Insider stuff, PowerShell, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Interesting PatchMyPC Download Affects Winget

September 13, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting gotcha. On September 5, I wrote about uptake and intake of a new Lenovo loaner/review PC. It’s a nifty new Intel Gen13 P1 Mobile Workstation. I described using PatchMyPC to install a bunch of follow-on applications, including CrystalDiskMark. Yesterday, I figured out that an “interesting” PatchMyPC download affects winget updates thereafter. The lead-in graphic provides an important clue. Can you see it?

How an “Interesting” PatchMyPC Download Affects Winget

The output line from winget tells the story. It finds a CrystalDiskMark version (I’ll abbreviate this as CDM going forward for convenience) that differs from the one in its database. Note the line that shows version 8.0.4c installed, but 8.0.4 available. This is what causes the “unexpected error” report later in the lead-in screenshot.

As best I can interpret what’s going on is this: 8.0.4c is treated as a different version from 8.0.4. Winget doesn’t know what to do with this odd duck named 8.0.4c when it wants to install (and see) 8.0.4. Its MO is to avoid changing stuff that doesn’t match its search criteria, so the download request fails along with the update. Sigh.

Where Does PatchMyPC Come Into Play?

You’ll recall I mentioned using PatchMyPC to install a bunch of applications on the P1 Workstation in the opening paragraphs. So I fired up that program and sure enough it shows the installed (and current) version of CDM on the target PC as — you guessed it — 8.0.4c. Here’s a screencap:

Note the version number for CDM (line 6 in sage green text in right column): 8.0.4c. Eureka!

So here’s how I “fixed” this non-issue. As you might expect, winget won’t uninstall this odd duck CDM version any more than it will upgrade it. So first, I used Revo Uninstall to remove the existing CDM installation.Then I ran the winget command to install CDM — namely winget install CrystalDewWorld.CystalDiskMark as shown in the following screencap. A subsequent winget upgrade command shows it no longer balks at the odd duck (and now absent) 8.0.4c version number (I had to clear an Edge update in the meantime, so the bottom line that starts “No installed package” is the one that proves CDM is no longer throwing an update notification).

Ultimately, I’m guessing this issue originates with the developer failing to provide a new winget manifest for version 8.0.4c to the winget database. That’s the explanation that best fits these observations, IMHO. And FWIW, the download also took forever to complete (more than 3 minutes for a mere 3.87 MB package). Go figure!

When winget upgrade reports “No installed package…” it means no updates are needed, including CDM. Fixed!

Of course, I had to back off the real most current version to clear this error. But that means it wasn’t really an error, doesn’t it? That’s one of the many ways I keep myself entertained, here in Windows-World!

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

Upcoming Windows Imperative: Get Help!

September 12, 2023 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

OK, then. Troubleshooters are on their way out of newer Windows versions. Instead a series of “Get Help” tools will replace that functionality. That’s the message I take from this February 2023 dated MS Support note entitled “Deprecation of Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and MSDT Troubleshooters. A closer look at the story is where I find this new and upcoming Windows imperative: Get Help! You can see it, too, in the lead-in graphic.

Identifying the Upcoming Windows Imperative: Get Help!

If you look at the “redirected” Troubleshooters list above, you’lll see that each one begins with the string “Open Get Help” tied to a related Windows facility, program, or device. Closer reading of this document also explains that the Microsoft Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) is to be retired. Also, numerous “legacy inbox troubleshooters” will be removed from the upcoming next release of Windows 11:

Connection to a Workplace using DirectAccess
Devices and Printers
Hardware and Devices
HomeGroup
Incoming Connections
Internet Explorer Performance
Internet Explorer Safety
Keyboard
Power
Search and Indexing
Speech
System Maintenance
Shared Folders
Windows Store Apps

Some of these removals make perfect sense — like those related to the now-obsolete Windows Explorer and HomeGroup facilities. Others are somewhat more mysterious — such as Devices and Printers, Hardware and Devices, Keyboard, Power, Search and Indexing and so forth.

