Category Archives: Updates

NVIDIA Drops New Driver Batch

As I work through the Windows news each morning, I check X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook and Mastodon by way of social media. I also check in on WinAero, WindowsLatest, MSPowerUser, Ghacks, Thurott and Windows Central as well. Today, most of them told me something like NVIDIA drops new driver batch 551.23. And indeed, I found Game-ready and Studio versions for consumer grade GPUs, as well as Quadro (551.23 aka Release 550) among the pro lines. You can see the Studio version from GeForce Experience in the lead-in graphic above.

Fast facts on this latest version:
1. Target Directory: C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA Corporation\
Downloader…
2. Filename: 551.23-desktop-win10-win11-64bit-
international-nsd-dch-whql-g.exe
3. Download size: 519KB (downloader only)
4. On-disk file size: 1.93 GB (all files downloaded & expanded)
5. Download & install time: ~3:30 (average across 5 PCs)

Why NVIDIA Drops New Driver Batch 551.23

Most often updates follow close on the heels of new games (or game features). Sometimes, they pop up to support new NVIDIA GPU offerings. It’s the latter this time, with the release of the game- and AI-ready RTX 4080 SUPER at CES on January 8, 2024 (also includes 4070 Ti SUPER and 4070 SUPER in that mix).

Heh! I’m not sure I’m ready to fork over the long green needed to buy into the latest NVIDIA generation, but it’s nice to know they’re out there when I build my next desktop. I usually buy either a 4070 or 4070 Ti model because I can’t really justify the price/performance tax that a top-of-the-line model adds to my build costs. But gamers everywhere will probably be fighting off a new case of techno-lust.

Drivers Downloaded and Updated

Amidst my modest fleet of about one dozen PCs (8 laptops and 4 desktops), there are 7 machines with NVIDIA graphics cards of one kind or another. I’ve got the updates running on all of them right now (except for the desktop my son is using away at college, so I’ll mention this to him the next time we talk). By the time you read this, they should all be updated.

If you’ve got an NVIDIA GPU in your neighborhood, now you know there’s a new update out there, too. Three cheers for the 551.23 release!

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Overcoming WingetUI Hiccups

Lately, I’ve been switching between winget at the command line, and WingetUI (Martin Climent’s UI-based GitHub project). Just this morning, I observed that the CLI version didn’t see a couple of updates that WingetUI did — namely, PSGallery CredentialManager and a fresh update for the Python Interpreter (Python.Python.2). Interestingly, the source for Python does show up as “Winget.” But when I scan for updates in the CLI version it doesn’t “see” Python as out-of-date. But letting WingetUI run in the background, both updates kept failing. Thus, overcoming WingetUI hiccups took direct intervention and a bit of thought. Let me explain…

Get Busy: Overcoming WingetUI Hiccups

I’m not sure why both items failed in the background, but they did. Alas, I clobbered the error messages from WingetUI without recording them first. But when I ran WingetUI directly, the Credential-Manager upgrade went through immediately. But the Python update failed again.

Looking at the right-click options, I noticed that among its entries for individual updates, WingetUI includes a “Run as administrator” item. So I tried that next. This opened a Python update windows (which had not appeared during earlier attempts). And sure enough: it worked and the update went through.

Further Details Show Something Familiar

I couldn’t help but notice that WingetUI reported needing version 2.0.0 of CredentialManager while seeing version 2.0 already installed. I wrote about this version parsing peccadillo in my last post (Laughable Stardock Version Mixup) in connection with Start10. Here it is again, with a PowerShell Gallery element. Apparently, this happens more often than I’d noticed! This might also explain why it shows up in WingetUI and not in the CLI version: that latter runtime is incredibly careful about changing stuff when processes are running or when slight changes to the installer or runtime could occur. And indeed, Demitrius Nelon confirmed this behavior for me in an X/Twitter message last Friday, so I’m pretty sure it’s a real — if entirely trivial — thing.

As for Python, that’s a little more interesting. Looks like administrator privilege cracked some kind of access or permissions issue, and allowed the update to proceed. That’s a good “second try” technique for me to keep in my toolbox. Now that I’ve seen it work, I’m sure I’ll find occasion to use it again. Maybe you will, too!

