Category Archives: Windows 11

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Undoing Systray Entanglements

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Before I got turned in the right direction with APC PowerChute software yesterday, I’d already installed two different versions (see post). Each of them runs as a systray app. That means it’s set up as a startup task, and keeps one or more Windows processes running constantly. It turns out that neither app was exactly what I wanted, so I needed to uninstall them. Alas, the developers didn’t — and still don’t — include an exit option in the right-click menus for these beasts (see lead-in graphic). Thus, I found myself first undoing systray entanglements before Revo or built-in uninstallers would work. Let me explain…

What’s Involved in Undoing Systray Entanglements?

Revo Uninstaller gave me a good clue when I tried to uninstall either version of the PowerChute software. It flashed a warning that told me the software was running. I should try uninstall again when it was turned off. What, exactly, does that entail? Good question!

I had to open Task Manager, find all related processes and kill them. For the old PowerChute, that was easy: I just killed its one and only process. For the new PowerChute Serial Shutdown (PCSS) utility, I had to kill once process named pcss-systray.exe, and another named pcss-agent.exe. Indeed, to be on the safe side, I chose the right-click “End process tree” option in case there was anything else related also running under the PCSS umbrella.

It worked! After killing those items, I was able to successfully uninstall both PowerChute versions. Then, when Schneider tech support (APC’s parent company) furnished me a different version of the new executable, I was able to install and use it. It’s running right now, in fact.

This Story’s Moral Is…

If you find yourself needing to uninstall a systray app of some kind, and uninstallers won’t run, check Task Manager for related processes. If you end those tasks (or their process trees) you should be able to proceed. At least, that worked for me. Here in Windows-World, such esoterica occasionally comes in handy. Keep it in mind!

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog, Windows 11

Will BlueScreenView Go Black?

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In upcoming versions of Windows 11, says Microsoft, the long-standing “Blue Screen of Death” will go black. That is, it will change color and appearance from its deep-blue, graphics- and text-laden format. It will transform to something sleeker and simpler, in pure black-and-white colors. According to Windows Latest, this change should appear in Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2 and “may not be backported to Windows 11 23H2.” All this given, I’m asking this question: “Will BlueScreenView go black?” Let me explain…

Unpacking the query: Will BlueScreenView Go Black?

To begin, let me identify BlueScreenView as a NirSoft tool, from Israeli programming dynamo Nir Sofer. It’s been around for over 15 years, and provides simple decodes for Windows mini-dump and crash dump files. It’s darned handy, in fact, if a BSOD (of either the black or blue variety) gets past you, and you didn’t record the STOP CODE error that provoked the crash, it will show it to you.

The afore-linked Windows Latest story works itself into something of a lather by observing that (a) the new black BSOD looks a lot like a post-GUI Windows Update screen (it does), and (b) that some Windows users may mistakenly see it as such and miss the STOP CODE for that reason. Here again, BlueScrenView should come in handy to help find and expand on those pesky codes.

What I want to know, however, is if Mr. Sofer will issue a new version of his program, and call it BlackScreenView instead. I’m guessing maybe yes, maybe no, depending on how much weight he puts on that change.

These are the kinds of things I wonder about as I putter around happily in Windows-World. Let’s see what happens, shall we?

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AI, Copilot+ PCs, Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Lenovo Yoga AIO 32i Intake

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Wow! It’s not terribly often that I get a second review unit to intake in a week. Last Friday, I reported intake on a dynabook X40M2; today, I cover the stunning Lenovo Yoga AIO 9i intake. Inside Lenovo Vantage the model number is 32ILL10, but it only says Yoga AIO  on the outside of the enormous box inside which it arrived. Its most notable features are a huge, brilliant 32″ (31.5″ 3840×2160, actually) disply, a built in 6 GB GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, Copilot+ capability, and a snazzy paper clip design between base and display. You can see that last in the lead-in graphic.

Working Thru Lenovo Yoga AIO 32i Intake

The great thing about all-in-one (AIO) PCs is that set-up is a breeze. Hook up the power, turn it on, and you’re (mostly) good to go. Lenovo ships the unit with a wireless mouse and keyboard combination. It uses a USB transceiver stored inside the mouse to connect to the base. Took me a minute to figure out how to get those items working (there’s a moderately cryptic one-page instruction set that I puzzled my way through, partly by trial and error). Other than that, it was a total no-brainer to get the unit set up and running.

