All posts by Ed Tittel

Full-time freelance writer, researcher and occasional expert witness, I specialize in Windows operating systems, information security, markup languages, and Web development tools and environments. I blog for numerous Websites, still write (or revise) the occasional book, and write lots of articles, white papers, tech briefs, and so forth.
Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

When Winget Upgrade Hits or Misses

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Here’s an interesting observation about winget upgrade. I’ve slowly but surely gleaned it from repeat experience over the past 19 or 20 months. As I’ve been using the tool daily, I’ve noticed that for some apps or applications, winget upgrade sometimes works, and sometimes fails. It has finally dawned on me this on-again, off-again behavior depends on if the app or application is running at the time. Thus, if winget upgrade hits or misses ties to whether or not it can run the upgrade without stepping on something that’s running.

When Winget Upgrade Hits or MIsses, It’s for a Reason

This hit me forcibly on Monday when I noticed that an upgrade attempt for Microsoft.Office failed on on PC, but not another. The only difference between the two situations was that Word and Outlook were running on one machine (failed). On the other machine no Office components whatsoever were running (succeeded).

As I think back on other situations where this has happened, it’s often been web browsers involved. At one time or another, Chrome, Edge and Firefox (the three browsers I typically use) have all either failed or simply refused a winget upgrade command. And indeed, all were either actively running or had running processes showing in Task Manager when this occurred.

Another Kind of Update Trap?

I wrote recently (September 28) about Windows Self-Update Traps. These can pop up when winget, PowerShell or Windows Terminal get updates. Winget is conservative and won’t change things that could cause problems or lead to uncertain outcomes. Thus, I’m coming around a specific idea: if you use winget and you notice an update for a running application, save work and close it for best results. Gosh, where have I seen that advice before? It’s received wisdom when applying updates anyway. Perhaps that’s why?

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Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog

Seeking Free Windows Backup Satisfaction

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As of December 31, 2023, Paramount Software — the maker of Macrium Reflect — will no longer update its freeware version. I’ve been a long-time fan of this software. It has bailed me out of countless jams, many self-inflicted or the results of experiments gone bad. But I feel compelled to recommend a free backup tool to users, thinking that not everybody can (or wants to) pay for Windows backup. That’s why I’ve been seeking free Windows backup satisfaction for most of 2023. So far, I’m not too thrilled with what I’m finding outside the Macrium umbrella.

Still Seeking Free Windows Backup Satisfaction

As I often do when I’m looking for good software in some category, I turned to Tim Fisher at LifeWire. His 32 Best Free Backup Tools story, last updated in September 2023, certainly covers a lot of options. But now that MS has thrown ReFS volumes into the mix with its inclusion in the Dev Home utility for Windows 11, the number of suitable options drops precipitously. (Macrium Reflect, for example, supports ReFS only in its Server versions, which are not free. Many other tools on Tim’s list likewise omit ReFS in free versions.)

Tim’s #1 ranked choice is EasUS ToDo Backup which indeed comes in a free version that includes ReFS support. I’ve been messing about with it and it does the job. But gosh! The free version is chock-full of constant, annoying and even intrusive ads, ads, ads. Honestly, I *hate* it. And FWIW, Susan Bradley at AskWoody recommends buying a license if you use this product anyway. I have to concur, if only to make the darn thing SHUT UP already.

The Slot Remains Open…

As I dig through Tim’s sizable collection of possible Macrium Reflect replacements, I’ve yet to find something obvious to fill its slot. Val Potter at ComputerWorld gave me the option of recommending a paid-for tool instead when I revise my story on Windows Backup sometime soon. I may stick with Reflect anyway just because I know from long and sometimes hairy experience that it works, works, works.

If you have any suggestions for a killer free Windows backup app that’s neither Macrium Reflect nor EasUS ToDo Backup, please use the contact form here to drop me a line. I’m open to suggestion!

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Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Upgrades Are Over, Activation Still Works

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I read yesterday at Thurrott.com that MS was no longer supporting free upgrades from Windows 7 or 8.1 to Windows 10 or 11. “Holy smokes,” I thought to myself, “That’s been a long time coming.” That offer supposedly expired in 2016 but had been working until recently. My next question was: “Does that mean you can’t activate a new Windows 11 install with a Windows 7 key any more?” Based on a hurry-up experiment I just finished, I’m bemused to report that if upgrades are over, activation still works. I’ll explain…

Though Windows 7 and 8.1 Upgrades Are Over, Activation Still Works

Here’s what I did. I downloaded a Windows 11 Pro ISO, I fired up Hyper-V Manager, and I created a new VM using that ISO. When the time came to provide a license key, I plugged in an entry from the list of Windows 7 Ultimate license keys I keep around for testing purposes. Guess what happened?

