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.

Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Reboot Releases Macrium Backup Volumes

April 7, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

If you’ve been reading this blog lately, you know I experienced a drive crash earlier this week (see “Bye-Bye Seagate…” for details). In the wake of that failure, I had to recover the very data volume that failed from a Macrium Reflect backup. That went off without a hitch. But I hit a snag when I attempted to unmount the volume, which normally requires only right-click menu navigation. Eventually I figured out — and confirmed — that a Windows reboot releases Macrium backup volumes.

An example of a mounted backed-up volume appears above; the normal menus below.

Normally, a two-step cascade provides easy access to unmount a Macrium backup volume. Not that time!
[Click Image for Full-Sized View.]

I’m Glad Reboot Releases Macrium Backup Volumes

After I’d finished grabbing the two folders I really needed from that backup I tried to unmount the volume and drive letter Reflect created to grant me access to its contents. No dice. When I right-clicked the Macrium Reflect entry, the all-important next-level “Unmount Macrium image” item shown above did not appear.

Geek that I am, I attempted to unmount it at the command line. But I couldn’t get PowerShell or Command Prompt to give me the details I needed to make that happen. (I simply couldn’t figure out how to get a GUID or other key drive ID details.)

I reasoned to myself: “Because Reflect mounted the volume, it must surely get unmounted if I reboot the PC.” And indeed, that’s exactly what happened. When I rebooted the PC, the volume that Reflect had mounted appeared no more.

As you can see from the preceding screenshots, it was just a momentary glitch. I mounted a different volume to shoot those images. This time, the right-click menu worked perfectly to dismount from the second image what shows up mounted (boxed in red) in the first image. Go figure!

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

Intel DSA Repair Lets Scan Complete

April 6, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

This morning, I read about a new Intel graphics driver over at Neowin. With 6 or more PCs likely to need an update, I starting using the Intel Driver & Support Assistant (DSA) to check things out. On one of my two Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga PCs (8th gen Intel CPUs, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD), the spinning balls for the system scan kept spinning … and spinning … and spinning … In looking for a way to fix things, I turned to an Intel Support note. That led me indirectly to learn that an Intel DSA repair lets scan complete.

How Intel DSA Repair Lets Scan Complete

I followed Intel’s advice to uninstall, then reinstall, the DSA app. Along the way, the installer offered a “Repair Installation” option( via Revo Uninstaller). “Hmmmm,” I thought to myself “Why not try this option first and see if it helps?” I did, after which the system informed me a reboot was needed to complete the process.

So I did that, too. And when the PC rebooted the next time around, the DSA system scan completed nearly instantly. After watching it grind for nearly two minutes earlier this morning, that came as a great relief. As irony would have it, DSA did NOT find new graphics drivers for me to install on that PC, either. Here’s what it told me instead:

Despite Neowin’s alert, DSA finds no need for a new graphics driver.

The Installer Will Show “Repair” When Available

This did remind me that many application installers include a “Repair installation” option as part of the installer’s bag of tricks. This time, repair was in the bag — and thankfully, it worked. Problem solved. And the old “remove & replace” operation proves its value yet again as a strategy for fixing application and update issues, but with an interesting twist. Cheers!

Impatient? Direct Driver Link for 31.0.101.2121

If you don’t want to wait for Intel to bring you these drivers via DSA (it’s now early afternoon on release day and they’re still not showing up there), you can grab them from the Intel Drivers & Software downloads page: Intel 6th-10th Gen Processor Graphics — Windows. As for me and my curiosity, I’m content to wait for now…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

MS Introduces Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock

April 5, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

The field is getting increasingly crowded, and the features just keep coming. Microsoft is finally switching over from its proprietary Surface connector to more standard USB-C connections. Indeed, check out the lead photo. It pairs cable ends with ports as MS introduces Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock (MSRP US$300). And because MS is a little late to this party, they add USB4 support to their high-speed USB-C ports, along with TB4.