Then came the fun parts. I use Patch My PC Home Updater to add a list of typical apps to the default mix (in alph order: 7-Zip, Advanced IP Scanner, CPUID CPU-Z, CrystalDiskInfo, CrystalDiskMark, voidtools Everything, GadgetPack, Chrome, HWiNFO, IrfanView, Notepad++, PowerShell 7-x64, PowerToys, Speccy and WizTree). Then I get PowerShell and WinTerm set up the way I want them. Then I check for and apply updates, using WU and WinGet. It all went well: both quick and smooth, with no hiccups of any kind. Cool!

AIO 32i Speeds and Feeds

The Lenovo Yoga AIO 32i model I’m using is the first Copilot+ AIO that I’ve seen on the market. Here’s what came inside (and outside) that unit, which has an MSRP of ~US$2810 at the Lenovo Store:

  • CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 258V (4 LPE cores, 4 P cores)
  • OS: Windows 11 Home (!)
  • Graphics: Intel Arc 140V, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 (6GB)
  • RAM: 32 GB LPDDRX5-8533 (Memory on package/soldered)
  • SSD: SK Hynix HFS001TEM9X169N 1TB (PCIe x4 Gen 4) 1 TB
  • Display: 31.5″ UHD 3840×2160 UPS, Glare, non-touch, 3-side borderless display panel
  • Input: Wiress USB mouse, keyboard and transceiver included
  • Wi-Fi: Intel Wi-Fi7 BE201 320MHz
  • Rear ports: USB-C (10 Gbps), USB-C (40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4), 2xUSB-A (10 Gbps), HDMI 2.1, RCA mini-audio jack
  • PSU: 300 W power brick

When it comes to this equipage, I like the snap and feel of the CPU and the graphics. It compares favorably with Snapdragon and other Intel Copilot+ PCs I’ve reviewed. There are some things about this configuration that I don’t much care for though — namely:

  • Windows 11 Home won’t do Remote Desktop, so I had to upgrade it to a higher-grade version.
  • Memory is in package and soldered, so there’s no upgrade capability there.
  • Rear-mounted ports require turning the base to access from a normal forward-pointing arrangement. Mildly vexing, but tolerable.
  • With only one high-speed port (USB4/Thunderbolt 4) available the unit would be best paired with a US$200+ dock to take advantage of its capabilities. Odd, for a pricey AIO.

AIO 32i Pros and Cons

I like the way the unit runs and works. Setup was dead easy and the display is the first I’ve used that’s bigger and better than my trusty Dell 27″ UltraSharp models (2017 and 2022 builds, here at Chez Tittel). Overall, this is a capable and approachable PC, and would be well-suited for college students in a dorm room, or office workers at their workstations. It’s also quite nice looking and fun to use. And it’s got all the Copilot+ PC stuff, which promises to keep improving with time (right now it’s limited to Recall, Click to Do, and a few AI-based extensions for various MS apps, tools and Office 365).

I don’t like the location of the ports at the rear of the base. You can’t see or use them unless you turn the base so you can lay hands and eyes where the ports are. I’d prefer a touch screen to the non-touch model, recognizing that the glossy finish would become a fingerprint magnet. I don’t like the inability to upgrade RAM (though I understand it’s a limitation of the package design).

I’d like to see the second USB-C port made TB4/USB4 capable. I’d also wish for Lenovo to integrate the mouse/keyboard transceiver so you don’t have to give up one of two USB-A ports to get the unit working. That, or they could include a Bluetooth mouse/keyboard combo instead, to keep that USB-A port free for other uses.

Initial Net-Net: Nice But Pricey

Overall, I’m having a blast working with the Yoga AIO 32i. It’s fast, responsive, great looking and the display is bright and legible, even to these old eyeballs of mine. I do think it’s pretty costly (nearly US$3K, though Lenovo usually discounts heavily, especially for holidays and promotions or for academics (students and teachers alike). I’m starting to dig into it capabilities and behavior in more detail and will report on those soon. But so far, it’s pretty peachy as you’d hope from the price tag.

