Device drivers, Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11

Dude! Where’s My Internet?

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Whoa! I had an amusing but vexing hiccup on the new Flo6 Ryzen 7 5800X system when I sat down to work this morning. The Internet was dead, dead, dead. I could ping localhost but nothing further. It got me thinking about the absurdist epic starring Ashton Kushner and Sean Wm Scott. That prompted the tongue-in-cheek question “Dude! Where’s my internet?” I must speculate, and laugh, at what I think is the answer. Let me explain…

Why Expostulate: Dude! Where’s My Internet?

Everything looked OK when I sat down at the machine. But as soon as I tried to access any online resources, those requests went nowhere. And, of course, they took quite a while to time out to tell me there was no there on the other side of the connection.

I checked the cable TV signal (still there, which means out inbound broadband is working). I checked the wireless PCs (still there, which means at least the fallback to the boundary device WAP is working). Soon it became apparent: the Flo6 PC was the source of my woes. I’m not seeing any errors in Reliability Monitor so I’ll make an educated guess.

Waking Up Is (Sometimes) Hard to Do

The Flo6 had been asleep when I sat in front of it this morning. My best guess is that yesterday’s update somehow mucked with the wake behavior for the unit’s Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller. So I reloaded the driver, and then unchecked the box under Power Management that reads “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” From sad experience, I’ve learned this can turn into “LAN doesn’t work after waking from sleep” errors.

And gee: doesn’t that sound just like what happened to me this morning? It also demonstrates quite convincingly that here in Windows-World, some mornings start better than others. I’ll let you decide what kind of morning I was having today. I think I already know!

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Chasing New Windows 11 Features

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Just had a new piece come out over at AskWoody. It’s entitled Reinstall now — Windows recovery’s secret sauce.  As the title should lead you to expect, it’s about the new feature in Windows 11 that first appeared generally in 23H2, Build22631.3447. If you visit Settings > System > Recovery, you’ll find a “Reinstall now” button under the heading “Fix problems using Windows update.” Once that story went live, it immediately became obvious that numerous Windows 23H2 and 24H2 users had applied the updates that should have resulted in the button’s appearance. But, for a variety of reasons, it did not. Although I haven’t seen this happen personally, I have no trouble believing it, especially given my long history in chasing new Windows 11 features. Let me explain…

Gradual Rollouts and Chasing New Windows 11 Features

Apparently, this button has been part of what MS sometimes call a Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR). In the MS update blogs, it often refers to these as “gradual rollouts.” My special case for Murphy’s Law when it comes to the arrival of new stuff is “If it’s on gradual rollout, my PCs will be among the last to get it.” I’ve also seen this same phenomenon with regard to Quick Machine Recovery, where my older PCs and laptops didn’t get the feature, while my newer ones did. In fact, Intel 12th Gen (Alder Lake) and Ryzen 7 (Zen 4) is as old as such machines get that reliably offer QMR, and its test scenario.

That said, I just fired up a 2018 vintage ThinkPad X1 Extreme (8th Gen Intel CPU) and the “Reinstall now” button appears where it should. So either MS has pushed out this feature as far back as I can see (I don’t have any 7th Gen machines to check) and it really is generally out there, or my AskWoody readers are unlucky enough to own PCs or laptops that are still on compatibility holds for “Reinstall now” for some reason or another.

Note: MS has been busy, because the lead-in graphic from the 8th Gen X1Extreme also shows the QMR facility is now available there. It’s been a long time coming, but it just made it to the older machines recently. Good-oh!

Other Reasons Reinstall Now Might Be MIA

The other cool thing about the AskWoody forums is the weight of expertise that flows like honey from its knowledgable members. You’ll see this only display if you read the Comments on my article.

Among the useful possible obstacles that have emerged from discussion include:

  • For “Reinstall now” to work, reagentc /info needs to show its status as enabled, so that the feature can contact Windows Update and then hand off control to the recovery image it downloads.
  • Numerous GPOs can block or stymie the appearance of “Reinstall now” on Windows PCs and laptops. The threads mention a good handful of same, with the general observation that managed PCs in workplaces and schools are likely to fall under those policies. Also, at least one of AskWoody‘s own recommended end-user policies for Windows 11 could also get in the way.
  • Patch Lady and AskWoody Editor-in-Chief Ssuan Bradley pointed to an MS Learn Q&A item Win 11 Doesn’t Show Reinstall Now, Fix Problems Using Windows Update Greyed Out. This includes useful tips and tricks for fixing the issue.

