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.

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

Build 22593.1 Fails Beta Promotion

April 7, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Drat! I’d feared this might happen, and it did. As you can see from the lead-in graphic, waiting for a new Dev Channel build on my second Lenovo Yoga X380 did no good. It, too, failed to upgrade with error code 0xC1900101. Thus, for that PC, Build 22593.1 fails beta promotion, just as with the previous build .

That leaves me with two potential paths to follow:

Find a fix for, and repair the cause of the error
Wipe the PC and use a current ISO to perform a clean install

I haven’t had much luck with Path #1, so I’ll probably give Path #2 a shot this weekend. I wish I knew what was causing the error.

Why Build 22593.1 Fails Beta Promotion

I am not alone in this error. Both Windows Report and The Windows Club have stories about this very error in their recent output. Reasons for this error vary, and can include the following:

Insufficient disk space on the target device to accommodate upgrade files and working space
Issues with non-essential peripherals (drives, scanners, and so forth)
Outdated BIOS
Incompatible device drivers
Third party AV or antimalware programs
“Software conflicts” with installed third party programs

As far as I can tell I may have a driver issue. But I can’t find proper details in the various log files to know for sure what’s up. I’m pretty sure I’m not subject to any of the other potential causes.

Clean Install Offers Easy (Potential) Out

Although there’s work involved after a clean install to bring the apps and applications back, this may be worth trying. I’ve spent hours and hours — unsuccessfully, so far — chasing after one or more errant drivers. I can get through a clean install in under an hour, once I have the ISO file built and ready to rock’n’roll.

Stay tuned! This promises to be interesting. . . I’ll report back as soon as I have some news.

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

Ventoy 1.0.73 Requires Interesting Contortions

April 6, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

When I saw a new version of Ventoy came out this morning, I immediately went to update my drive with the new software. It runs on an AData 256 GB (nominal) M.2 SSD inside a Sabrent NVMe enclosure. For some odd reason, the update function did not work properly. Digging into the log, I see the program had trouble writing the new EFI files to the Vtoyefi partition where the program does its boot magic. Indeed, installing Ventoy 1.0.73 requires interesting contortions for me to achieve success. I’ll explain…

What Ventoy 1.0.73 Requires Interesting Contortions Means

First, I backed up the contents of the Ventoy drive, which shows up as E: on my production desktop. Then I tried to use the Install function in the program to over-write the existing disk structures. No go. I switched over to a newer PC, where I was able to cable up using a high-speed USB-C cable into the Sabrent enclosure. Then, I performed a clean install of Ventoy 1.0.73 on the target drive. That worked!

Of course, then I had to go back to my production PC to restore the backup. The whole process ended up taking about half an hour to complete, of which time the bulk went to creating and then restoring a backup of the 28 ISOs in the Ventoy (E:) partition.

Speculation Reigns Supreme

I must confess I don’t know why the update function failed this time around. I’ve not seen this happen before with Ventoy. That said, I’m not surprised that a vintage-2016 PC with USB 3.1 drivers might have trouble with a device that works with USB 3.2 (and Thunderbolt 3) drivers. And indeed, when I hooked up to a device that supported those newer drivers, everything worked as expected.

That’s why I’m thinking something went weird with the USB drivers when the program attempted to rewrite the 32 MB FAT based EFI partition from which Ventoy works its magic. That’s the part that wouldn’t update on the older PC, but which installed flawlessly on the newer PC. If somebody else has a better explanation, please share. But when the next Ventoy update comes out, I’m going to run it from the newer PC. I’ll bet it runs faster that way, too, thanks to those newer — and faster — USB 3.2/Thunderbolt 3 drivers it uses.

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

Microsoft Catalog Goes HTTPS

April 5, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Call it a factoid, or perhaps administrivia. Whatever you call it, this info come thanks to the eagle-eyed folks at DeskModder.de. Indeed, it’s now clear that the venerable Microsoft Update Catalog is using the secure version of HTTP (namely, HTTPS) for downloads. The lead-in graphic shows lookup and resolution of yesterday’s CU preview URL for Windows 10 (KB5011543) by way of proof. When I say Microsoft Catalog Goes HTTPS, you can see it at the outset of the URL I pasted into Notepad, plain and simple.

If Microsoft Catalog Goes HTTPS, So What?

It’s 2022. HTTPS made its debut in 1994, in the earliest days of the web. It comes to us courtesy of Netscape from the same folks who brought us Navigator. And as far as I can recall, MS has been using HTTPS on its websites since the mid-2000s.