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

Dev Channel Gets 25H2

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I started seeing some news about this last Friday — most notably at Eleven Forum. The specific item was labeled “Get ready for Windows 11 25H2.” Shoot! I’ve been ready for months. What I needed to do was figure out how to get in on that act. Turns out it’s just an enablement package for Insiders in the Dev Channel. That’s how I got mine on Saturday, once I understood what was what. You can see, in fact, that Dev Channel gets 25H2 in the lead-in screencap.

After Dev Channel Gets 25H2, Then What?

Thanks to the afore-linked Eleven Forum post, I also learned that while I couldn’t see the enablement package in Update History directly, I could see it another way. By clicking through Settings > Windows Update > Update history > Uninstall updates, I saw “Feature Enablement for Dev Channel Preview Update (KB5054156)” as you, too, can see here (at bottom):

Given that it’s an enablement package, not a full-blown OS install it’s also speedy to download and run. The whole thing took less than three minutes on the brand-new dynabook X40M2 laptop I ran it on.

I expect this release to get banged on and patched for the next three-four months. That takes us to September or October, which is when it’s highly likely that 25H2 will make it into more widespread distribution — barring unforeseen hurdles or noxious gotchas.

But hey, this is Windows-World. While we THINK we know what may happen, anything and everything remains possible. Let’s just wait and see what unfolds next. In the meantime, I’ll be exploring the newest avatar for Windows 11 — 25H2, Build 26200.5670. Cheers!

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Windows 11 Smart App Control

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I’m always learning something new or surprising about Windows. In this case, I’m talking about Windows 11 since 22H2 came along in September 2022. That’s nearly 3 years ago, so to discover something mostly missing in new-ish (and brand-new) eval PCs from OEMs such as Lenovo, dynabook, and Panasonic is my surprise of the day. I’m talking about a feature in Windows Security — namely Windows 11 Smart App Control — about which I’ve been mostly oblivious until today.

This morning, I re-read a piece from Paul Thurrot from last Thursday (June 26) entitled  You Use Windows. Be Resilient (it’s Premium content, so you’ll need to sign up for a membership to read this: sorry). Under the heading of app protection, it off-handedly mentioned Smart App Control as follows:

Windows 11 has a feature called Smart App Control that’s in a weird state of flux and may or may not be configurable on your PC. Open Windows Security and navigate to App & browser control > Smart App Control, and see whether you can enable it. If you can, do so.

“Hmmm” I thought to myself, I don’t recognize this. “I’ll go look.” On the vast majority of new machines (all issued in 2023 or later) I found that — as you can see in the lead-in graphic– Smart App Control was turned off. And right below that status: a can of interesting worms. Gotcha!

A Gotcha in Windows 11 Smart App Control

That can of worms is, of course, the explanation beneath the “Off” toggle that reads “If Smart App Control is off it can’t be turned on without reinstalling Windows.” Really?!?!

That’s right. Apparently, enough people have noticed this distressing detail that MS has put together a FAQ around this very topic. It’s the one that’s accessible from the link at the bottom of the lead graphic that says Learn more about why Smart App Control is off.

TLDR: Smart App Control hooks into the OS at a deep enough level that if it’s not there when the OS gets laid down, a new, clean install is necessary to put it there from inception to make sure it works like it should. In other words, if your install of Windows 11 predates 22H2 — as so many of mine do — or the OEM doesn’t enable this feature as part of their initial Windows 11 image install — you can’t have it without an OS do-over.

What’s in My Field of (New/ish) View?

With this item in mind I examined all of my newest PCs, only to find that just one of them supports Smart App Control (SAC), albeit in “Eval mode.” Here’s what that looks like:

Of all my relatively new PCs only the dynabook X40M2 supports SAC (in evaluation mode).

Here’s a list of those PCs, for the record:

  • The preceding graphic shows I’ve got it in “Evaluation” mode on the dynabook X40M2 laptop I received earlier this month.
  • It’s turned off on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (original Windows 11 install date November 2024)
  • It’s turned off on the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra (original Windows 11 install date November 2023)

I just got an eval from Lenovo for its new Copilot+ capable AIO (Model Lenovo Yoga AIO 9i last Friday. I haven’t unboxed it yet, so I can’ t yet say if it has it turned off or not. I’ll report back later.

