Category Archives: Cool Tools

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Turbotax Tribulation and Triumph 2025

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Yesterday was October 15th. Among other milestones, it’s the last day one can submit 2024 taxes upon obtaining an extension for filing. I’d planned to do them over the weekend, but a huge project blew into my life instead. So I ended up having to wait until the very last day to file. So yesterday, I experienced Turbotax tribulation and triumph: let me explain…

Surviving Turbotax Tribulation and Triumph 2025

I’ve been using TurboTax since before Intuit bought them in 1993. In fact, I think my accountant used them on my taxes even before then. And when she retired in the 1990s, she told me “you can do them on your own, if you stick with Turbotax.” She was right. And the program just keeps getting better at dealing with nearly all aspects of tax preparation and filing.

What amazes me most, right now, about this program is the connectors it offers into the accounts from whence most financial data flows anyway. I have a lot of activity from my brokerage account because I’m drawing on retirement accounts. Turbotax logs into the brokerage, sucks over all of my 1099s, and populates all the relevant fields for me. Same with bank accounts and such, too. Ditto for social security.

Because I’m self-employed, I get numerous 1099s from the companies I write for. Last year that included TechTarget, AskWoody, IDG (ComputerWorld), and others. Because I’ve been working for all of them for a while, Turbotax already knows their names, EINs and so forth. All I have to do is plug in the income numbers for 2024.

Shoot! My son’s in college and uses money from a 529(c) his grand-dad left him to cover tuition. Turbotax makes that easy, too.

Same as It Ever Was, But Better…

I remember watching my Dad shuffle mountains of paper to file his taxes when I was still living with my parents until 1970 or thereabouts. It used to take him a full day to work all the way through those papers and fill out all the necessary forms. But because Turbotax remembers what I did last year and automatically carries over refunds left over to cover the current year, I can usually get through the whole shebang in under 4 hours. That’s a big improvement.

Here in Windows-World data sources and sinks are increasingly connected. This can pose security headaches, but gosh: it makes working through complex data analysis exercises easier. Even the data-driven member of the eternal duo: Death and Taxes! Done for another year, hooray…

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

Copilot sez: Enough, or Too Much

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I’ve been excessively busy for the past few days, working on a legal matter. Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about Copilot’s limits. Turns out this tool is extraordinarily adept at running down references and finding sources that document specific quotes. But it’s also inclined to get stuck sometimes if my queries assume too much about what it already knows. That is, echoing William Blake’s Proverbs of Heaven and Hell Copilot sez: Enough, or Too Much?  Thereupon it becomes unresponsive. Yesterday, I had to reboot a machine to bring Copilot back to life. Even ending the task and restarting the app didn’t help. Weird!

When Copilot sez: Enough, or Too Much,
Do This…

So I had to ask Copilot “Why do you choke or become nonresponsive sometimes?” It had 5 answers, at least 3 of which corresponded to yesterday’s circumstances:

1. Overloaded or ambiguous input: Messages (prompts, I would say) are too long, too vague or contain multiple conflicting instructions.

2, Tool or system glitches: Copilot avers it relies on a whole box of tools (it names “search, image generation, memory, etc.”). Should one fail to respond, Copilot has to wait, and may stall while waiting.

3. Safety or Policy Filters: By design, Copilot won’t respond to prompts that violate its safety and policy rules. Good thing, and I hope they’re sufficiently broad and devious enough to foil hackers.

4. Missing Context or References: It’s too easy to assume Copilot remembers and understands what you’ve been asking it recently. TLDR version: not always. Be specific.

5. Complex Reasoning Bottlenecks: Technical, multi-layered tasks require Copilot to find, assemble and structure lots of information. Takes time, enough so that it might seem like forever.

I’m pretty sure yesterday’s hangup was a mix of items 2, 4 and 5. I try very hard not to overload my prompts, and what I work on shouldn’t trigger failsafes — of any kind. But hey, here in Windows-World, hang-up and delays are all part of the daily routine. Yours too, I guess?

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Give Me Real Agentic AI, Please!

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I’ve been using Copilot a lot more these days for all kinds of things, both personal and work related. But I have to say, I wish AI could DO more. That’s why this blog post is entitled “Give me real agentic AI.”