The apparent timetable is to get through this transition by this time next year. Thus, I presume Windows 11 24H2 could be the release in which these changes probably manifest. Presumably, they’ll show up sooner in Canary and Dev channel Insider Previews, and then on down the chain from there as the release date approaches.

Relax: Older Versions Are Not Affected

Here’s an important verbatim quote from this Support Note which should calm any concerns about Windows 10 and current Windows 11 versions:

If you’re running Windows 11 version 22H2 and older, Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 or any other earlier OS version, your device will not be affected by the MSDT Troubleshooter retirement. Earlier OS systems will continue to run the legacy inbox troubleshooters.

This definition, also quoted verbatim, should further clarify things:

…legacy inbox Windows Troubleshooters are built-in tools that, when launched, automatically diagnose and correct common problems for a variety of Windows features. MSDT Troubleshooters will be deprecated in the next Windows 11 release, with the date to be determined.

Here’s what I really find interesting about this. It will expose a pretty major fork in the road between the next major Windows 11 release and the mostly-common code base that Windows 10 and 11 still share. I’ll be fascinated to learn about and understand what Get Help! really means in this context. Stay tuned…

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

Where Is AI Taking Windows 11?

September 11, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

There’s a fascinating story in WindowsLatest this morning. Entitled Microsoft’s AI could supercharge your Windows 11 desktop backgrounds, it describes fancy means for animating the desktop. The idea, apparently, is to create an illusion of depth and add visual interest to ordinary usage scenarios. Sounds cool and perhaps even compelling, but it has me asking: “Where is AI taking Windows 11?”

Answering: “Where is AI taking Windows 11?”

The afore-linked story mentions other, more significant (IMO) uses of AI as well, including Bing and Edge, Windows 11 (e.g. CoPilot), Azure and more. Frankly, I’m a little surprised that desktop backgrounds warrant mention in that same league. Indeed, I’d like to suggest some other and perhaps more helpful ways to use AI in Windows 11 that could really help power and professional IT users on that platform:

An AI-based tie-in betweeen Power Automate and PowerShell, or an AI-based PowerShell assistant. I envision something like an over-the-shoulder agent observing patterns of use, and suggesting faster and better ways to do the same things, or providing canned scripts or packages that take over such jobs over time.
A series of AI-based system monitors for Windows 11 “behavioral areas” such as security, performance, disk structure, OS image management and optimization, and OS and application update handling. The first topic above could be of great benefit to all these things.
Components of the Microsoft 365 environment, including OS, VMs, Office components (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) are already undergoing “AI enrichment.” Improving ease of automation via macros and scripts, especially for repetitive tasks, would be fabulous.

Deciding Where AI Comes Into Play

As the technology becomes more familiar and its uses better understood, I’m sure we’ll see more and better ways to put AI to work at all levels of computing and user interaction. Personally, I’m in favor of AI-assisted user empowerment across the board — that is, from boosting what everday or casual end users can do (and get done) all the way up to those who work in data centers and other tech-heavy environments where the cloud and its supporting infrastructure come from, and sophisticated, distributed applications and services reside and operate.

Who knows where this will take us in a decade or more? Indeed, it’s sure to go further from today’s vision of computing than we can probably imagine. Waaaaaaaaaay beyond desktop backgrounds, to be sure…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

MS Recasts Printer Driver Requirements

September 8, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Very interesting! There’s a September 6 update to MS Learn Windows device drivers docs. Therein, MS recasts its future printer driver requirements (End of servicing plan for third-party printer drivers on Windows.). For those who manage and use Windows printers, it’s worth a read.

Driver Standards Explain How MS Recasts Printer Driver Requirements

The change comes courtesy of the the Internet Printing Protocol (IPP). Originally developed by IBM, IPP is explained in an MS Print support app design guide. Indeed, IPP may be “[u]sed from a client device to interact with the printer to retrieve and set printing preferences and to send the document to be printed.”

Long story short: support for IPP and Mopria standards is a good thing. They make vendor-supplied printer drivers and software unnecessary — at least, for printers that support those standards. And FWIW, IPP and Mopria work on Android, while AirPrint does likewise for iDevices.