If MS Introduces Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock, Then What?

That puts another interesting and competitive option into an increasingly crowded market. The CalDigit TS4 remains at the top of the heap (US$400 and up). The Lenovo Universal TB4 Dock is priced on par with the Surface unit (US$305). Similar offerings are available from numerous other makers. These include Anker, Belkin, Kensington, Razer, OWC and many others (see this XDA Developers story for a pretty comprehensive run-down).

What makes the Surface unit unique — for the moment, anyway — is that it includes USB4 along with TB4 support on its USB-C ports. USB4 remains new enough that many docks on the market for a year or more (that is, most of them) don’t follow suit.

The USB4 Conundrum

If we see the next generation of docks adding USB4 to TB4 to one or more high-speed ports, we’ll know USB4 is gaining real traction. At present, it’s more of a rarity. When I went looking at latest generation laptops for USB4 last month (March 2023) I observed that fewer than 25% of models offer USB4 support. Most of those are higher-end PCs, too.

Ditto for higher-end NVMe drive enclosures. The vast majority support TB4, but only a few combine USB4 along with such capability. Indeed, the USB4 spec dates back to 2019, and “Thunderbolt 4 is a superset of USB4” (PC World). This may make calling out support for USB4 a distinction without a difference when TB4 is already present. MS’s recent inclusion of a USB4 page in Windows 11 Settings (Builds 23419 and follow-ons) and inclusion in this dock show a rising tide of USB4 support. We’ll see what happens, as a new generation of PCs and related peripherals make their way into the marketplace.

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

Bye Bye Seagate STL1000LM014

April 4, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Yesterday, I was bopping along and working away. Somewhere after lunch I noticed my D: drive had gone missing. I’ve been working feverishly to try to resuscitate that volume, but it ain’t coming back. Good thing I back it up frequently. I just restored the folders I care about most from that backup (and know where to find more, if I need them). So now, it’s time to say: Bye bye Seagate STL1000LM014.

Impacts from Bye Bye Seagate ST1000LM014

A bit of surprise and upset was my first reaction. But then, I looked at the manufacture date: 2014. Hmmm … let’s see … that’s 8-9 years ago. So, actually, not too surprising. I spent a couple of hours trying to recover the drive. But it won’t read in Windows for more than a minute or two before it falls over and throws a “failed USB device” error. So, I’m retiring this drive from service. I wasn’t able to recover its contents or restore it to working condition using Disk Management, MiniTool Partition Wizard, or SeaTools. That means it’s time for it to go.

It’s already been replaced with a different 2.5″ drive. It was mounted in a pop-out drive cage, which made it easy to remove the dead drive and drop in a live replacement. This time around, I’m going with a Seagate ST2000LX001FireCuda 2TB model, manufactured in 2020 or thereabouts. It should last for a while yet (at least 5 more years if the previous iteration is any guide). I think I’ll be OK.

Thank God for Good Backup!

I’m so glad I made the old D: drive part of my daily backup routine. I didn’t lose more than a day’s work. Now, I have to clean up the backup definition and make sure I’m still covered when the next drive fails. As they often say here in Windows-World: it’s always something!

Cool Tools, PC/phone travel gear, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Phone Link Pairs Up iPhone Build 25330

April 3, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I’m jazzed! Here’s what Phone Link pairs up iPhone build 25330 means “Starting with the latest Canary Build, my iPhone and Phone Link are now working together.” I’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time. The lead-in graphics shows the “pairing success” message on my Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid tablet.

What Phone Link Pairs Up iPhone Build 25330 Brings In

On my PC, I can now see the messages in my iPhone message store. I can also access my contact list to place or receive calls via that device. Pretty neat. The set-up process was dead easy. There were messages on both PC and iPhone about what to do. They steered me through the pairing and synching processes.