Small Sample Size Warning & Wondering

The sample size is ludicrously small (3 machines so far, with a fourth on the way later this week). But it’s now a bit clearer to me why I haven’t run into Smart App Control before. It’s just not that widely dispersed in the field yet. And I bet a lot of other long-time Windows Pros like me don’t know they can’t have it on older PCs unless they bring it in via a clean Windows 11 install.

Very interesting! Let’s just hope the dynabook survives Evaluation mode with Smart App Control intact, so I can learn more about how it works, and what it really does. And isn’t that just the way things often work, here in Windows-World? You betcha!

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CHKDSK Follies Follow Drive Prep

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Whoa! I’d forgotten how time-consuming and intricate the built-in Window disk checker can be. My pithy summation, as I prep the old drives on my soon-to-be-retired i7 Skylake PC is: CHKDSK follies follow drive prep. And with 9 disk drives to prep and clean up to make that move, that’s more than enough folly for anybody, including me. For the record, I’m using the CHKDSK /f /x command.

What CHKDSK Follies Follow Drive Prep Means

As the lead-in graphic illustrates — it shows 5.25 hours to grind the fix and clean operation to completion — it takes real time to make all this happen. I left it running when I left my desk last night, and the time info was waiting for me when I logged back in this morning. Only 8 drives left to go!

The 5 stages of CHKDSK run as follows:

1. Examining basic file system structure
2. Checking file name linkage
3. Examining security descriptors
4. Looking for bad clusters in user data file
5. Looking for bad, free clusters

Now that I’m on my second of 9 drives it looks like CHKDSK spends most of its time on the two final stages. It took 5.22 hours for Stage 4 on the first drive. The second, now underway, is estimating about the same amount of time for stage 5. I’ll follow up with more numbers later.

Isn’t that just the way things go in Windows-World sometimes? The job has to get done. Then the waiting begins. It can take a while, as these numbers already intimate (and may later show: I’ll keep track).

Total Times (Follow-Up 5 hrs later)

Looks like the CHKDSK stuff is actually all over the place. I had two drives take less than 1 second (!) to complete, most others came in at or around 1 minute (72 seconds, anyway). The first two drives I tried had trouble in need of repairing, and that skewed my impressions. Go figure! All cleaned up now, though.

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NZXT H6 Flow Build Comes Together

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OK, then. This weekend, I got the Asrock B550 motherboard and its AMD Ryzen 5800X CPU squared away in its case. As this NZXT H6 Flow build comes together, I’m understanding more about what current PCs look like and can do. The NZXT H6 Flow is a stunner (and a pretty good deal at ~US$110). But I’m still waiting for a few parts to completely finish things up. Let me explain.

As NZXT H6 Flow Build Comes Together, What’s Next?

I ordered the Asus Thunderbolt EX5 adapter for this PC. It eats an x16 PCIe slot, but delivers 2Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports with up to 120 Gbps aggregate bandwidth. More importantly — to me, anyway — it’s licensed for Thunderbolt Share so I can finally try that app out.

I’m also gradually building up an archive hard disk for that system, to transport all the stuff I might want to access from my current production desktop to the new one. It’s been a long, slow process with a huge amount of data and a stupendous number of files involved. Thus, I’m deciding it may take two drives — one for documents and other data files, another for my massive digital music collection — which means one of them will have to plug in via USB. Still thinking…

I’ve got an Asus PCE-AC56 PCIe x1 802.11ac Wi-Fi adapter from the old build that I could plug into the new one. But shoot, a Wi-Fi 7 version (PCE-BE6500) costs US$80 these days and might be a better choice. It’s only a fallback anyway: I’m already using the built-in 2.5GbE RJ-45 wired NIC, and it’s working like a charm.

I did bump the memory up from 64 to 128 GB (cost me about US$125 DDR4-2666). It’s pretty snappy, and that gives me room for lots of VMs, which I intend to make more use of going forward, while cutting down on the number of physical PCs in my mini-fleet (current count: 11, with one soon to be decommissioned and 3 more charitably donated to the middle school marching band).

Ultimate Goal: Cutover from i7SkyLake to Flo6

My ultimate goal is to retire my current production PC. It’s built around an Asrock Z170 Extreme7+ motherboard and an i7-6700 Skylake CPU. The mobo made its debut in 2015, but I built the system either in 2016 or 2017. In any case, it’s provided at least 8 years of excellent service and is showing its age.