That explains the MS timetable in its “end of servicing plan”

September 2023: MS announces end of servicing for third-party printer drivers
2025: No new printer drivers from WU
2026: Printer driver ranking always prefers IPP drivers
2027: Third-party print driver updates disallowed (except for security-related fixes)

IPP Has Been There All Along…

Check out this sub-Window. It comes via Control Panel → Programs and Features → Turn Windows features on or off. It shows built-in IPP support in Windows 10 and 11. See “Internet Printing Client” (box is checked) under”Print and Document Services”

Internet Printing Client checked means IPP is active.
If not, do check it.

Using TCP/IP addresses for networked printers, I’d been unknowingly using IPP for years . Thanks to MS’s updated printer driver architecture, I needn’t use device-specific drivers and software, either. Good stuff.

Indeed, my 2014/2015 Samsung (now HP) and Dell (Brother, actually) printers already use IPP. Most printers made in 2014 or later will do likewise. Good stuff!

Here are additional resources that readers may find helpful.

OpenPrinting Driverless Printers: Vendor makes and models for IPP and/or AirPrint capable printers.
Wikipedia: Mopria Alliance: Info about this trade association. Founded by HP in 2013, it includes global print device makers backing open print initiatives and standards.

Cheers!

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

So Long SUMo & KC Softwares

September 7, 2023 Ed Tittel 11 Comments

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.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10

Intel Fixes PROSet Problem

September 6, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Back on August 18, I reported that version 28.2 of Intel PROSet didn’t support Windows 10 22H2 for some reason. Because I was away from my desk from August 25 through September 4, I only discovered today that Intel fixes PROset problem. According to the properties for the 64-bit executable, it dates back to August 4. That said, today’s download and install works. Indeed, it threw no “version not supported” error message as shown in the earlier post.

When Intel Fixes PROSet Problem, Then What?

This time around, the update worked as expected. The readme.txt file still omits Windows 10 22H2 as a supported version, but the exe file now works properly on my machine. Sigh.

This has me wondering: Did Intel fix something on the sly, or did I simply try to run the wrong exe file last time around? I’ll never know, but I’m glad the update now works as it should. I no longer get nagged when I check updates for something I thought I couldn’t fix on my own.

It’s Still a Mystery to Me…

Looking back at my earlier post, the error message says nothing about which version of Windows it expected to find. I suppose I could have jumped to the conclusion that 22H2 wasn’t supported because it doesn’t appear on the supported version list.

As before, readme.txt calls out Windows 10 21H2 and 1809 but does not mention 22H2. I wonder now if I mistakenly tried to run the 32-bit PROSet executable instead of its 64-bit counterpart. That could provoke the same kind of error message as before. When I try to run that version now, it tells me “Another version is already installed…”

Such surprises can be educational. They teach me that my diagnoses may not always be the correct ones, no matter how plausible the supporting evidence may seem. Indeed, that’s the way things go in Windows-World sometimes, as I know only too well.

Bottom line: I’m glad the update worked this time. Though it may actually have been a self-inflicted problem, PROSet now shows version 28.2.0.2 on my desktop. Call my Windows 10 PC updated, even if I’m not sure exactly what went wrong on August 18.

As you can see at lower left, this running PROSet instance self-describes as 28.2.02 — the latest version.

Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

P1 Mobile Workstation Uptake & Intake

September 5, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

OK then: the day before we left on vacation, the Boss looked out the door and asked me: “Are you expecting something?” I hadn’t been exactly, but Jeff Witt from Lenovo had indeed promised to ship me another business laptop. So here ’tis: a ThinkPad P1 Gen 6. Its Lenovo Commercial Vantage info serves as the lead-in graphic. I’ll now share some details from the P1 Mobile Workstation uptake & intake here at Chez Tittel.

More About P1 Mobile Workstation Uptake & Intake

When you fire a review unit up from Lenovo, it goes automatically into a predefined account. So usually, the first thing I do is to check for OS and Vantage updates. Next, I add my MSA as a second, password-protected admin account. Then, I set up Remote Access. That lets me use my dual-monitor production desktop PC for some serious rooting around.