As always it’s fascinating to see how entirely predictable problems lead various communities to offer support, information, suggestions and fixes. Given that at least half-a-billion users run Windows 11, pretty much every feature is likely to hit a snag for some user(s) on some PCs and laptops. Here in Windows-World, I enjoy learning from such experiences. They’re often better experiened with sympathy second-hand, than with frustration and discomfort first-hand.

 

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Insider stuff, Remote Desktop (RDP), Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Chasing RDP Login Takes Too Long

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OK then, I’ve hit my troubleshooting time-out. Now that I’ve switched over to the Flo6 5800X build for my production desktop, I’m keeping the i7Skylake up and running in parallel. Why? So I can grab or look up things I discover I need on the new build that are only available on the old. So far, that’s included some logins that didn’t make it into the Norton Vault (only stored in Firefox on the old PC, as it turns out), various files and some app configuration data I didn’t know I’d need. Only one small problem: I can’t RDP into the account where all the stuff I need lives. I can RDP into the i7Skylake on a local admin account, but I get an LSA error when I try to log into my primary account. Alas, chasing RDP login takes too long, so I’m using TeamViewer instead. Indeed, it came up on the first try.

Why Chasing RDP Login Takes Too Long

Something has gone weird with NetBIOS and/or Domain Name resolution for RDP into the i7Skylake. That’s why I can get in using a local account, but not the MSA for the primary account. I’ve tried everything Copilot and Google can tell me about fixing that, to no avail, including:

  • Flush DNS name cache
  • Editing hosts file
  • Turning off browse service
  • Trying cmdkey explicit access in Command Prompt

And a whole bunch more. At present, I’ve spent at least 4 hours trying to MAKE it work. But RDP stubbornly refuses to let me use my MSA to log into i7Skylake.

The TeamViewer Alternative: Armadillo Time

TeamViewer doesn’t use RDP for remote access. It’s got its own set of protocols and services to manage LAN and Internet-based connections. It took me all of 15 minutes to get everything downloaded, installed, configured and running. I was able to access i7Skylake using the MSA I wanted on the first try. Go figure!

Sometimes, the best thing about beating your head against the way is how good it feels when you stop. Here in Windows-World this is not an unfamiliar sensation. If anybody knows how I can fix my RDP issue, I’d love some added insight and info. But for now, I have lots of other things to do — including a big deadline tomorrow on a writing project — so I’m taking the alternate route. If you’re not familiar with Jim Franklin’s wonderful armadillo image of that same name, check it out courtesy of Coast Monthly (it serves as the lead-in image for a terrific story).

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Stamping Out Recurring Renewals

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I got an email from a software vendor last week, informing me its auto-renewal would kick in Friday. I don’t want to identify the vendor. Thus, I’ll simply observe this was collaboration software I used to write a book in 2014, and haven’t used since. Time for that auto-renewal to end. But stamping out recurring renewals comes with an interesting and vexing set of challenges. Let me tell you more…

Sounds Easy: Stamping Out Recurring Renewals

You’d think this kind of thing would be as simple as logging into the vendor site, canceling the account and/or subscription. And in theory that’s true. But in practice, it’s not. First thing: I had to re-establish my login for the vendor site. My account was “inactive” so that meant a call to tech support and an interminable hold. All this just to get into my account only to cancel same and terminate my subscription.

But that still didn’t end the renewal cycle. Because I’d purchased the subscription via PayPal, I also had to log there, too. Then I had to manage renewals inside PayPal, and make sure permission for the vendor to charge me was removed. Again, that’s easy in theory. But I had to formulate the right query to get an inkling of where to go in the PayPal GUI to make that happen. Indeed PayPal just changed its Settings interface so that Google’s instructions are irrelevant. I had to use PayPal’s built-in Help to find what  I needed. It’s always something, right?

2-3 Hours to End One Recurring Charge

By the time I had finally gotten out from under, I’d spent between 2 and 3 hours to cancel the recurring charge for something I hadn’t used in a decade. I believe I totally get the value of apps/services like Rocket Money simply because it offers a one-click option to cancel subscriptions and recurring renewals.

