Category Archives: Cool Tools

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Networking, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

RDP Strangeness Requires Dogged Pursuit

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There have been plenty of reports about weird Remote Desktop access issues and Windows 11 of late. Search Google for “RDP issues with Windows 11 updates” to see what I mean. Until this morning, I remained blissfully beyond that fracas. Then I had to jump through a bunch of hoops to RDP into my Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra. Indeed, overcoming this RDP strangeness requires dogged pursuit, as I will now explain. By which I mean: I’m again able to use the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC, aka mstsc.exe) to get into that machine.

Overcoming RDP Strangeness Requires Dogged Pursuit

I considered this as a kind of real-time troubleshooting exercise. Here’s that I did to get my connection working:

1. Opened RDC using the plain vanilla machine name: TSP3Ultra. RDC couldn’t find it.
2. Used Advanced IP Scanner (AIS) to scan my LAN and show me the currently active machine names in use. Tried TSP3Ultra.lan instead, then also tried TSP3Ultra-4314.lan. RDC couldn’t find either one.
3. Used AIS with a right-click to run RDC directly against its IPv4 address (192.168.1.249). RDC still couldn’t find it — this almost always works, so I knew I had a real problem, not just a naming issue.
4. Rebooted the TSP3Ultra, and tried again. It came up with a different IPv4 address this time (192.168.1.99) and RDC worked via a new machine name AIS showed: TSP3Ultra-5815.lan.

I’m now successfully remoted into the previously inaccessible PC, and glad of it. My next move would have been to start uninstalling recent WU updates, one at a time, until things started working again. I’m glad I didn’t have to take things that far.

What’s Causing Remote Desktop Strangenesses?

I wish I could say definitively. All I can do is to point at the changing names for the target device that AIS shows me over time. That makes me thing something interesting is up with machine name resolution on my LAN. Copilot says machine names of the form <name>-nnnn.lan occur when NetBIOS name resolution seeks to resolve conflicts arising from duplicate names.

We can see the IP address changed upon reboot, so I’m thinking it relates to IP address leases that change over time. The machine name, of course, stays the same, but when the IP address changes the DHCP server has to give the same device a new auto-generated name to avoid conflicts from the still-present (but expired) address in the name table.

I’ve witnessed that such things age out after 24 hours or so. Then the plain machine name will work with the new IP address unadorned. It’s just another thing to love about Windows networking, and the occasionally strange behavior of network names and addresses. Thus, it’s wise to prepare for your own dogged pursuits when that happens!

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Can Restart Application Mean Reboot?

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I found myself asking the query posed in this blog post title after updating WinGet (aka Microsoft.AppInstaller) inside Windows Terminal this morning. Why? Because a routine WinGet Upgrade fielded an update to its own self (see lead-in graphic). Then it advised in yellow to “Restart the application to complete the upgrade” as shown. I did so, but it didn’t help. Indeed the upgraded version (see next screencap) didn’t appear in Windows Terminal until I rebooted the test PC. That’s why I pose the query: “Can restart application mean reboot the PC?” Mebbe so…

Can Restart Application Mean Reboot?
Can Restart Application Mean Reboot?

Why Say: Can Restart Application Mean Reboot?

I raise the question because restarting Windows Terminal did not advance the version for Microsoft.AppInstaller from 1.25.340.0 to 1.25.390.0. But a reboot of the test PC, and a subsequent check of that app’s version number did produce the desired result (see above). What else should I wonder after such a turn of events?

Just to make sure I checked the App info for Windows Terminal after running WinGet to see if it somehow stays active after it’s been run. Nope: here’s what I see:

No evidence of lingering WinGet/MSAppInstaller here.

For the moment it looks like the WinGet team has fixed the issue with strange self-update behavior. It now sends a message to restart the application instead as shown at the head of this blog post. The only way I could switch from the old to the new version was through a reboot, though. I’ll have to ask Demitrius Nelon if that’s the way it’s really supposed to work. Stay tuned!