Cheers, and welcome to a new year in Windows-World. It’s already off to an interesting start…

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Laughable Stardock Version Mixup

I have to chuckle. Winget just told me to upgrade Stardock Start10 on my lone remaining physical Windows 10 PC. Why? It sees a version numbered 1.9.7.0 but wants to take that package to 1.97. Of course, they are one and the same thing, and the update install fails with error code 9, as shown in the lead-in graphic. This laughable Stardock version mixup tells me there may be an issue with how version numbers get parsed and divided up inside winget’s package database.

Laughable Stardock Version Mixup:
1.9.7.0 v 1.97

When I run the about screen from the version that’s actually running what you see next is what I see too. Guess what? The in-app update check confirms that 1.97 is indeed already running and the most current release. So what’s the confusion?

Laughable Stardock Version Mixup.197-already-on

Not only is 1.97 already running, in-app update says it’s current.

This is one of the little mishaps to which winget sometimes succumbs. It’s no big deal, and it’s actually kind of endearing. And it gives me something to report in to the team. Not that they’ll be short of things to do next week when the world gets back to work!

I’m guessing it will take one or two database corrections to fix this, and probably less than 5 minutes’ work. Perhaps I’ll be finding out. If I do, I’ll share here so stay tuned!

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Learning About UpdateStar

With the shutdown of the SUMo database on November 1, I’ve been casting about for a new update scanner that covers my bases. I had been considering UpdateHub, UCheck and UpdateStar. Based on the number of items that each program finds, and the ease of working with them (free versions only), I’ve now pretty much settled on UpdateStar freeware (make sure you can down to the button that reads “Download” under the Free of charge heading). It’s not without its foibles, though…mostly, that learning about UpdateStar involves completely do-it-yourself updates.

Learning About UpdateStar Means DIY  Updates

Unless you want to pay US$34.95 (first year)/$19.95 (subsequent upgrades, with discounts for 3 PC packages), working with UpdateStar means it scans only for what’s out of date. It doesn’t help you find or install new stuff. It will, however, uninstall specific versions of software, which can be helpful when updates aren’t smart enough to uninstall their predecessors. That happens pretty regularly.

Most of the time searching for “update splat” where splat is the name of the program you wish to update will tell you what you need to do. It mostly works for me, anyway. And many of the odd and interesting tricks I’ve learned while working with SUMo transfer over to UpdateStar reasonably well, too.

The Current UpdateStar Situation

Right now,  on my production Windows 10 PC (it’s the with the most apps and applications installed: 113 in all) I’m getting reasonable results from the program. It shows me 9 programs in need of updates and I was able to take care of all of them. For 8 of them, that meant finding and installing the necessary updates (2 of them left old versions behind and UpdateStart uninstalled them for me quite happily). For 1 of them, I decided an uninstall was a good idea, because I have a better tool (Micosoft Update Health Check, to which I greatly prefer Brink @ TenForums.com’s Reset_Reregister
_Windows_Update_Components.bat script).

That said, UpdateStar did produce some false positives. These were current programs that were indeed up-to-date, but for which the program incorrectly claimed newer updates were available (Revo Uninstaller and Snagit 2024). Easily checked and ignored, however.

By and large this program works pretty well. I’m still figuring things out, so will probably learn and report more over time. For the moment, I give it “one thumb up” (a positive, but not ringing, endorsement). Let’s see what happens next… I’m still on the upward slope of that learning curve!

 

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Winget WT Update Workaround Needed

In going through update maneuvers yesterday, I observed there was a winget WT update workaround needed. That is, my attempt to upgrade Windows Terminal (WT) using winget failed. You can see what happened in the lead-in screencap. It shows that an initial attempt to install a dependency for WT — namely Microsoft.UI.Xaml — failed because a higher-numbered version is already installed. Whoa!

What Is the Winget WT Update Workaround Needed?

What to do? Fortunately, there are always multiple ways to update or upgrade in Windows-World. This time around, I went to the WT GitHub page and checked the version number on the latest release. As you can see in the next screencap, it’s the very same version that winget tried, but failed, to install as shown in the lead-in graphic.

Winget WT Update Workaround Needed.github

Funny thing: latest version matches winget’s target. That means there’s another way…

Given that GitHub has the same version, there should be some kind of Windows installer amidst its list of downloads. When I see it’s named Microsoft.WindowsTerminal…msixbundle, realize it’s targeting a Store version of WT. So off I go to check updates in the Store first. Nothing there, so I download and install the afore-mentioned msixbundle file. It works, as you can see in the About info from WT on that PC.