Funny thing that my “new” system is already 4 years old as I cut over. My attitudes — and my budget — have changed a lot since the days in the late 1990s and early 2000s when I built and tested DIY PCs for Tom’s Hardware. Now that I’m paying for everything, I’m squeezing those dollars much harder before I let go of them.

Hopefully, this “new” system will keep me running Windows for at least another 4 or 5 years before it, too, becomes obsolete. That’s just the way things go in Windows-World, where the relentless influx of newer, faster, better keeps washing older, slower, lesser technologies and hardware away. All I can say to comment is: At least I’m still here, overseeing those changes.

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Going Old School: X1 Extreme Driver Repair

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In making my rounds this morning, I found the touchpad driver MIA on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (8th-Gen i7 CPU, c. 2018). On a machine of this august vintage, that could mean only one thing. Its driver must have gotten corrupted or gone sideways. That’s how I found myself going old school: X1 Extreme driver repair became my mission. Let me tell you what I did, and how I fixed that problem.

Going Old School: X1 Extreme Driver Repair Manuevers

No cursor from the touchpad meant some kind of driver issue, if not device failure. Hoping for the former, and dreading the latter, I started down the troubleshooting trail, as follows:

1. Reboot the PC. On a new boot-up and login, keyboard works fine but still no cursor.  Still no touchpad cursor, so I plug a wired mouse into the USB-A port to shoot more trouble.

2. Inside Device Manager, I find the touchpad driver as a Synaptics item under “Mice and other pointing devices.” I try reloading same via Driver > Update Driver > Browse my computer for drivers, then take what I’ve got from the “Let me pick from a list of available drivers…” branch. Reboot again: still no touchpad cursor.

3. Visit the Lenovo Driver Support page, grab the latest Synaptics Touchpad driver, and install same. Reboot PC again. Voila! Touchpad cursor appears and is working properly. Problem solved…

Final diagnosis: the on-disk touchpad driver had gotten corrupted. Downloading and installing a new one got the touchpad working again. Good-oh!

What’s (or Would Have Been) Next?

If the driver replacement hadn’t done the trick, my next move would have been to visit Settings > System > Recovery, there to hit the Reinstall now button to perform an in-place upgrade repair install. Note: this replaces all drivers as part and parcel of rebuilding the running OS image.

Had that failed, it’s pretty likely I would have had to decide if I wanted to fork over the money for a new touchpad and get it repaired, or attempt those repairs myself. I’m glad things didn’t go that far. Replacing a driver costs only time and effort, but no money. Touchpads aren’t free (Copilot says replacement cost is US$50-70, and if I had to take it to a shop that would add at least another US$100 or so). Again: glad no such repairs were needed. Case closed on a high note: it’s a good day in Windows-World.

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Strange Crystal Dew World Hiccup

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Yesterday, I noticed that both WinGet and PatchMyPC Home Updater hiccuped when trying to update CrystalDiskMark (8.0.6 to  9.0.0) and CrystalDiskInfo (9.6.3 to 9.7.0). This strange Crystal Dew World hiccup (that’s the home site for both apps) got me wondering if the developer had abandoned freeware versions of those tools for ad-driven (installer-based) or for-a-fee (MS Store) versions only. I’m please to report that my presumption was wrong, and new freeware versions for both programs are updating properly now.

What Caused This Strange Crystal Dew World Hiccup?

Apparently there was some delay between when the new version info got broadcast and when the Crystal Dew World website got updated. Indeed I saw web info (which serves as the lead-in graphic for the story) that led me to wonder if ad-driven (ZIP and Installer) or paid-for (Store) versions were the only remaining versions of CrystalDiskMark (CDM) and CrystalDiskInfo available.

This morning, however, when I went back to check again, things were different. I still see the same situation at Crystal Dew World (here’s a link to its CDM download which includes an installer named CrystalDiskMark9_0_0Ads.exe). But WinGet and PatchMyPC can both successfully upgrade these tools now (they threw “hash match fail” errors yesterday) and are proffering ad-free freeware versions that come from sourceforge (you can use WinGet Show CrystalDewWorld.CrystalDiskMark to reveal its database contents).

Updates Take Time to Propagate

I’ve seen similar things happen before — often, with MS facilities such as PowerShell and Windows Terminal — when an update emerges but packages and database contents don’t synch up. All in all, though, I’m glad that freeware, ad-free versions of these useful tools remain available. If they didn’t I’d have to find something else!