I find myself occasionally re-learning how to set up Remote Access on the LAN. To begin, enable Remote Desktop. I also have to make sure the LAN is designated a private network. Next — at least temporarily — Discovery for Public Networks and All Networks gets turned on. Otherwise, the first remote desktop connection attempt just doesn’t work. Go figure!

Other Set-up and Configuration Tasks

It always comes as a shock to me on a new install that I have to download and install the latest PowerShell version (7.3.6 as I write this). Then I have to change the default profile to that version in PowerShell Settings/Startup. Finally, leading-edge PS comes up instead of the built-in version (5.1.22621.1778). No thanks!

Next, I install Winfetch, OhMyPosh, import nerd fonts, edit my OMP profile and get PowerShell where I want it to be. The new approach to ZIP files in Windows 11 hides their true nature, so I also had to remember to unblock the ZIP file, extract its contents, and then copy the nerd font files into C:\Windows\Fonts. Sigh: it’s always the little things… That will get corrected in the next phase (see below) when I actually install 7Zip and let its default behaviors take over…

After that, I download PatchMyPC Home Updater to grab all the apps and tools I like to have installed on my PCs. That list of 12 items appears in this next screencap, following installation (takes about 3 minutes altogether, much faster than I could do on a one-off basis). Notice it comes from SUMo (Software Update Monitor) and shows 18 items (OneDrive, Edge, GeForce, and X-Rite came pre-installed; CrystalDiskInfo and CrystalDiskMark get counted for 32- and 64-bit versions separately: go figure!)

4 items pre-installed, and CrystalDisk stuff counts double, for 12 actual items added.

Initial Observations

This is my first exposure to Gen13 (Alder Lake) Intel CPUs. This CPU is a smoker with 14 physical cores, of which 10 run dual threads (i7-13800H). The 2800MHz DDR5 RAM (32 GB, single module) ain’t bad, either. I’m not familiar with Raptor Lake-P/PX Integrated graphics (Raptor Lake-P GT2) but it seems pretty snappy as well. This laptop even comes equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce RTC 4060 GPU which is likewise robust when run locally. The KXG8AZNV1T02 LA KIOXIA 1TB PCIe x4 NVMe SSD speeds along quite handily, too. All in all, it specs out — and acts — like a pretty formidable laptop.

I’m going to have to spend more time with this system but I’ve liked everything it’s shown me about itself so far. As equipped, this unit lists for around US$2,750 on the Lenovo website. All I can say for now is: So far, so good — I like it! Stay tuned, I’ll report back with more info later this week.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

UUPDump.Net Is MIA

August 24, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Well, well, well. I just learned some interesting and useful stuff. But alas, one of my favorite Windows image resource websites is down. That’s right: UUPDump.Net is MIA. According to a handy website I discovered “Is It Down or Just Me?” — the source of the foregoing lead-in graphic — it’s experienced 2 outages that lasted at least 4 hours each in the last 24-hour period. Indeed, it’s currently unavailable. Sigh.

Why UUPDump.Net is MIA Matters…

UUPDump.Net represents a very slick bit of reverse engineering. Essentially, it captures and replays all of the traffic between the WU servers and a client seeking to download some specific Windows image (10 or 11, Home or Pro …, and language). It’s even smart enough to run DISM on a base OS image to add-package in updates and so forth so you can get to specific Build numbers higher than the OS baseline itself (e.g. 22621.2215 on Windows 11 production, or 25831.1010 on Windows 11 Canary Channel Insider Preview). And because it grabs all of its files from Microsoft servers, it’s as safe as they are.

Long story short: I use UUPDump.net when I want to match a Windows image to a specific (and usually pretty recent) Windows 10 or 11 Build on a specific PC or VM. It’s incredibly handy, and serves equally well for in-place upgrade repair installs or clean installs. So when it goes missing, that’s a problem — hopefully, a temporary one.

More Web Status Checks

I also found ip-lookup.org to be helpful in checking on UUPDump.net. As the next screencap shows, it provides an IP address for the website. I can also confirm for myself that the address is not working by typing an “IP URL” into Chrome — namely https://135.181.139.104. This confirms the site is unavailable with a “This site can’t be reached” error message.