Winget WT Update Workaround Needed.about

Click the down-caret in the title bar in WT, then select “About” in the drop-down menu. Here ’tis!

As shown, the manual update using the msixbundle file did the trick. I could have waited, and the Store would have (eventually) handled the update automatically. But if I could have waited, I probably wouldn’t be the rabid Windows Insider I’ve always been, since day 2 of that program’s launch. LOL!

Feedback Followup…

I’m pretty sure winget should be smart enough to keep going if it finds a higher-numbered version of a dependency already in place on a target update PC. I’m going to share this blog post with the nice folks on the winget team. I bet they’ll fix this muy pronto! TIA, people…

Just Checked In … And It’s Fixed

I sent feedback to the team yesterday and got a reply that the dependency check should be a “min version check.” That is check to see that version is “greater than or equal to” versus “equal to.” And indeed, it now seems to be fixed. Thanks, guys: hope you all have a marvelous holiday break.

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SUMo Is Turned Off

I have to laugh, so I don’t cry. Despite rumors that its developer, Kyle Katarn, might republish his dandy Software Update Monitor (S U Mo) utility as Open Source code, the supporting servers shut down on November first. Notice the company slogan for KC Softwares (Katarn’s company, and the program’s maker) reads: “We are here to stay.” Now that SUMo is turned off, there’s some irony there, eh?

When SUMO Is Turned Off, Then What?

I had a general inkling that things might go sideways on November 1. Why? Because the website reads:

KC Softwares activities are to be terminated by end of October 2023.
All products are to be considered as End-Of-Life (EOL) on October 31st 2023.

And indeed, when I tried to run the program on November 1, I got an error message as it tried to scan its database for the first item in its inventory (7-Zip, by virtue of its position at the top of the alph sorting order).

SUMo Is Turned Off.server-error

Trying again later is not going to help. The server is off.

Other, Less Palatable Alternatives

LifeWire has a September 11, 2023 story “11 Best Free Software Updater Programs.” At this point, I’ve tried them all. I’m a big fan of Patch My PC, but it doesn’t cover enough of my installed software base to do the job on its own. And so far, none of the others have really captured my fancy or regard.

Why is that? Most of the free versions have paid-for counterparts. And most of them also qualify as “teaseware” — that is, they tell you about things they could do for you if you purchased the paid-for version. For now, I’m getting by with winget (and WingetUI), Patch My PC, and a bit of elbow grease. Hopefully, a real contender will emerge (and sooner is better than later).

Stay tuned! I’ll keep you posted. But don’t hold your breath, either. This could — and probably will — take a while…

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Appreciating Microsoft’s Update Ecosystem

As part of my daily Windows routine, I run the winget package manager to keep most of my applications up-to-date. Occasionally, I’ll also check in on the MS Store to see what it’s been finding and updating on its own. As the spirit moves me, I sometimes click the “Get updates” button to spur its actions along. I find myself appreciating Microsoft’s update ecosystem more and more (yes, even WU) as I work with it constantly. Let me explain…

Why I’m Appreciating Microsoft’s Update Ecosystem

The lead-in graphic shows an artfully arranged update view of MS Store’s Library tab, with three items “modified momens ago” in front. Behind, you see winget inside Windows Terminal/PowerShell working to install 8 different updates.

The amount of effort involved is pretty negligible, and the results are almost always trouble-free, speedy and reliable. Although I still have to turn to third-party tools to catch updates outside this ecosystem, under its umbrella things work pretty darn well.

Now, if only those other app makers would get on the manifest circuit and start offering packages for winget to use, life would be entirely peachy. But alas, life isn’t like that — especially here in Windows-World, where a certain amount of chasing one’s own tail is too often a necessary part of the daily grind.

But a WIMVP can always hope for a better future, right? Surely, someday it will all be completely automated and totally easy. Yeah, right: I’ll keep dreaming about it, but that’s the closest I’m sure I’ll ever get.

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Update Trick Delivers Clean PS 7.3.7 Install

OK, then, Here’s an interesting way to handle the September 19 update for PowerShell, from 7.3.6 to 7.3.7. Indeed this specific update trick delivers clean PS 7.3.7 install. I’ve run into minor glitches on previous up-versions, because I was using PowerShell to update itself. It would show cancelled as its final update status, as the old runtime had to fall over to get itself out of the way for the new one.