It worked! In fact, the screencap at the head of this blog post shows the newly stood-up VM with an Activation state of “Active” from that very Windows 7 Ultimate key (anybody else remember that edition?). Thus, though it may no longer be possible to upgrade from running Windows 7 or 8.1 instances, it seems like their keys will still suffice to crate a valid, activated instance of Windows 11 from scratch. Good to know!

Straight from the Source: MS

Mr. Thurrott cites a Microsoft Device Partner Center communication as the source of this information. That item is entitled Windows Ends Installation Path for Free Windows 7/8 Upgrade. It bears a publication date of September 20, 2023. For the moment, though the upgrade path may be closed, it looks like the keys still work for activation. I wonder if this loophole will remain open, or close sometime as well. Stay tuned: we’ll see!

Clarification Added September 30

Thanks to a more recent story from Sergey Tkachenko at WinAero, I now have a better idea of what’s going on. The 7/8 keys still work for versions of Windows 10 and 11 through 22H2. You can’t, however, use those keys to activate a new install of 23H2.  I tried only Windows 11 22H2, not a preview of 23H2 (AFAIK, it’s not out yet in any other form). NOW I get it…

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Cool Tools, PowerShell, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Avoiding Windows Self-Update Traps

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Think about it. When a program needs an update, sometimes what’s doing the update and what’s getting the update may be related. This gets interesting. Windows itself is a pretty good example. This explains why reboots are required to install  an OS, and often when updating same. Simply put, the pieces being working on cannot also do the work on themselves in many cases. Applications, apps, and so forth can also fall prey to the same things (think about installing an installer). Thus, avoiding Windows self-update traps is something of a balancing act.

Example: Avoiding Windows Self-Update Traps

I saw a great example of an artful dodge around this problem yesterday, as I was using Winget to update Windows Terminal (WT). Take a look at the lead-in graphic. It shows the WT update progress. Note that the last instruction at the end of that process reads:

Restart the application to complete the upgrade.

That’s exactly the kind of maneuver that’s necessary. It allows the currently running code for a program (or OS) stop running. Then, the newly-updated or installed code for the same program (or OS) can take over and start doing its thing.

Counter-Example: PowerShell

Back in June, I wrote a blog post here entitled WinGet Upgrade PowerShell Shows Cancelled. It shows what can — and sometimes still does — happen when the tail end of the installation process fails to complete and exit cleanly. I know the PS team is working on this, but this shows that self-updates do pose occasionally tricky problems.

I’m glad to see the WT take the high road and suspend the final steps of install or upgrade until it’s safe to do so. I’ll be gladder still when the PS team eventually follows suit (as I’m sure they will). In the meantime, I did find a workaround: if you open a Command Prompt session and run the winget PS upgrade there, no “cancelled” (or other error messages) result. Good enough for me, for now!

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

22H2 Moment4 Brings Back ReFS

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For a long time, Windows desktop access to the Resilient File System (aka ReFS) was limited and iffy. Introduced in Windows Server 2012, facilities to create ReFS volumes were dropped from Windows 10 1709. (Exceptions: Enterprise and Pro for Workstation editions). In Windows 11, AFAICT, it’s been a thing only in Enterprise Insider Preview builds — until now. With this week’s Update Preview, 22H2 Moment4 brings back ReFS. The lead-in screencap comes from one of my Windows 11 Pro test PCs, in fact. Check it out!

How 22H2 Moment4 Brings Back ReFS

It does so in the context of the Dev Home utility in Windows 11. This app provides scaffolding to support a range of developer functions in the OS. These include widgets, access to GitHub projects, and — you guessed it — the ability to create a “Dev Drive” which can be formatted using ReFS. That’s what you see in the lead-in screencap.

One of the major options in Dev Home lets users create this so-called Dev Drive. It looks like this:

When you click the button, it puts you in into Settings → System → Storage → Disks & volumes. If you click Create Dev Drive again there, you’ll find various options. You can create a new VHD, resize an existing volume (to reclaim space for a new one) or possibly allocate unused disk space (only if available). In my testing, I elected to resize my existing volume boot/system volume.

