Interesting

Leave a comment

I just noticed something odd about my latest WinGet update cycle. It worked just fine but threw a “Failed in attempting to update the source: winget” error before proceeding. When I check version info on WinGet itself it shows version v1.7.10861. Running winget show Microsoft.AppInstaller (the app name for the environment that includes WinGet) it shows version v1.22.10861.0. When I attempt to update it comes back “No available upgrade found.” When I run another general update check, it says “No installed packages…” meaning “Nothing to see here!” This makes me thing that digesting WinGet updates gets interesting — some of the time, at least. Let me explain…

Digesting WinGet Updates Gets Interesting.store-info

Note App Installer got “Modified yesterday” (that’s an update)!

IMO Digesting WinGet Updates Gets Interesting

When I check the MS Store, I see that it updated App Installer just yesterday. This is the first time I’ve run Windows Terminal and Winget since that update. Methinks it may take an exit-restart maneuver after the update for the new stuff to take effect.

To test my theory, I fire off a new instance of Windows Terminal/PowerShell and run winget upgrade –all –include-unknown again. This time it repeats the “No installed package…” message. That lets me know things are all caught up. No mention of “Failed in attempting to update the source: winget,” either.

That may not prove my theory, but it certainly adds it a bit more credence. How did I figure this out? On my Windows 10 PC, I actually updated Microsoft.AppInstaller as part of the sequence that stated with “Failed in attempting to update the source: winget.” That got me to thinking that a winget self-update might temporarily throw off the access to its source. And, by golly, I think that may just explain what’s going on here. As I said before: it’s interesting!

 

Facebooklinkedin
Facebooklinkedin