So why is MS making the catalog switch only now, either 28 or perhaps only 17 years later? The answer appears on a recent (April 1, 2022) Microsoft Docs page. It’s entitled “Site compatibility-impacting changes coming to Microsoft Edge.” Among other things it states that “downloading of files from HTTP urls will be blocked on HTTPs pages.”

I guess it just wouldn’t do, if Edge couldn’t download catalog entries for that reason. Note that the catalog itself has this URL for KB5011543: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB5011543. If the catalog download stayed at HTTP only, starting with v94 of Edge, it would no longer deliver the goods. And that kind of defeats its purpose, right?

So there’s your explanation. Enjoy the improved security, while you use any browser of your choosing. Cheers!

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

NonCNVi M.2 Wi-Fi Device Delivers LAN Access

April 3, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s always the little things that jump up to bite you (or me, anyway). In today’s case, it was my blithe assumption that Intel Integrated Connectivity (aka CNVi) wouldn’t prevent the AX201NGW M.2 Wi-Fi card from working on my AMD B550/Ryzen 3 5800X build. Yeah, right! But when I replaced it with a no-name (REKONG) Media Tech MT7921K module (depicted in the lead-in graphic), Device Manager picked up that non-Intel hardware immediately. After a bit of driver fiddling, this US$29 (tax included) nonCNVi M.2 Wi-Fi Device delivers LAN access as it should. It does have interesting limitations, though . . .

Fiddling Means NonCNVi M.2 Wi-Fi Device Delivers LAN Access

At first, after plugging in the device, I saw only non-working BlueTooth and Network Adapter devices in Device Manager. This informed me that Windows couldn’t find the required drivers on its own. But a quick search on “Windows 11 drivers for MT7921K” quickly turned up what I needed. They’re available from Lenovo, as it turns out, with a separate .exe for each of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

As the owner/operator of half-a-dozen (or more) Lenovo laptops, I’m quite familiar with their self-installing drivers. After downloading and installing them, here’s what I see in Device Manager:

With the right drivers installed, the BT components and the Wi-Fi interface all show up. Good!

Just a Few More Things

Wi-Fi behavior on desktops can be interesting. The interface has a tendency to turn itself off upon reboot, I’ve learned. I’m also trying to figure out why I can access the LAN (via the nearby Asus AX6000 router), but I can’t yet get Internet access through this interface. I have a wired GbE connection that works fine, but had hoped to switch over to wireless. So now, I’m researching those two issues in hopes of finding solutions soon.

A little more time put intro troubleshooting the M.2 Wi-Fi card tells me lots of interesting stuff:

The lack of an external antenna means the device doesn’t see that many wi-fi interfaces as it scans the airwaves. Thus, for example, it doesn’t see the Spectrum-supplied router in my bedroom closet (all of my laptops in the same office see it quite well).
The fastest throughput I can get on the device is between 250 and 300 Mbps (observed through a connection to Fast.com).
The 2.4 and 5 MHz connections to the “office router” are flaky in interesting ways: sometimes, I can access one or the other to get on the LAN, but don’t get Internet access. At other times one channel or the other will be inaccessible. Again, I attribute this to lack of an external antenna. My son has a PCIe 802.11ax adapter card with triple external antennae in his bedroom, and he gets up to 900 Mbps from the bedroom closet router, and up to 500 Mbps from my office router.

No External Antenna Is NOT a Plus

I’m increasingly inclined to observe that an M.2 Wi-Fi card makes sense only where close proximity to a WAP is available. It’s probably not a good idea for machines that do lots of heavy upload/download stuff, either. That’s kind of what I wanted to learn more about, so I’m not disappointed by this experience. I feel like I understand the capabilities and limitations of these devices much better now. I will keep my GbE wired connection going forward, too: the M.2-based Wi-Fi is not fast enough for my needs. If I’m ever *forced* to go wireless, I now understand that a PCIe device is my fastest option.

Uncategorized

Windows 11 Makes Marketshare Radar

April 1, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

In other posts here, I’ve groused about AdDuplex and its (IMO) over-reporting of Windows 11 marketshare. My February 1 item is a good example. Just yesterday, I noticed that a major desktop OS marketshare tracker — namely Statcounter –registers Windows 11 amidst the versions it follows. The lead-in graphic above, in fact, refreshed just this morning (April 1) grants Windows 11 an 8.47% share of Windows desktops overall. Good-oh! Now that Windows 11 makes marketshare radar I can trust, those numbers will get increasingly real.