I’ve been envious of Android users for years, because Phone Link has supported those devices from Day 1. When MS announced iPhone support was coming back on March 2, but in phased form, I quickly realized my PCs weren’t included. I’ve been waiting at least since Build 25314 (I had to clean install Windows 11 again on this machine after the announcement) for this capability to show up on my Dev and later Canary channel test PCs. And now it’s here: woo-hoo!

The Learning Process Begins…

Now the real understanding of what Phone Link can do for me begins. I’ve got the devices paired, and the iPhone on charger so it can run all do. I just had a notification of an incoming (spam) call show up on the desktop, but declined it before I could capture the screen pop that informed me about same. But I can show you the declined notification left behind:

Screen pops and notifications are all part of the service that Phone Link provides.

As I get more time working with the connection, I’ll understand much better what it can do for me. But I’m still jazzed, and happy to finally be able to leverage phone on PC and vice-versa, after more than a decade of rather more distant relations between the two platforms. Good-oh!

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

Happy World Backup Day 2023

March 31, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Courtesy of NeoWin, I’ve just learned that March 31 is World Backup Day. There’s even a website at — you guessed it — worldbackupday.com. Sponsors include Amazon, Mega (file download service provider), iStorage and Backblaze (online backup/storage providers) and mijn.host, along with the World Backup Day organization. There’s even a pledge: “I solemnly swear to backup my important documents and previous memories on March 31st. #WorldBackupDay.” Indeed, let me wish all readers a happy World Backup Day 2023.

Note: the intro graphic comes from the WorldBackupDay.com home page, and is intended to motivate people to back up their stuff. I can only endorse this proposition. I myself learned the importance and value of backups in 1990 when a 300MB SCSI drive on a Mac died on me, and lost me a book I was writing at the time (and more). It was a disaster! But I learned my lesson, and I’ve lost nothing important since to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

What Happens on World Backup Day 2023?

Ideally, everybody makes sure they make a backup of everything they want to keep, or protect against damage, loss or breach. Personally, I back up my production PC daily (including the system drive, plus two smaller drives where I keep all ongoing project work).

But there’s more:

You must know how to restore the backups you make.
You should make yourself familiar with rescue or repair media so you can boot and restore a backup even on a PC (or other device) that’s not booting normally. Some backup packages require separate bootable media for each protected PC (I have a tray full of teeny-tiny Mushkin Atom flash drives for just that purpose).
You should practice a restore occasionally. I end up using restore capabilities at least once a month myself — mostly because of self-inflicted issues arising from experiments — so I’m always ready to rock’n’roll.
Ideally, you should keep one or more backups offsite or online. That way if a meteorite takes out your home or office, you can still get back online by restoring to a different PC. I keep two backups in the cloud: one on OneDrive, the other in Norton Backup.

My basic guiding principle is that anything worth storing once is worth backing up at least twice (as just described). Thus, let me repeat the salutation “Happy World Backup Day 2023” and gently urge you to backup, backup, backup. Cheers!

(Free) Backup Software Worth Using

My go-to backup solution has long been Macrium Reflect Free (I also use the paid version). But its maker, Paramount Software, has announced its discontinuing that version at the end of 2023. I’m casting about for a replacement, given that something free is important for me and my fleet of 10 PCs (6 of which are loaners from Lenovo for testing purposes). I’m digging into stories like this one (and more like it) at PC World “The best free backup software and services…” and Lifewire‘s more comprehensive coverage to find a Goldilocks solution that’s “just right.” Stay tuned…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Uncategorized, Updates, Windows 10, Windows 11

The Never-ending Windows Update Story Carries On

March 30, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Back on March 6, I posted an item about Windows Application Update Rhythms. This offered a snapshot for a week’s update activities across my various PCs. Since then, of course, the updates have continued as the never-ending Windows Update story carries on. I’ve made some interesting observations since then, too.