Indeed, I’m thinking about giving it a try, just to help me deal with my two-to-three-dozen subscriptions and recurring software obligations. I don’t have to put a very high value on my time to justify some expense, given that it could otherwise take me a week’s work (40 hours) to deal with all that stuff manually.

Things get complicated sometimes, here in Windows-World. I’m hoping some relief may be at hand… But I’m too experienced to believe this more than a fond wish, rather than a likely outcome!

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

Inching toward Flo6 Cutover

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OK, then. I’m just about there. But it’s been a much wilder ride than I expected, as I keep inching toward Flo6 cutover. That is, I’m almost ready to put the 5800X Flo6 build where my i7Skylake PC is right now. I’ll also leave the i7Skylake running for a while to pick up missed bits and pieces, as they inevitably come up. Let me tell you what’s happened so far…

Steps Involved in Inching toward Flo6 Cutover

In my July 28 post, I listed remaining steps before I could switch from old production desktop to new production desktop. Those included:

  • MS Solitaire: turns out I had to find and run a recovery utility to figure out to which MSA my stats belonged. Only then could I bring up the right account. Took about half an hour: done.
  • Macrium Reflect: 9AM full backup configured and running. This turned out to be dead easy, compared to the other items. Took all of 5 minutes, then another 10 minutes to fire off daily backups.
  • PaintShop Pro: Turns out 2023 is as new as it gets. I didn’t need to buy a new version, but I had to decommission the install on the i7Skylake before I could install and activate the Flo6. Also took about half an hour, most of which was figuring out how the heck to log in. Eventually, I figured it out and got it done.
  • PDF reader: I couldn’t get Nitro Pro to send me an email to reset my password for love or money. That took half an hour. So I switched to Adobe Acrobat Pro. Murphy struck again! The default Acrobat Pro installer — the one on its primary download page — doesn’t work on Windows 11 (at least not on the Flo6 install). It took me almost an hour to find and use the company’s standalone installer instead. That worked, but sheesh: a PITA!

Ready to Switch…

It’s after 5 PM on July 31 (Thursday), so I’ll unplug everything for both systems, switch their locations, and plug them back in after lunch Friday. Hopefully everything will come up as it should. If not, I’ll report further in an addendum hereto. With finger crossed, I’m hustling through the morning so I can get this handled in the afternoon. Wish me luck!

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog

GeForce 1070Ti Nears EOL

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I’ll admit it: I’m a cheapskate. Case in point: both of my 5800X PCs still run NVIDIA GeForce 1070Ti GPUs, scavenged from long-retired older builds. Reason: the Antec 200 cases in which they resided couldn’t accommodate the longer, newer cards available at the time. In a surprisingly cryptic “Deprecation Schedule” document, however, NVIDIA reveals that GeForce 1070Ti nears EOL. In fact, the 580 series of drivers will be the last to support Maxwell, Pascal and Volta architectures. The 1070Ti was one of the last Pascal-era devices to go to market, so its days are officially numbered. The brief announcement that seals its fate appears as the lead-in graphic. Sigh.

If GeForce 1070Ti Nears EOL, What’s Next?

Looks like I’ve gotta buy two new GPUs for my pair of 5800X systems. Copilot recommends the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti as a logical replacment. It still works with the same 8-pin power connector, costs US$450-500, and is supposed to be 20-30% faster. For about the same money, however, AMD RX 7700 XT costs the same but offers a 10% performance bump. I’ll have to ponder those diffs and do some competitive shopping analysis.

That said, the last 58x driver drops in October of this year, concident with EOS for Windows 10. But Copilot says NVIDIA will offer security-only updates for another two years after that (until October 2028). So maybe I don’t have to hurry too fast to make that switch. After all, procrastination is my middle name here in Windows-World when it comes to spending money on enforced updates.

But as the technology base keeps changing, and my hardware keeps aging (along with your humble author, who no longer even qualifies as a “summer chicken”), switchovers are inevitable. I hope to hang out here in Windows-World enough longer to survive a couple more major technology turnovers. We’ll see!