What Windows 11 Makes Marketshare Radar Means

This means major tracking sites (NetMarketShare, Statcounter, Statista, and analytics.usa.gov) are instrumenting their sites to track Windows 11. This is a bit trickier than it seems, because Windows 11 presents itself as Windows 10 in its basic user agent info. One must use agent-hints to pick Windows 11 out from that crowd. Indeed, some programming effort is required to make this happen.

To me, that goes a long way toward explaining why Windows 11 has been off that radar since it made its initial debut on June 28, 2021. (Its public debut occurred on October 4, 2021.) Now it’s finally on at least one real radar (I don’t count AdDuplex, as I explain in the afore-cited post) so we finally have some statistically defensible means to figure out how many Windows 11 instances might be in use.

What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?

If indeed there are 1.5B instances of Windows in use (as MS has recently claimed) and 8.47% of them are Windows 11, that’s a simple calculation. The result is 127M, give or take 50,000. I had guessed in February that the number could be between 50 and 100 million. Looks like I wasn’t too far off the mark. Using the latest AdDuplex value of 19.4 percent, that number would be 291M. I just don’t believe it’s that big: now how, no way.

As more tracking sites start reporting Windows 11 desktop share numbers — and I have to believe they will, and soon — we’ll be able to refine our understanding of Windows 11 numbers further. Stay tuned, and I’ll keep you posted.

Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Security, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Windows Memory Integrity Now Covers Device Drivers

March 31, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

With the latest versions of Windows 10 and 11, Windows Security gains driver level protection. I’m talking about Build 19044.1586 or higher for Windows 10. Also, 22000.593 or higher for production 11, and 22581.200 or higher for Dev Channel Insider Previews. Looks like those still running Beta (22000.588, or higher) are also covered. Go into Microsoft Security, under the left-panel Device security heading. Drill into Core isolation details, then turn on Memory integrity (see lead-in graphic). Do all those things, and Windows memory integrity now covers device drivers. I’ll explain. . .

What Windows Memory Integrity Now Covers Device Drivers Means

With Core Isolation turned on (requires Hyper-V and VM support turned on in UEFI or BIOS), you can visit the MS Support Core isolation page to learn more. It also provides detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to turn this feature on (note: a restart is required).

Here’s a brief summary:

1. Memory integrity, aka Hypervisor-protected Code Integrity (HVCI), enables low-level Windows security and protects against driver hijack attacks.

2. Memory integrity creates an isolated environment (e.g. a sandbox) using hardware virtualization.

3. Programs must pass code to memory integrity inside the sandbox for verification. It only runs if the memory integrity check confirms code safety. MS asserts “Typically, this happens very quickly.”

Essentially, memory integrity/core isolation puts security inside a more secure area. There it can better protect itself from attack, while prevents drivers (and the runtime environments they serve) from malicious code and instructions.

What Can Go Wrong?

If any suspect drivers are already present on a target system, you can’t turn memory integrity on. Instead you’ll get an error message something like this:

Note: the name of the driver appears in the warning. Thus, you can use a tool like RAPR.exe to excise it from your system. Be sure to find and be ready to install a safe replacement because that may render the affected device inaccessible and/or unusable.

Should you attempt to install a suspect or known malicious driver after turning this security feature on, Windows will refuse. It will provide a similar error message to report that the driver is blocked because it might install malware or otherwise compromise your PC.

That’s good: because that means driver protection is working as intended. Cheers!

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Tips, Tricks and Tweaks, WED Blog, Windows 11

Modern Winver Updates Its Namesake

March 30, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

The old saying goes: “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” True that. And likewise true that Winver.exe still does what it always has. But there’s an enhanced version of this program now available from the Microsoft Store. That app, Modern Winver updates its namesake in numerous cool and interesting ways. The lead-in graphic shows the two programs side by side (classic left, modern right). But it only hints at all the things that the modern version does that its classic counterpart cannot.

What Is Modern Winver? Who’s Behind It?

Modern Winver is third-party software. It comes from a GitHub project run by one torch (aka torchgm). It describes itself as a “modern and more functional replacement for the About Windows screen, providing details on Windows and your PC.”

Actually, I think the description is off a little, and the name of the program is actually more informative. As the lead-in graphic shows, it looks and acts like Winver, but provides more information than the classic version of the program. Specifics follow under the next head.