The lead-in graphic above shows one such data point. I’ve begun to notice that sometimes Winget will update Chrome, and sometimes it won’t. It seems to be related to whether or not the app is open at the moment (yes if closed; no if open).

Never-ending Windows Update Story Keeps Going…

The same thing appears to be true for PowerShell as well, as you can see in this next screencap. Amusingly, the app itself is PowerShell so indeed it’s obviously running too. But there are ways to force a PS upgrade within the app, so this default behavior can be over-ridden. The second post in this SuperUser thread explains how to do just that. It grabs and uses the PS install MSI from GitHub to make that happen.

Winget updates neither Chrome nor PowerShell here.

What’s Behind the Apparent No-Upgrade Behavior?

In various discussions online as to what’s at work here, I learned (or re-learned) a few things. When installer formats change (MSIX to MSI, MSI to EXE, and so forth) Winget won’t perform the update. Indeed, I’ve seen explicit messages to this effect in Winget output from time to time. This Answers.Microsoft.com thread explains how to grab, then use, the download URL for the Chrome installer to bypass the failed (and silent, error-message-wise) Winget update. Likewise interesting!

The more I work with Winget, the more I learn about its various hiccups and gotchas. But the tool continues to impress because there’s nearly always a clever workaround to get things done. It’s definitely made the various installments of the never-ending Windows Update story around Chez Tittel shorter and more entertaining. What more could a Windows-head like me want?

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Macrium Reflect Swamps CPU Short-Term

March 29, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Whoa there! I couldn’t help but notice that my production PC slowed briefly to a crawl this morning. A not-so-welcome first, in fact. A quick jump to Task Manager showed me the Macrium Reflect Backup tool was the culprit, with CPU utlization stuck north of 75%. It took about 5 minutes to subside to normal levels. This tells me quite a lot, but let’s start with the blunt observation that Macrium Reflect swamps CPU short-term.

Note: I cheated on the lead-in graphic. It’s from a much older PC where it’s frightfully easy to swamp that CPU. Notice all four cores are pegged at 100% utilization in the ever-handy CPU Usage gadget. I have 8 threads on 4 cores on the i7-Skylake production unit, and they were all likewise pegged at 100%, albeit for a short time. Thus, I saw what I show here, doubled, as that PC bogged down.

What Does Macrium Reflect Swamps CPU Short-Term Mean?

Good question. Beyond the inescapable fact that this program — which was running my daily 9AM backup when this happened — brought my production PC to its knees, there’s more. Let me spell a few things out:

1. This is an i7-Skylake (6th gen) Intel CPU [3.4GHz], 32 GB RAM [DDR4-2133], 512 GB NVMe SSD [Samsung 950 Pro]. I built it in 2017-2018.
2. It’s not Windows 11 capable, so it’s running Windows 10 22H2 Build 19045.2788: that’s the latest preview CU scheduled for general distribution on April Patch Tuesday.
3. It’s never hit the wall performance-wise before to my notice. I beat the beejesus out of this machine daily (there are 13 apps and 148 background processes running, with 4% CPU utilization, as I write this screed). Indeed, this PC (mostly) does what I need it to do.

But it’s old and somewhat out-dated. And I have a Ryzen 7 5800X in an Asrock B550 mobo ready to take over the production PC role. That leads me to a vital question:

Why Not Switch Over, Already?

I have lots of obvious answers including inertia, laziness, ongoing usability and the usual fiddle-faddle. But here’s the real reason, in succinct visual form:

Count ’em: 10 mounted physical drives (4 SSDs, 6 HDDs).
[Click image for full-sized view.]

This totals up to about a nominal 16TB of storage, of which 40% or so is occupied. Thus, we’re talking around ~6.5 TB of stuff, of which I need to keep at least 5TB’s worth. There’s going to be some thinking, planning, time and effort involved in moving my show to another PC. I’ll have to back everything up to another drive (an 8TB unit should do) and then figure how to map it into a new set of storage devices on the target PC. That should be interesting. I guess I’d better get started. This morning, I got my “early warning!”