You can see this at work in the lead-in graphic. It shows the Installer running to update PowerShell as a pop-up within the PS windows itself. In fact, it runs to completion without issues. Why? Because I closed the open default PS session and ran the PS update inside an Administrative Command Prompt session instead.

Which Update Trick Delivers Clean PS 7.3.7 Install?

Because PS essentially interferes with itself if it runs the upgrade from one version to the next, the trick is NOT to use PowerShell. That’s why I switched to Command Prompt instead, and ran the upgrade there. No strange behavior, no “Cancelled” status at the end, nothing weird at all, in fact. You can see a new PS session window at right here with the new 7.3.7 version clearly identified (the left-hand side shows the complete PS upgrade in Command Prompt):

Update Trick Delivers Clean PS 7.3.7 Install.split-window

Once the update is finished I used the Command Palette to open a PS session split-right, which shows the new version running.

I’ll have to remember this for future PS updates. I’ve just used this technique on a half-dozen test PCs and it works like a charm!

 

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Interesting OMP Winget Gotcha Is Easily Fixed

I have to laugh. When I opened Windows Terminal/PowerShell yesterday morning, I got a notification that a new version of OhMyPosh (OMP) was available. So naturally, I tried to see the update. When that failed, I tried to update OMP directly, and that failed, too. But thankfully, this interesting OMP gotcha is easily fixed. I’ll explain …

But first take a look at the lead-in graphic above. It starts with the notification. That happens when loading PS causes the OMP environment to start up, too. But running winget upgrade shows an issue with accessing the winget database. Ditto for trying an explicit, directed upgrade on the string “Oh My Posh.” What to do?

OK, Here’s How Interesting OMP Winget Gotcha Is Easily Fixed

First, the fix: I went to GitHub, where developer Jan DeDobbeleer always maintains a current version under its “Latest” link. For the record, I downloaded and installed his install-amd64.exe file there and the upgrade completed without a hitch.

But what went wrong with OMP in the first place? I sent Jan a Twitter (X) message and he replied: “Yes, unfortunately winget, just like the Store, is slower in processing new versions.” I took this to mean the changes were already posted to the manifest database, but that those changes had not yet been committed.

It’s Just a Matter of Time

And indeed, I just checked one of my other test PCs with OMP installed. Running winget just now, it shows — and stands ready to — upgrade OMP to the latest version. Looks like the notification beat the update yesterday, but they’re now back in synch. Here’s visual proof:

Interesting OMP Winget Gotcha Is Easily Fixed.next-check

This morning’s check works as expected. Database is caught up!

And boy howdy, as we say here in Texas, isn’t that just the way things sometimes go, here in Windows-World. You bet!

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So Long SUMo & KC Softwares

Dang! I’ve been through this same situation before with a terrific software update monitor. For the past 3 years or so, a favorite go-to tool in my update arsenal has been KC Softwares Software Update Monitor, better known as SUMo. It looks like it’s time to bid them adieu. As shown in the lead-in graphic’s termination notice, I find myself saying “So long SUMo & KC Softwares.”

After So Long SUMo & KC Softwares, Then…?

Let me tell you how I found out things were shutting down with Kyle Katarn’s operation. I found an oversight in SUMo a few minutes ago. Seems that it’s once again recommending a beta version of DropBox as an update target. The program’s automated “find the highest numbered update” algorithm does that sometimes because beta versions are usually higher-numbered than the most current production ones.

My usual practice for the past year and more has been to send the developer a Twitter (X) message to tell him this needs checking and possibly also fixing. This time, when I attempted to send him a message the application responded “You can no longer send messages to this person.” In turn, this led me to kcsoftwares.com, where I found the termination message you see above. Sigh.

Remembrance of Things Past

Back in 2019, I wrote about an older update monitoring tool, likewise pulled from the market. This was back when Windows Enterprise Desktop was still under the TechTarget umbrella (title: Missing Secunia PSI). Long story short: I used Secunia PSI from 2010 to 2016 with great pleasure and success. When it, too, was withdrawn from the market I had to scramble to find a replacement.

That’s what I’ll do now, too. Stay tuned: both the hunt and its results should be quite interesting.

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