How Modern Winver Updates Its Namesake

I’ll organize its difference by the four tabs shown just beneath the OS heading in the right-hand pane above — namely, About, System, Theme and Links:

1. About: Shows Windows edition (Home, Pro, etc.) as well as OS version, install date/time and build number. Shows machine name as well as logged-in account name.

2. System: Shows CPU name and type, base CPU speed, device architecture (x86, X64, ARM), plus levels and usage for CPU, primary storage and RAM.

3. Theme: Provides access desktop theme, wallpaper and lockscreen. Enables inclusion of About info on wallpaper and lock screen, if desired.

4. Links: Provides acess to Settings, System Properties, Tips and MS Support, plus links to the underlying Discord and GitHub scaffolding for this program’s development

Bottom Line: Classic Winver Plus

The simplest explanation of the difference is that Modern Winver does everything its namesake does, and a fair amount more. IMO, it looks better and is more fun to use. If you’re of the “like to play with new software and toys” persuasion, you’ll probably like it. If you’re of the “if Windows does it already, why do I need a third-party equivalent?” school, don’t bother. As for me, I’m having fun playing with and learning more about this new toy. Cheers!

Shout-out Added ½ Day Later

Thanks to the members at ElevenForum.com, who alerted me to Modern Winver, particularly @Graulges and @Berton. Thanks, people! I like to give credit where it’s due.

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

Beta Promotion Difficulties Continue

March 29, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I must report that my various efforts to get from Beta build 22000.588 to Dev channel build 22581 have gone nowhere. Hence my title “Beta Promotion Difficulties Continue,” to punctuate my lack of progress. I did, however get a more informative error message from one of those attempts (see item 3 below), as shown in the lead-in graphic above.

Attempts Undertaken, as Beta Promotion Difficulties Continue

Here’s a list of all of the fixes I’ve tried in attempting to overcome this increasingly vexing hurdle (of which exactly none have worked):

1. Simple repetition of the WU update/upgrade process (2 or 3 times, most automatic). I’ve now paused updates for a week to save time and energy.

2. Unplug all non-essential peripherals (an mSATA SSD inside a Sabrent USB 3 enclosure in this case).

3. Use setup.exe from the UUPdump.net website-based ISO for Build 22581.1. It didn’t work, but did provide the more informative error message shown in the lead-in graphic for this story.

4. Remove .NET 3.5 and all related Windows 11 features, and try again. Greatly speeded up the update and install processes, but produced the same outcome as the preceding item.

5. Run dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth and then sfc /scannow. No joy there, either.

So far, in fact, I’m getting exactly nowhere. Sigh.

What’s Next?

I supposed I could try a clean install of Windows 11 from the aforementioned UUPdump.net ISO. But recent reports of install problems (in completion, and in the state of Windows 11 after the fact) give me pause. I don’t think I want to go there just yet.

According to other advice tied to the 0XC1900101 – 0X30018 error code, I could also try some or all of the following:

1. Reset Windows Update components. The TenForums tutorial on that topic includes a handy-dandy batch file that also works on Windows 11.

2. Disable antivirus — in this case Windows Defender. This is working on my other X380 Yoga, so I wouldn’t expect it to help here.

3. My BIOS is up-to-date already and I’m not aware of running any “problematic applications.”

You can get advice galore at stories such as How to Fix Update Error 0xc1900101-0x30018 in Windows 10 (HowtoEdge.com) and others of that ilk. For the moment I’m not inclined to spend more time chasing rabbits and rainbows.

What, Then?

My current plan is to wait for the next Dev Channel build to appear (which it should do, if not this week, then next week for sure). At that point, I’ll try again — and hope for a successful outcome. At the moment I’ve spent more than enough time. I’m content to take a time-out and wait for another try. . .

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

In-place Upgrade Repair Install Fixes Mystery Windows 11 Woes

March 28, 2022 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s an old-school repair technique that remains relevant even for the latest Windows version. While fiddling with my up-and-coming production PC this weekend, I encountered absent apps. This is my latest PC build — Asrock B550 Extreme4 mobo, AMD 5800X CPU, 64 GB RAM, 2TB Sabrent Rocket SSD, and GeForce 1070 Ti . At a bare minimum, I found both Windows Defender and Windows Terminal MIA on the then-current install. Fortunately, an in-place upgrade repair install fixes mystery Windows 11 woes.