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Pondering Window 10 Turns 10

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There’s been a lot of coverage in the Windows trade press around Windows 10’s tenth birthday. It made its debut on July 29, 2015. As I’m pondering Windows 10 turns 10 — and its upcoming EOS on October 14 — I asked myself “How does a 10-year lifespan compare to other Windows versions?” Obligingly enough, Copilot provided me with a text-based histogram that lays things out as far back as Windows 1.x versions. It serves as the lead-in graphic for this post.

Pondering Window 10 Turns 10: Lifespans Compared

Here’s what I see when I look at that chart:

  • Only two versions have had longer runs than Windows 10 — namely, Windows XP (13 years) and Windows 7 (11 years). Both are arguably the Windows champs as far as versions go, and I used the heck out of them during their heydays.
  • I’d have to say that a life span of under 7 years pretty clearly separates winning Windows avatars from losing ones. That group includes Windows 1.x, 2.x, 95, ME, Vista, 8 and 8.1. Of those, Windows 95 is the only one I remember fondly, but I moved to 98 long before it got close to EOL.
  • Over this set, the distribution is pretty scattered and broad. The min is 2 years, the max is 13 years, the mean is 7.25 years, and the median is 6 years. Given my preceding observation about lifespans under 7 years, does that mean Windows is rather less than more successful? Interesting question, but I don’t think the answer is “Yes.” Arguably, Windows 7 persisted because neither 8 nor 8.1 could really pick up and run with the ball.

It’s interesting to step back and look at how many versions have come and gone and how each one has had its own lifecycle. My gut feel is that Windows 10 deserves to be in the same cohort as XP and 7. I’d argue further that Windows 11 could be in the same company — but of course it’s too early to say just yet. After all, it’s only just a bit over 4 years old.

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Snapdragon X Wakes Into RDP Session

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Here’s an interesting tidbit to consider. Lenovo having sent me a splendid Yoga AIO 32Ill10 last month, with its brilliant 31.5″ display, I’ve been using it a lot. Last night, I put it to sleep when I went to bed using its lock screen power controls. That’s something like what you see in the lead-in graphic, where I chose the middle option labeled “Sleep.” This morning, I observed that the Snapdragon X wakes into RDP session, as I poked the Window Terminal session I had running remotely on my desktop. No hesitation, no delay, just an instant response to my command input. Nifty!

What Snapdragon X Wakes Into RDP Session Means

Snapdragon X includes an Instant Wake feature, which describes its ability to resume activity from sleep in a second or two (no noticeable delay). I didn’t realize that the Modern Standby and Always Connected capabilities that support this feature would also maintain an RDP session until I started typing into the Windows Terminal pane I had open on that remote desktop this morning.

This is great for a variety of reasons, including:

  • Cutting down on light output in my office when the whole house is sleeping.
  • Saving energy not used to keep the lock screen showing even when away from the unit itself (or the desktop holding its RDP session)
  • Letting me get right back to work doing remote stuff without having to log back into RDP first. Older Windows PCs lose their network connections when put to sleep, in my experience.

Another Copilot+ PC Advantage?

AMD and Intel alternatives to Snapdragon CPUs are getting the very features that make Snapdragon X do its thing so well (e.g. Modern Standby and Always Connected). But Copilot says that these systems won’t get them across the board until 25H2 updates go into general release. I’m guessing this means they’ll work on some of the Insider Previews already, but that one can’t count on general availability until after 25H2 hits a target PC.

Indeed Copilot alluded to those famous words of frustration in this context — namely “gradual rollout.” Here’s the quote from whence this observation springs: “Feature rollout is staggered: Snapdragon systems got first dibs; AMD and Intel systems are receiving Copilot+ features gradually through updates.”

As is often the case in Windows-World, YMMV applies to Copilot+ PCs that don’t include Snapdragon CPUs. That, in a nutshell, explains why I begged and pleaded with Lenovo to send me some review units with Snapdragon X circuitry. Thanks, people — I’m grateful to have access to this stuff!

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Win10-2-11 Switchover Hanging Fire

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Boy oh boy. I’m having troubling cutting over. I’ve got my Ryzen 7 5800X system all set up and ready to go. But I still haven’t transitioned from the i7 Skylake (now almost 10 years old) to the new build. I keep messing around with stuff and tweaking this and that. And I’ve got my planned Win10-2-11 switchover hanging fire in the meanwhile. Let me describe my sticking points, in the hopes it will move me over the finish line this week.