Let me explain what I think “real agentic AI” means. It means when you ask for information, AI goes out and does what it must to obtain that information. For example: yesterday I needed information about a specific patent case on the docket in a US Federal Court. First, I spent 15 minutes to access what I now understand is an old, obsolete docket management system. Then, I learned they’d switched to a different docket management system. Another long sign-up process loomed. Long story short: I opted out because of time and effort for another sign-up.

Why I Say: “Give Me Real Agentic AI!”

I want to be able to ask my AI agent to go out and find stuff for me that requires action — and perhaps even payment. Then, I want it to do that work, especially handling the niggling little details. I don’t want to have to jump a bunch of hurdles to get information I need. I want AI to do that for me.

In fact, handing the details involved in obtaining access is what I think AI is best used for. Let me decide what I need and focus on the results; let AI free me of the mundane details and hurdles necessary to get me those results. Then, we can both knock off and share a beer (I cheerfully confess Bender from Futurama is the inspiration for the — wait for it — AI-generated “agent avatar” that serves as the lead-in graphic for this blog post).

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

Bringing OhMyPosh to Flo6

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Flo6 is what I call my new production desktop. Today, I finally got around to installing and turning on the OhMyPosh shell prompt tool on said desktop. I’ve done this before, and it’s always interesting to see how things work now, as opposed to the way they did the last time I did this. Indeed I hit some changes: nothing insuperable, but enough to make me stop and think about what I was doing, and how best to do it. In bringing OhMyPosh to Flo6, I had to overcome bogus Copilot guidance, re-read my own 2024 OhMyPosh article, and visit the OhMyPosh website to grab my preferred theme.

After Bringing OhMyPosh to Flo6, A Snazzy Look

If you examine the lead-in graphic you can see what adding OhMyPosh to the mix does for PowerShell inside Windows Terminal. It definitely adds to the visual appeal of the command prompt, and lets you see more info right away.

Here’s brief summary of the steps involved (all the deets are covered in the afore-linked OhMyPosh article, which I will henceforth abbreviate as OMP):

1. Install a nerd font (necessary for OMP to show its colorful symbols and glyphs)
2. Change the default profile in WinTerm to invoke that nerd font
3. Change PowerShell startup to call OMP and its theme on startup
4. Reload the startup info ($Profile variable) to invoke the new setup

In theory, this is dead easy. In practice, it requires a fair amount of command line jiggery pokery. The whole operation took half an hour or so, mostly because I had to remember (and read about) those steps and their details. OMP also no longer downloads its themes when it’s installed, so I had to visit the themes page and download the one I wanted (it’s named JanDeDobbeleer.omp.json) and put it in the OMP default folder (C:\users\<acct>\ohmyposh) to match the configuration in the associated profile info.

Eminently doable, if a bit more time consuming than I remembered. But shoot: that’s just another normal day here in Windows-World!

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

25H2 Notification Gets Time

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Earlier this week, Windows 11 25H2 started making its way onto desktops via Windows Update (and other means). By now, I’ve got about half my eligible PCs updated. So far, it’s been a positive experience. Though others have reported issues  — knocks wood — so far, things at Chez Tittel have been hunky-dory. I read this morning at NeoWin that clock time is returning to the notification calendar in 25H2. If you look at the right-hand item in the lead-in screencap, you’ll see what I mean, as 25H2 notification gets time back.

What 25H2 Notification Gets Time Means

The left-hand side of the lead-in shows what the notification calendar looks like in 25H2 without a small settings change. This is the calendar that pops up when you click the date & time area to the far right of the notification area in Windows 11. Note that the left-hand side shows the weekday, month and date up top. The right-hand side shows time in hh:mm:ss AM/PM on one line, and then weekday, month and date below that. The difference is the presence or absence of the clock line.

How do you make this appear in 25H2? Good question! Here’s a step-by-step:

1. Click through Settings > Time & language > Date & time
2. Toggle Show time in Notification Center from Off (default) to On.

The next time you click on the date & time in notifications, you’ll see the time info above the typical weekday, month and date line. Easy-peasey, right?

Back from Windows 10, But I Never Missed It

If you read the Neowin story linked above (or other copious coverage on this tiny but often-requested UI change), you’ll get the sense that this little change is a big deal. And apparently it is, for some. But as a long-time and ongoing user of Helmut Buhler’s Gadgets from GadgetPack.net, I’ve been able to see a clock (and turn the second hand on) since Windows 8 came along just over 13 years ago. So it’s no big thing for me.

The clock gadget shows an analog clock to which I add the Windows machine name. Always on the desktop: handy!