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

Climbing Slack’s Login Learning Curve

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Hurry is the enemy of proper problem solving. I had that thought only later yesterday, after initially struggling to get logged into Slack to chat and huddle with a client. Now, I understand I’m learning a new way of collaborating. At the time, I was frantic because I couldn’t initially get myself logged in for a meeting NOW. Alas, I  should’ve started climbing Slack’s login learning curve sooner than a minute prior to meeting kickoff. Lesson learned…

Climbing Slack’s Login Learning Curve to Success

Both my problem and its solution were staring me in the face on the lead graphic. It’s the Slack login page. I didn’t take the time to read the entire screen, and simply tried clicking continue when Norton Password Manager failed to load the login info. Of course, that meant I couldn’t get anywhere fast … and I was in a hurry. So I jumped into the URL entry bar in Chrome, typed Slack, and used a prior successful login screen to get to the project pages I was seeking.

Soon the crunch passed, and the meeting ended likewise (with a happy enough outcome, thankfully). Looking again at the Slack login screen, I realized I should have read down to the bottom. There, an Open button would have taken me right to the project I was seeking. Nothing to it, in fact.

Festina Lente…

That’s Latin for “Hurry slowly.” Sure, it’s OK to rush to get things done. But you don’t want to go so fast you leave common sense and simple observational skills behind. I’m chastened, and a little embarrassed. Hopefully, I won’t rush headlong into OMG the next time something like this happens. I’d rather take a little more time and use it to get where I’m going rather than flailing about.

And for sure, for sure, that is the way things go in Windows-World sometimes. I hope they don’t go that way again for at least a few more days. Cheers!

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Incase Relaunches DBM Line

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We knew it was coming. 15 months ago (January 2024) I blogged about how Incase was taking over the old Microsoft desktop products for ongoing resale. That line is named “Designed by Microsoft” (DBM, get it?) and is now for sale in the marketplace. Featured on the incase.com home page, you can get a good taste of that stuff from the lead-in graphic. And it explains why I aver that “Incase relaunches DBM line.”

Why Say: Incase Relaunches DBM Line?

DBM means Incase has a line of mice and keyboards, plus other accessories (e.g. headphones) that MS used to build until late 2023 and then abandoned for Surface-branded items. Lots of people took exception, including yours truly. Indeed, I was delighted that Incase wisely chose to license those designs and re-issue them . Prices are a bit higher than I remember them in 2023. That’s when I purchased these last Microsoft-branded items:

  • 2  Comfort Curve 4000 keyboards
  • 2 Basic Optical Wired Mouse v2.0
  • 2 Mobile Mouse 4000

I still have one of each left in its original box, ready to use when the current avatar starts to fade or fail.

A New Day for MS-Branded Peripherals

But now, there’s no need to hoard — nor pay outrageous eBay prices — to obtain these old familiar and (IMO at least) beloved desktop appurtenances. You can just visit the Incase site and buy them direct. I assume they’ll partner up with other typical sales channels (e.g. Best Buy, Walmart, Target and so forth) to get them out there in large numbers at competitive prices.

I’m glad to see them back. And here’s a shout-out to Paul Thurrott himself, whose blog post yesterday brought Incase DBM device availability to my attention. Thanks, Paul! I’ll also cheerfully admit that I’m completely hooked on my Comfort Curve 4000 keyboard and haven’t found another that comes close to matching its fit for my flying, or sometimes fumbling, fingers. Long may it wave!!!

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

Snipping Tool Text Extractor Rollout

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Windows certainly has its weird and wonderful ways. I was forcibly reminded just now, when looking on a Canary test PC to see if the next Text Extractor tool was on my Snipping Tool toolbar. While you can see it in the lead-in graphic for this story, I couldn’t see it on my PC right away. At first, understanding that MS is conducting a new Snipping Tool Text Extractor rollout, I thought I might be on the outside, looking in. Not so: let me explain…

Working Thru Snipping Tool Text Extractor Rollout

When I first checked the app and saw the toolbar unchanged, I jumped to the assumption that my PC wasn’t in the first rollout cohort. Then I remembered: Snipping Tool is a Windows Store app. So I went to the store and clicked on the Downloads button. Nothing had been updated since 4/14 (two days ago), so I clicked the “Check for updates” button.

Guess what? There was indeed a new version of Snipping Tool ready for download. Once that step was complete, and a quick install later I saw what MS announced in its April 15 blurb. Yes, Virginia: there is now a text item in the Snipping Tool toolbar. Again you can see it in the second from right position in the intro image. MS even provides an intro blurb to tell you what this toolbar element does.

I checked it, and it works as advertised. Makes the steps involved in grabbing text from an image and dropping it into a file ever so much easier and faster. Thanks, MS for giving us something many of us can use and enjoy (your humble author included). Visit the MS Store on Canary and Dev Windows 11 PCs and you, too, can partake of this neat new feature. Cheers!