And, far too often, such things become necessary here in Windows-World. Not this time, apparently for CDM and CDI. Not yet, anyway… But the ad-oriented interface at Crystal Dew World strongly suggests it could happen if not now, perhaps later.

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Interesting ThinkPad T14s Snapdragon Intake

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Here, interesting comes from the purported “Chinese” curse: “May you live in interesting times.” If fact, those times got a little too interesting for me once or twice last week, as I worked my way through intake on a the Snapdragon X version of the ThinkPad T14s from Lenovo (see “Speeds and Feeds” for more of those details). Indeed, I experienced what I choose to call an interesting ThinkPad T14s intake because of WU issues that popped up along the way.

Ultimately, I would have to send the PC back to Lenovo for a replacement because:

(a) I couldn’t repair a Windows Update error on the latest CU

(b) When I tried an in-place upgrade repair install, the PC asked for a BitLocker recovery key during one of the post-GUI install boot-ups. [The lead-in graphic shows this on its way to a fiery crash.]

I’ll admit it: I was caught unprepared. And when the Lenovo Recovery Media facility could only produce a USB key (no digital download for me, alas), an overnight swap was my only way to proceed. Sigh, sigh, and sigh again.

What Interesting ThinkPad T14s Snapdragon Intake Means

For me, it meant an irresolvable issue trying to catch the machine up to current CU levels. For the first time in recent memory the ElevenForum.com reset/reregister WU script failed to fix that, too. Thus I had to avail myself of the “Reinstall now” button in the options available from this Windows 11 24H2 instance via Settings > System > Recovery. That’s what you see as the lead-in graphic above, at 35% complete during the GUI install phase.

Along the way to catching the OS up, I installed a bunch of apps I like to use (12 in all: 7-Zip, Adv IP Scanner, CPU-Z, CrystalDiskMark, Everything, FileZilla, GadgetPack, Notepad++, PS 7.5.1, PowerToys, and Speccy). I also turned on Remote Access so I can view the desktop on a 27″ monitor instead of a 14″ laptop.

It was all good until I tried running WU. It was stuck, stuck, stuck, on the latest CU. It was throwing Error Code 0x800F0905, which Google tells me means “an issue with Windows Update or a corrupted installation file.” That’s why I went to the reset/register script immediately thereafter, and then Reinstall now when that failed as well. As I said earlier, I ended up swapping my ultimately bricked T14s for an identical replacement. It had to retry the stuck CU, but succeeded on a second attempt. So now I have a working T14s to play with for a while.

So following the well-known principle of “If you don’t get it right the first time, do it over,” I reinstalled all the apps I’d added to the first, bricked version. Then I enabled Remote Access so I can use RDP,  set up Windows Terminal and PowerShell, and I’m now fully off and running.

Speeds and Feeds, and More

The T14s Gen 6 model that Lenovo sent me includes the following:

  • Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 CPU (3.4GHz, 12 cores/threads)
  • Adreno X1-85 GPU (built-in)
  • Hexagon NPU (delivers 45 TOPS)
  • 32 GB LPDDR5X-8448 MHz RAM
  • Samsung OEM PCIe Gen4 NVMe 1TB SSD
  • 14″ WUXGA (1920×1200, IPS, Anti-Glare, non-touch)
  • Windows Hello 1080P PHD camera, fingerprint reader
  • Qualcomm Wi-Fi 7 NCM825A 2×2 BE & Bluetooth 5.3
  • 2ea USB4 USB-C (40Gbps), USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports

As configured the unit currently goes for US$1,259 at the Lenovo Store. It’s sturdy, has a standard ThinkPad look and feel, and both thin and pretty lightweight (2.72lbs/1.24kg). It’s not quite as awe-inspiring as the less expensive Slim 7X model I reviewed almost a year ago, but it’s bigger, beefier, and pretty darn snappy. I will take it on the road with me at my next opportunity and see how it plays.

So far, though, it’s a solid performer and seems to get things done with verve. I look forward to a machine that will let me use the benefits of Copilot+ PCs in the near future. Indeed, that’s why I asked Lenovo to send me this unit. Stay tuned: I’ll tell you lots more, real soon.

 

 

 

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