But for others in Windows-World, it appears to satisfy a long-standing desire. Who am I to say them nay? Enjoy!

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

MS Mouse Driver Delirium Done

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I’m still finding my way into a more perfect configuration on my “new” production PC . It is actually built around nearly 5-year-old technology, recently updated and expanded into a new NZXT Flo 6 case. Yesterday, I noticed something minor but annoying that I’ve seen before: my wireless mouse cursor was lagging, which means the tracking followed behind my hand movements. I *HATE* that. I also know that when it happens, it’s mostly owing to transceiver interference or driver issues. Because I’ve placed the transceiver high above my desk, I keyed in on driver issues. And sure enough, activating the MS Mouse and Keyboard driver put paid to my MS Mouse driver delirium.

How I Cured My MS Mouse Driver Delirium

I’d already downloaded and installed the MS Mouse and Keyboard Center drivers on this PC. What I hadn’t done, based on what I first saw in Device Manager (see lead-in graphic) was to make sure that the Mouse and Keyboard Center’s mouse driver was actually in use. Indeed, when I checked, it was running the generic “HID-compliant device” driver in the first position in the driver list on display in the screencap. Go figure!

To my surprise, the system asked for a reboot after I updated the mouse driver. Copilot tells me it’s because

The HID-compliant driver is a low-level, class-based driver. [That means r]eplacing it with a vendor-specific driver…often involves swapping out kernel-mode components that are actively in use.

That totally makes sense. And after said restart, the mouse lag problems disappeared completely. Thank goodness things sometimes work the way they should. That’s enough of a novelty here in Windows-World to earn my genuine gratitude. Now I can work and play without waiting for the cursor to catch up with me. What a relief!

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Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, WED Blog

Disappearing Box Downloads Cause Consternation

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OK, so I’m working for a client on a big project. Part of the effort is to read, review and report on a collection of around 200 PDF files. Total on-disk footprint for these files is pretty big (~0.5 GB) so it’s outside the boundaries of easy transfer via email. The client uses Box.com instead, and makes a set of folders available to me through shared access to them and their contents. Two days ago, I went to start working through some of those files, only to find them MIA on my local SSD. These disappearing Box downloads cause consternation, and forced me to download them again. What’s up?

When Disappearing Box Downloads Cause Consternation Then?

When I called my client to ask for info, she explained their retention policy is to delete all box items 30 days after posting. She was as surprised as I was that my local copies had disappeared, but not at all surprised about their shared online sources. It seems that ownership of shared files can sometimes cause them to disappear from local drives when their online “parent files” do likewise.

I can see in the Box admin console that the first set of downloads (dated September 9) did indeed go though. You can see I downloaded over 250 items on that day, as I grabbed the various folders whose contents I needed to read and act upon. I also reset Ownership on those files from read-only (as defined in the Box download apparently) and gave myself full rights to the whole folder hierarchy.

I’m hoping this will be enough to prevent their online timeout from affecting their local presence on my primary data drive (a nice, big 4TB Samsung 990 EVO Plus NVMe SSD). Just to be absolutely safe, I also saved copies of the ZIP files that Box produces on a UFD which I’ll keep disconnected from the Internet. Hopefully, that will provide a failsafe backup should the new set of files somehow disappear again when yesterday’s 30-day timer runs out on October 18.

Here in Windows-World, things can — and do — get strange sometimes. I hope I’ve done due diligence to keep those files around this time. We’ll see…

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

Careful With App Defaults

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I’ve always got PCs coming and going here at Chez Tittel. That means laptops, mostly, with an occasional All-in-One or SFF desktop to keep things interesting. Further, that means setting up Windows to work the way I want. Too bad, then, that Edge isn’t inclined to make way for other Web-focused defaults (e.g. Chrome). Even when I pick Chrome as the default browser, Edge keeps popping up for other stuff. The lead-in graphic shows why I’ve learned to be careful with App defaults. Indeed, it shows Edge remains the default for .mhtml files (MIME encapsulation of aggregate HTML documents) even after Chrome gets the default pick.

Why Be Careful With App Defaults?

Elsewise, items opened in other MS apps will open in Edge rather than Chrome.  In this case, Outlook handles a lot of .mhtml files for links and Web items embedded in email messages. Those still go to Edge. The right way to do this is to click Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Google Chrome.  On that page, make sure Chrome gets associated to all file types you want it to handle.