Why Is My Win10-2-11 Switchover Hanging Fire?

Basically, it comes down to 3 reasons:

1. Music. I’m running a large music collection in Media Monkey 2024 Lifetime on the i7Skylake. But try as I might a simple file copy doesn’t bring the whole shebang up on the new build. I’m playing with a different package now called Helium that seems to provide a pathway, but it requires me to convert the library to a neutral format for transfer. That’s taking an ungodly amount of time.

2. Email. I’ve got email up and running on both PCs right now and everything seems to be working OK. I’m switching from Microsoft 365 to Office 2024 to bring everything local, and email is coming through. But I’m concerned about Contacts carrying over. Thanks to a recent “save to PST/import from PST” maneuver that seems to be working now.

3. Inertia. I’m simply a bit apprehensive about switching from a know, good, working system of long duration and experience to a new and relatively untried one. I’ve got to summon my moxie, and make it happen, I guess.

Running in Parallel Should Provide Fallback

Here’s what I’m going to do: I’ll switch the position of the two cases in my office around. The Flo6 is next to the filing cabinet for Desk#2 in my office, with the i7Skylake under my primary working desk. I’ll uncable both, and recable each one in the other’s current place. That way, I can remote into the old machine from the new one and see or run anything there via RDP that I can’t access on the  Flo6.

But first, I still have to install and tweak a few more programs on the Flo6:

  • MS Solitaire: can’t do without it for breaks and recreation on my desktop.
  • Macrium Reflect: Need to configure my 9AM daily backup (lets me see it complete for ultimate peace of mind each working day)
  • Image editor: I’m going to have to decide if I want to upgrade Corel PaintShop Pro to 2025, or switch to Adobe Creative Cloud. I just checked pricing, and I think I’m upgrading what I already know…
  • PDF reader: I’ll need to decomission Nitro Pro on the old PC to bring it up on the new one.

That should do it. I’ll start this afternoon. Thanks for the pep talk: I guess I needed it…

 

 

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Sez MS: 24H2 Most Reliable Windows Yet

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Here’s an interesting bit of Windows administrivia. On July 22, a spellbinding Windows IT Pro Blog post appeared. It comes from Monika Sandhu, the Senior Program Manager who runs the company’s Windows Resiliency Initiative. Unsurprisingly, it’s entitled Resilience in action for Windows devices. There’s lots of good stuff in this piece, but I want to focus on her claim: 24H2 most reliable Windows yet. What does this means, and why does she say it?

Why Is 24H2 Most Reliable Windows Yet?

You can see that paragraph from her blog post, reproduced as the lead-in graphic above. This assertion stems from MS telemetry that reports on unexpected restarts and related failure rates. Apparently, they’re down by nearly a quarter (24%) as compared to Windows 10 22H2.

As somebody who’s run a modest Windows 10 fleet (up to 12-15 desktops and laptops),  and who runs a similar-sized Windows 11 agglomeration right now, I can confirm her observation based on personal, if anecdotal experience. I don’t keep telemetry data around, but I do remember failure rates, restart problems, and so forth, across both Oses. For Windows 10, my experience goes back to October 14, when the first Technical Preview appeared. For 11, it goes back to June 2021. Over the interim, I’ve done dozens to hundreds of clean installs of both Oses, and hundreds of upgrades as well.

What Makes Windows 11 More Resilient?

I’ve seen the introduction of the reinstall now feature, which rebuilds whatever version of Windows 11 is running, including all current CUs, servicing stacks, and so forth. I’ve seen a demo of the Quick Machine Recovery facility which rebuilds the pre-OS-launch Windows startup/boot facilities. I believe this will work as MS describes it in actual deployment, too. And now, MS is talking about reworking the Startup Repair facility in WinRE (no doubt to match what QRM can already do).

So heck, yeah, I’m buying into this particular vision. In fact, I can’t wait to see QRM go into full production. I’m hoping it can save some butts the next time a Crowdstrike-like incident rears its ugly head. My thanks to Ms. Sandhu for sharing this info, and for injecting some hope that Windows-World could soon be a more resilient, less failure prone sphere to occupy. Let’s see what happens!

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