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

Reinstall Now Builds Current Images

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Last Wednesday, I blogged that a repair install for Windows 11 unsticks WU. As I think about what that really means, I want to emphasize that using Settings > System > Recovery > Reinstall now does something remarkable. That is, Reinstall Now builds current images for whatever version Windows Update is serving at the time. It used to be only UUPDump.net could do that, by slipstreaming all the latest updates into the base Windows image (24H2 in this case).

How To See That Reinstall Now Builds Current Images

If you look at the Settings > System > About info that appears in the lead-in graphic, it tells pretty much the whole story needed for evidence. You can see it shows version 24H2, Build 26100.3775 with an install data of 4/9/2025. That’s the very day I ran the repair install, and the build number matches what follows in the wake of the latest CU (KB 5055523 — see the parenthetical phrase at the end of that title).

What makes this facility remarkable is that UUPDump.net has to build a Windows image for the baseline release, then apply as many updates — the latest security, cumulative and servicing stack items — as it needs to bring the image current. This requires some time-consuming DISM manipulations that can take an hour to complete. Interestingly, the WU facility handled the entire repair in about 35 minutes.

I still recommend UUPDump.net as a way to create an ISO for some specific (and non-current) Windows Build. But if you need to repair a current version, it looks like built-in Windows 11 recovery really is your best choice. Good to know! That’s why I’m telling you…

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PowerToys ComPal Error Comes & Goes

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I have to laugh, and with genuine joy. Last week, Clint Rutkas and the PowerToys team dropped a new Command Palette with v0.90.0 of that app. Shortly thereafter, I noticed an error window on the desktop of my only remaining Windows 10 PC after startup (see lead-in graphic). Upon visiting GitHub PowerToys bug reports, I saw multiple reports that others were seeing the same window. Just now, v0.90.1 hit the Internet, and the error appears no more. That’s why I’m saying: “PowerToys ComPal error comes & goes.” That’s good!

Why PowerToys ComPal Error Comes & Goes

I see this quick fix as abundant evidence that things are working as they should. Here’s a typical if somewhat idealized sequence of events:

1. A new release appears (v0.90.0 PowerToys in this case)
2. Users install and run same, and report issues and errors
3. A next release appears (v0.90.1 this time ’round) with at least some issues and errors fixed (“Class not registered” goes away)

I have to hand it to Mr.  Rutkas and the rest of the PowerToys team. They’re unusually responsive to input, feedback and issue reports. When I saw the new release was already in the pipeline, my first thought was “I bet the error message goes away.” And indeed it did.

GitHub showed me as many as a dozen different error reports around the error message shown at the head of this story. Apparently, lots of people run PowerToys on Windows 10, and lots of people noticed the error.

GitHub Tells the Story

If you check the v0.90.1 changelog, you’ll see this somewhat opaque entry: “#38531 – Fixed an issue where Command Palette was attempting to install dependencies that already existed.” That would be my best guess for what caused the error message to appear. Fixing that would obviously also do away with the error message.

Gosh, it’s nice when things work the way they’re supposed to. PowerToys is always a pleasure to use. It’s even better that the dev team is obviously listening (and sensitive) to user input and reactions. Again: keep up the good work, folks!

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Download MS 50th Anniversary Wallpapers

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Last week — April 4, to be precise — Microsoft celebrated its 50th anniversary. Amidst the hoopla and the celebration, the folks over at the Windows Experience Blog  released an item entitled Windows wallpapers worth celebrating. There, you’ll find a link for a ~24MB download named 50th-windows-wallpapers.zip. That’s right: you can download MS 50th anniversary wallpapers, if you like, and add them to your collection. You can see the contents of the ZIP folder as the lead-in graphic courtesy of File Explorer.

Download MS 50th Anniversary Wallpapers ZIP Archive

What you get is a collection of 8 different wallpapers, each in 4K and wide-screen formats depending on your display preferences. Some of these items are game-themed: Mahjong and Solitaire (e.g. Klondike) inspired ones. Some of them feature tulips (light and dark themed). Others give the same light/dark treatment to Windows icons and logos. It’s a fun set of items. If you want to put them into rotation with other such images, put them into your Slideshow folder and they’ll enter that lineup.