MS Claims a Speed Advantage…

In its description of dev drives, MS claims to “improve performance for key developer workloads” (see this blog post for a chart of comparisons with NTFS). In my own experience, it was pretty remarkable. It took less than 2 seconds to copy a Windows 11 ISO (~4GB in size) from an external TB4 NVMe SSD to the new ReFS volume. Mighty quick!

I’m going to have to play around with this to really understand how it works and peforms, but so far it’s an interesting toy. And it’s also nice to see ReFS make a comeback into the broader reaches of Windows 11. Try it out for yourself!

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

UUP Dump Shenanigans Ongoing

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Just over a month ago, I reported that UUPDump.net was going down on a more-or-less regular basis. I’m sorry to follow up and say that UUPDump.net is now completely off the air. It had been supplanted by UUPDump.ee. But that’s apparently off the air, too. Right now, there’s an apparent mirror or clone site up and running at www.uup.ee that keeps Windows images available. With these UUP Dump shenanigans ongoing, “How long?” is an open and valid question.

As an experiment, I ran the script for a Windows 11 Pro ISO for Build 22621.2338 (Insider Preview, Beta Channel). It completed, but I need to test it by performing an in-place repair install on the target PC. In the meantime, I’m left wondering about all this up-and-down and site-hopping activity. The lead-in graphic shows output from near the tail end of the ISO creation process.

What UUP Dump Shenanigans Ongoing Means

I have long admired the work and insight that goes into letting UUP Dump do its thing. It’s been an invaluable resource for me and the Windows community ever since I started working with Kari the Finn on Win10.Guru in 2018 or thereabouts.

But now, I’m growing increasingly reluctant to recommend this as a resource to others. It’s simply gotten a little too flaky to trust completely. It’s definitely become more of a “Use at your own risk” kind of thing, even as it continues to do what it has always done.

Wouldn’t it be great if MS took this over, or provided sponsorship funds for the UUP Dump crew’s obviously strained resources? Shoot! I’d be willing to pay US$25 to 50 a year to support their efforts. But I don’t see any way to do that, either. Sigh.

Note Added 4+ Hours Later

After posting a query to ElevenForum.com, uber-user @Bree responded with some great information. Seems that the UUP team is now focusing their efforts on the UUP Dump channel on Discord, and on an app named uupdump.7z. So I’m digging into that info, and will write about it in a future blog post. Looks like it takes the process local, instead of relying on a server to support it. Could be good!

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

DevHome Update Hiccup Deciphered

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On those test PCs where I’ve got Microsoft DevHome installed, i noticed an update issue last week. The lead-in graphic shows a failure when a dependency install for WindowsAppRuntime bombs out. So when I saw this MSPowerUser story about a new version, I found my DevHome update hiccup deciphered at last.

Getting to: DevHome Update Hiccup Deciphered

In light of a new version with different capabilities, my workaround for this problem also makes perfect sense. I tried uninstalling DevHome using winget. However, a leftover remained in “Installed Apps” — where, curiously enough, the uninstall button is greyed-out and inaccessible. Indeed, neither the Repair nor Reset buttons changed things at all. Interesting.

DevHome Update Hiccup Deciphered.notrepair

The button I want (uninstall) is inaccessible. Sigh.

A Curious Fix Emerges

I went ahead and restarted the affected test PC (one of my 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yogas). After restarting, it updated the Windows Store apps — of which Dev Home is one. It shows up as the most recently updated item (“Modified minutes ago”) under the Library tab.

And guess what? Running winget upgrade again, post-reboot, shows nothing in need of update. This tells me that when winget finds Store apps in need of updates that it can’t handle itself, running updates through the Store can fix what ails them. I’m not sure the reboot was necessary. But gosh: it sure looks like the “Get updates” function in Store did the trick. Extremely good to know!

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

P1 Gen 6 Post-Sleep RDP Fail Fixed

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I’m still breaking in the Lenovo P1 Gen 6 Mobile Workstation here at Chez Tittel. It’s pretty much where I want it right now. Indeed, its 13th-gen Intel i7-13800H 20-core CPU is nothing less than awe-inspiring. This week I had enough spare bandwidth to notice that while I could easily remote into the unit right after a reboot, it became unavailable to RDP after falling asleep. As soon as I disabled sleep while plugged into A/C power, I found this P1 Gen6 post-sleep RDP fail fixed. The corresponding Power & Battery Setting shows in the lead-in graphic above.