Gosh! I hope UUPDump.net comes back up soon. I’ll struggle along without it for now. But I’ll be glad when it comes back to life.

One More Thing: I went to the wayback machine to see if a recent snapshot of the site would work in lieu of the actual site itself. It might! I’m grabbing the stuff for the latest Canary build right now as an experiment. It’s quite a bit slower, and it falls over just after the language selection phase. Doesn’t look like this works. Again: too bad!

Note Added 8/24 ~3PM Central Daylight Time

UUPDump.net is back up. The outage graph at IsItDownOrJustMe says there have been four outages in the last 24 hours, each of 4 hours’ duration. Zounds!

Backup/Restore, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10

Post-Update Reboot Restores Snappy Response

August 23, 2023 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

Hah! I should’ve known. I downloaded and installed KB5029331 on my production Windows 10 PC yesterday. When I sat down and started working this morning, I noticed two things. First, a notification popped up to remind I had to reboot. Second, this PC was running much slower than usual with lots of screen stuttering (jerky video updates). I’m happy to report, however, that a post-update reboot restores snappy response.

Why Post-Update Reboot Restores Snappy Response

The install process can’t really complete until the system can work on itself, so to speak. That is best accomplished using the Windows Pre-installation Environment (WinPE) to — as this MS Learn article puts it — “Modify the Windows operating system while it’s not running.” In the meantime, until you reboot, there’s a bunch of dangling stuff left hanging that will only be resolved the next time Windows gets to take a timeout to finish the update job that installing a cumulative update (CU) sets in motion.

And indeed there are some pretty significant changes in this update to Windows 10. Among other things, I see that the new Windows Backup shows up as “Recently added” (see lead-in graphic above, top left). I’m a little disappointed that this new facility lacks an image backup capability, though. As far as I can tell it backs up Settings, Preferences and User files only. Looks like it’s not about to replace my daily full image backups using Macrium Reflect 8. Too bad!

Side note: the new Backup takes a while to complete, too, I fired it up when I started this blog post. As I publish and promote it, it’s still doing its thing . I can’t readily tie it to a process in Task Manager, Details view, either — hmmm. This will require further investigation!

Back to Work!

The good news is that my aging but still capable i7-6700 Skylake PC (32 GB DDR4, 0.5TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD) immediately returned to its usual snappy performance after the reboot was concluded. No more lagging or jerky video. As I said at the outset, I should’ve known this could happen and rebooted before I quit for the night last night. Luckily for me, the update process took less than 8 minutes to complete, all told. And now, I’m returning to my usually scheduled activities..

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

Extra C++ Redistributable Must Go

August 22, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s an interesting winget puzzle. Over the past couple of days, I noticed winget was reporting success in upgrading a Visual C++ Redistributable from version 14.36.32532 to 14.38.31919.0. Yet, each time I ran winget after that the same thing would reappear. Good thing I know what’s up with that: it means the new install doesn’t remove the old, now obsolete version. Thus, that extra C++ Redistributable must go.

Accomplishing Extra C++ Redistributable Must Go

In the lead-in graphic I show the two versions side by side inside Revo (bottom of image). I used that same tool to uninstall the other one manually. If you look at the sequence of commands therein, you’ll see I check upgrades. It shows me a new Visual C++ version to install. I install it, and check again: oops! Same old version of the redistributable still needs an update.

Or does it? Actually, it needs to be uninstalled. I could’ve done it with the winget syntax:

winget uninstall Microsoft.VCRedist.2015+.x86 -v 14.36.32532.0

But instead because I had Revo already open I simply right clicked the old version, chose uninstall, and let it do its thing. Gone!

What Happened Next?

As expected, the next time I ran winget upgrade to see if any updates remained pending I got back this mysterious but welcome message. “No installed package found matching input criteria.” In winget-speak, that means it didn’t find anything that needed an update. In other words: removing the obsolete Visual C++ Redistributable took care of my previously persistent version 14.36.32532.0.

Good-oh! Glad I’ve seen this kind of thing before. It told me that I probably had to kill the old version manually, to keep it from provoking a reminder to upgrade to the new. Even though it was present already…