Indeed In-place Upgrade Repair Install Fixes Mystery Windows 11 Woes Quickly and Easily

The principle behind this technique involves over-writing the current Windows image with an equivalent replacement. Essentially, it replaces all of the OS files and related scaffolding without touching local files and applications. It also re-creates the default app environment for Windows 11, which was my real motivation for this maneuver.

I visited the Download Windows 11 page to grab the ISO. I clicked on “Download now” under the Create Windows 11 Installlation Media heading, and used the Media Creation Tool to create an ISO file. After mounting that ISO on the target PC, I ran setup.exe to perform the in-place upgrade repair install.

Before: no Windows Defender or Windows Terminal (the packages themselves were absent from the runtime environment). After: both Windows Defender and Windows Terminal were present and ran as expected. Total time involved in this repair: 10 minutes to download the ISO file shown in the lead-in graphic; 20 minutes to perform the install itself (total time: half an hour).

The Half-Hour Troubleshooting Rule

Once i figured out that the apps were missing completely, I immediately decided to run the upgrade repair install. Normally, I will troubleshoot for half an hour on a problematic Windows image. If I haven’t solved the problem by then, my next move is to try this repair technique. Most of the time, it works when problems are OS related (it may not help with application issues, though).

And fortunately for me, it worked as desired this time. I’ll continue my “slow migration” from my 2016 vintage Z170 i7-6700 (too old to meet Windows 11 hardware requirements) later this week, after I meet some pressing deadlines first and foremost. Stay tuned: I’ll keep you posted on progress and issues encountered.

Backup/Restore, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

Troubleshooting Failed Beta 22581 Promotion

March 25, 2022 Ed Tittel 2 Comments

I’d like to report on a snag in upgrading my Windows 11 Beta Channel test PC to Build 22581. As I wrote yesterday, MS has paired up the Dev and Beta channels with this build. Both of my Dev Channel PCs updated successfully; the Beta Channel test PC did not. So now, I’m troubleshooting failed Beta 22581 promotion. This is an interim progress report. Although I’ve already learned a lot, I’ve not yet resolved the problem. Here’s what I know so far. . .

Progress on Troubleshooting Failed Beta 22581 Promotion

The list of data about this update failure reads as follows:

1. The update fails during the final, final phase of post-GUI install after update progress gets to 100% complete.

2. WU Update History reports an error code of 0XC1900101 in its “Failed to install” error message

3. MS Docs offers a Resolution Procedure for this error code, from which the following $Windows.~bt items appear important:

3.1 This error code most typically indicates a driver install problem during the Windows install/upgrade process

3.2 If present, the \Sources\Rollback folder may include a minidump file named setupmem.dmp. (Mine does not)

3.3 Event logs may appear in \Sources\Rollback*.evtx (I have no such files)

3.4 The device install log can capture driver install issues, and appears in \Sources\Rollback\setupapi\setupapi.dev.log. I *DO* have one of these and have read it over, and shared it with install experts at ElevenForum.com. Looks potentially fruitful because I do see various errors therein.

4. A typical fix attempt when WU updates fail, is to try an ISO from UUPdump.net. I’ve built one, but I’m also reading online that nickel release ISOs — including Build 22581 — from UUPdump.net are not working properly right now. See this Elevenforum thread (especially pages 6 & 7). Just in case it blows up, I’ve already made a Macrium Reflect image backup of the current working-but-not-upgraded install. Thus, I can restore it easily booting from the MR Rescue Media.

What Should Happen Next. . .

I’m up against a major deadline today, so I don’t have time to follow all the leads I’ve found. But I do have a task list to follow when the weekend rolls around and I have more free time:

1. The afore-linked Resolution Procedure recommends another WU attempt with all nonessential peripherals unplugged. I’ll do that next.

2. If that doesn’t work, I’ll attempt to use the UUPdump ISO to perform an in-place “repair upgrade” by running its setup.exe file.

3. If that doesn’t work, I’ll check back into the ElevenForum thread to see if any of my appeals for guru help have produced suggestions.

4. If I can’t resolve the issue through typical troubleshooting, I’ll wait and try again when the next Dev/Beta build is released. In my experience of nearly 8 years as a Windows 10 and 11 Insider, that works more often than not. I’m inclined to believe this is possible because one of my other working Dev Channel PCs is a near-identical Lenovo X380 laptop (only config difference is the built-in NVMe drive: one’s a Samsung, the other’s a Toshiba, now Kioxia).

Stay tuned, and I’ll keep reporting on progress. Cheers!