Getting to P1 Gen 6 Post-Sleep RDP Fail Fixed

Fixing things was the easy part. Figuring out what was wrong took a while. I was able to ping the unit’s LAN address, but Remote Desktop Connection (and the Remote Desktop app) stubbornly refused to let me access the PC.

Having been down this road before with other PCs, I soon realized that:
(a) RDP connections worked right after any reboot
(b) those same connections quit working after waking from sleep
I don’t know what it is about PC sleep behaviors but they can sometimes be mysterious and opaque. I’m just glad the simple, obvious solution — disabling sleep on A/C power — does the trick.

What About PowerToys Awake?

This situation actually reminded me that I hadn’t yet installed PowerToys on the P1 Gen6 laptop. Having now done so, I have to believe my access issues are over with Awake enabled and on the job. Just to be doubly darn sure I set it to “Keep awake indefinitely.” Now when I try to RDP into this laptop, it should be ready, willing and able to accept that connection. Let’s see!

P1 Gen 6 Post-Sleep RDP Fail Fixed.powertoys-awake
Note added 2 Days Later: I’ve been running the P1 Gen 6 for a couple of days now without further remote access issues. Looks like the fix really is in. Good!

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

Update Trick Delivers Clean PS 7.3.7 Install

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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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Cool Tools, Device drivers, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Snappy Driver Installer Worth Considering

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I know. I know. Lots of Windows experts and pundits, including at AskWoody, TenForums and ElevenForum, don’t recommend or support driver update tools. That said, I find Snappy Driver Installer worth considering anyway (at least, the Origin fork). Let me recite some recent experience. Then I’ll enumerate the reasons why I’m so grateful for Snappy Driver Installer…

Why Say: Snappy Driver Installer Worth Considering

First let me explain why I’m grateful for this tool and its labor-intensive project. Almost alone among such tools, Snappy Driver installer (SDI) is open source (GNU GPL v3.0 license). Most decent driver update tools cost upwards of US$30 per year, some more than that.

Just this morning, Norton (still running it on my production PC, but I plan to bid it adieu with my next desktop build) told me I had 14 drivers out of date. It costs upwards of US$60 to add its driver scanning functions (and a bunch of other stuff, too) to its ~US$90 annual subscription fee. I’m not interested in paying more, thanks, but I was glad to learn I had some drivers out of date.

Firing up SDI for the first time is interesting because it needs more just under 37GB of driver files to offer a complete collection of stuff from which to work. Even so, the tool is smart enough to focus only on driver packs (7ZIP files of related drivers) that a target PC needs. For this target PC, that involved just a bit over 3 GB across 8 different archive files. SDI was able to handle all the out-of-date drivers on its own, in about 30 minutes (most unattended, while I did something else).

SDI Benefits and Features (IMO Anyway…)

Snappy Driver Installer is free. It’s easy to maintain a portable version on a UFD you can use for all your Windows PCs. It works with all current Windows versions (I’ve used it across the range of Windows 10 and 11 editions and builds).

For me, SDI does the job nicely and keeps my PCs current without annual subscription fees. And because I routinely shoot an image backup before mucking about with drivers, I can say no such update has ever hosed one of the PCs under my purview.

Like I said at the outset: SDI is worth checking out for yourself. You just might find it useful. Your call…

Note: For timing purposes I fired up SDI on another test PC to see how long it takes to grab the whole collection of driver packs. Right now, it’s 115 minutes in at 50% done. That means it could take as long as 4 hours to complete. It’s clocking between 18 and 85 Mbps as it runs, so it’s apparently throttled deliberately and carefully. Final runtime came in well under 3 hours (just over 155 minutes, or 2:35).

Wait! There’s more: Version forks and controversies

I got a tweet today from David Ballesteros. He let me know there are dueling versions of SDI, including the one formerly linked above (I removed it as I’ll explain). Another is called SDI Origin, which gets an interesting description at MajorGeeks.

WARNING!!! Malware is reported in the SDI fork. Thus, many online posters say — no surprise there — use SDI Origin instead. I’ve not run into any of said reported malware, adware or other potential gotchas, but my PCs are pretty armored up.

Just to be on the safe side it seems like SDIO (SDI Origin) is the best version to use. That’s why I killed the link to the other fork (but it’s easy to find online). And as I look at the filenames on my home drive for Snappy I see I wound up with the Origin version in both subfolders anyway (directory root is named SDIO).

As you can see in this properties Window, even my original exe file is named “Snappy Driver Installer Origin.” Reinforces the old saying: it’s better to be lucky than good. Phew: might’ve dodged a bullet!

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