In my case, I just made sure everything on the foregoing Settings page that used to show Edge as the default now shows Chrome. A hopefully obvious corollary to this exercise is that setting Chrome as the default browser in Windows 11, is not sufficient to make it take over for all Web-related items. Hopefully, that’s now fixed!

Just another happy day in Windows-World, living on the edge (horrible pun not just intended, but enjoyed).

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Interminable Adobe Acrobat Updates

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I’m feeling a little less happy about switching from Nitro Pro to Adobe Acrobat on my new 5800X production build PC. The former costs about US$110 for each new version, the latter about US$20 a month. Right now, it feels like I’m paying more and getting less. But I confess: it’s the interminable Adobe Acrobat updates that bother me most. Let me explain…

Why Say: Interminable Adobe Acrobat Updates?

I just went through my second update cycle on this program. I noticed it took a while for the last update. Today, I was actually working on something else, and not really watching closely. But I found myself thinking “Hasn’t it been about an hour now?” when the UAC prompt to run the Acrobat Installer finally hit the 5800X screen this afternoon.

I’m guessing, but it took as long as 90 minutes for the whole update cycle to complete on this PC. To make matters worse, Acrobat is subject to a “known issue” in the winget packages repo because its update process doesn’t signal completion as it should. Indeed, Copilot says:

Winget starts the next package update before Acrobat finishes, triggering a 1618 error (“another installation is already in progress”). This isn’t just a timing hiccup—it’s a flaw in how Acrobat’s installer communicates with Windows Installer, and it breaks the expected transactional flow of winget upgrade --all.

Is It Really “Less for More?”

Copilot also mentions that “[t]he in-app update is notoriously sluggish,” which IMO is understating things a bit. Painfully slow, is more how I’d put it. It explains that it’s old fashioned installer Enhanced Security settings (Sandboxing, AppContainer and Protected View) slow things down, but that its “monolithic update model” and “telemetry and plugin checks” also contribute to seemingly glacial update processing (my exaggeration, not Copilot’s).

That said, Acrobat has handled my PDFs with aplomb, and lets me edit, mark up and sign such documents with ease. Had I know it was such a crawl to update, I might have rethought my switchover. But I’m in for a year’s worth now, having signed up and paid the annual fee. I’ll be sure to keep this in mind when the next cycle comes around.

Here in Windows-World, as I’m fond of reciting: “It’s always something!” Today, it’s painfully slow Acrobat updates. What will it be tomorrow?

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Cool Tools, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows tools

PowerToys v0.94 Reports Shortcut Conflicts

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There’s a new vesion of PowerToys out and available. Interestingly, PowerToys v0.94 reports shortcut conflicts. Amusingly, most (or all) of those originate from PowerToys itself, as you can see in the lead-in screencap. I tend to fix those by adding one of <Ctrl>, <Alt> or <Shift> to conflicting definitions, where no new conflicts get introduced thereby.

It’s kind of handy that this new version reports “Shortcut conflicts” on its default “What’s new” page. Note that conflicts occur with pre-defined System shortcuts, so related PowerToys items (e.g. Crop and Lock, Advanced Pase, Always on Top, and Color Picker) MUST be changed to resolve them.

If PowerToys v0.94 Reports Shortcut Conflicts, Fix ‘Em!

If you click on the “Shortcut conflicts” item in What’s New (upper right), you’ll produce the report shown in the lead-in screencap. Or something like it, as your local definitions may vary. You can edit these definitions simply by clicking the edit (pencil) icon to the right of each shortcut. Here’s what I wound up with after fixing things:

  • Changed to Winkey-Alt-Shift-T (Activation, Crop and Lock)
  • Changed to Winkey-Alt-Shift-V (Activation, Advanced Paste)
  • Changed to Alt-Shift-C (Activation, Color Picker)
  • Changed to Alt-Shift-T (Activation, Always on Top)

Once you find a shortcut sequence that isn’t already taken, use the Save button to enshrine it in your shortcut definitions. To check shortcuts for PowerToys, visit their specific pages via PowerToys settings. Alas, I haven’t found a clever way to list customizations like the foregoing ones in the preceding bulleted list just yet.

That’s a task for me to tackle in my “spare time, ” I guess. Here in Windows-World, it’s always something. At least I’ve fixed my shortcut conflicts now… And the new 0.94 version seems to be quite solid otherwise as well — IMO, anyway.

 

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