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

Flaky Switch Prompts Mouse Hunt

March 28, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I can tell the end is near — for my Microsoft Wireless Mobile Mouse 3500, that is. In this case, a flaky switch prompts mouse hunt for a replacement. What’s going on? Sometimes, when I click the mouse nothing happens. Sometimes, when I want to left-click once, it clicks twice — and even more annoyingly, vice-versa. Alas, this means the left-side contact switch is starting to fail. I’ve ridden enough meese into the dirt to recognize that this device is at end-of-life.

When Flaky Switch Prompts Mouse Hunt, Amazon Calls…

I have to laugh. It’s going to cost me a whole whopping US$12 to replace this unit. I always buy two, in fact, so I’ll have a spare if something goes wrong with the primary. I blush to confess, therefore, that when the previous primary went south and I fired up the secondary — the one I’m using now — I neglected to order an immediate replacement. That’s why I need to order two today. Just ordered!

I’m a great believer in keeping spares around — for everything. Indeed, if this current mouse dies before its replacement shows up, I’ve got a couple of Bluetooth meese (and corresponding USB3 dongles for my desktop) that I can use in the meantime. Ditto for network interfaces, removable storage, GbE cables and switches, keyboards and more. In my experience the only spare you really, really need is the one you forgot to order when the predecessor failed.

So far, things here at Chez Tittel are OK. As a Prime member, Amazon will get me both replacements tomorrow. I’m not worried. But it’s always good to stay on top of these things.

Cheers!

Note Added March 30 (Morning)

Amazon came through last night after I’d left home for my Wednesday evening pool league. The Boss left them sitting out on the kitchen island for me, so I saw them as soon as I walked into the house. It’s hard to overstate the satisfaction that near-instant gratification of one’s technology needs can deliver. I’ve already got one installed on my production PC. And now I have a ready spare as well. Good-oh!

Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Remote Desktop (RDP), WED Blog, Windows 11

Remote Access Window Clips Seconds Display

March 27, 2023 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s a “one step forward, one step back” situation. The latest Windows 11 Insider release to the Beta Channel brings optional seconds back to the Taskbar clock. But using a remote access windows clips seconds display, as shown in the lead-in graphic. I’ve posted a report about this to the feedback hub. Amusingly, it’s attracted an MS response from 3 months ago that says (in condensed form) “We fixed this in the Dev channel 3 months ago.” Uhhh … not really … I see it right there so it isn’t fixed.

Note: I included a snip of the Winver output from the Beta Channel Build 22624.1470 above the Taskbar clock to document its release of origin. You can see about half of the time read-out from that clock at the lower right (enough to tell that it says 11:51:45 AM, in fact).

Reporting Remote Access Window Clips Seconds Display

Here’s what I wrote to the Feedback Hub:

Text from my Feedback Hub report Friday 3/24

One more thing: when you make this change in Build 22624.1470, it doesn’t affect taskbar display until after a reboot. And indeed, upon rebooting the clock initially showed up initially sans seconds display. They showed up later on, as the PC went through its desktop initialization process after I’d logged in. That was kind of interesting, too…

What To Do About “the Clip?”

There’s not much one can do about this issue because Windows 11 still lacks icon size controls for the taskbar. From what I hear these controls are planned for inclusion in some upcoming Windows 11 release. If MS doesn’t get around to fixing this admittedly minor if not miniscule issue, access to icon sizing will probably take care of things at some later date.

I’ll also note that this issue does not occur when I log directly into that test machine (a Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga [8th-gen Intel CPU, Intel graphics, 16 GB RAM]). So it really is an issue with the way the Remote Desktop Connection application handles taskbar display at the moment. Just for grins, I also tried a connection through the Remote Desktop UWP app. For the record, it clips that window’s clock display, too. Thus, it looks like a taskbar height issue FWIW.