I have to laugh. When I went to show off these wallpapers, I got icons instead of images in File Explorer. Turns out one of my View settings in Folder Options had ticked “Always show icons, never thumbnails.” Unchecking that box let me capture the screenshot you see at the head of this blog post.

Here in Windows-World, it’s always something, right? Cheers! And congrats, I guess, to MS for surviving half a century in this rough and tumble world. Indeed, things have been a bit more rough lately than many of us would like, speaking both as an industry observer and a Microsoft stockholder. Sigh.

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

X380 Yoga Can’t See QMR Hotfix

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I shoulda known. When MS unleashed it Quick Machine Recovery (QMR) capability earlier this week, it said it would  provide a test fix so IT admins could try out its automatic repair facility. I blogged about enablement instructions on Monday, and have been waiting for that fix since then. I just learned that MS is gradually rolling it out to Beta Channel Insiders running Build 26120.3671. But alas, my test PC is on the outside, looking in. Certain units should find the test fix under a new “Hotfix” category in Settings > Windows Update > Update History. To my chagrin, my test X380 Yoga can’t see QMR Hotfix (neither category nor test item), as (not) shown in the lead-in graphic.

X380 Yoga Can’t See QMR Hotfix: Wait for It!

Gradual rollouts are unpredictable as to when a feature might appear. But they are pretty reliable, in that it should appear sometime. One just has no idea when that might be. If you look at the lead-in graphic you’ll see that it lists out:

  • Feature Updates
  • Quality Updates
  • Driver Updates
  • Definition Updates
  • Other Updates

When the QMR-aimed Hotfix finally makes it to the X380, a new category named Hotfix will appear. Then, should I use the reagentc.exe /BootToRe instruction to reboot the PC and tell it to look for and apply same, that should show me by example what it looks like and how it works.

So far, nada!

Standing By for My Turn

As seems to happen to me more often than not, I’m going to have to exercise patience and make sure that I keep checking for the Hotfix category and its test item in the Update History on the X380. Don’t know when that might be, but I’ll report in when that happens. Stay tuned!

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

Mapping Windows Memory Usage

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I like to keep an eye on how Windows is using system resources. To that end, I still use Helmut Buhler’s excellent 8GadgetPack utilities. They don’t really tell you anything that Task Manager can’t but you can keep them in view all the time, and they don’t exact much system overhead, either. For a rough and ready picture of what’s up with Windows memory (RAM), those tools (e.g. Task Manager and the CPU Monitor gadget) can tell you how much RAM is on your PC, how much is in use, and how much is free. The gadget also reports page file info: total, free, used as well. But when it comes to digging deeper into how Windows uses memory, the Sysinternals tool for mapping Windows memory usage –namely, RamMap – is what you need. Let me explain…

For Mapping Windows Memory Usage, Try RamMap

If you look at the lead-in graphic, I’ve superimposed the CPU Usage gadget (aka CPU Monitor) at center far right, with the Sysinternals RamMap tool beneath it. This pretty much shows things as they work and contrasts the minimal level of detail available from Task Manager and the Corresponding CPU gadget to the more detailed and nuanced RamMap.

TLDR version: Use Task Manager or the CPU Gadget to get a gross overview of memory and paging file stuff; use RamMap to get more details about what’s consuming memory and what state that memory is in.

In large part differences are a matter of details. Task Manager and the CPU Gadget tell you how much RAM is used (blue numbers under the Used, Free, Total column heads in white: 23.6GB) and free (~8GB). It also tells you that the page file is not in use (yellow numbers right underneath RAM entries). That’s pretty much it.

RamMap, OTOH, provides a lot more memory status categories: Active, Standby, Modified, Modified No Wire, Transition, Zeroed, Free, and Bad (you want to see THAT one in a memory map). You get a much more informed and detailed view here (and under other tabs besides “Use Counts” in the leftmost position, shows by default).

How “Used” and “Free” Fit RamMap Categories

Here’s something worth knowing: Used Memory in Task Manager/CPU Gadget combines the RamMap totals under Active, Standby and Modified. Free memory in Task Manager/CPU Gagdet combines the RamMap totals under the Zero and Free headings.

But when RamMap runs you can also see how those numbers change as processes execute, tasks get handled, services do their thing and so forth. It’s much more detailed and useful if you want that level of detail, especially if you’re hunting a memory leak of some kind.

Good stuff! Grab yourself a copy today (or you can simply run the web-based executable, to make sure you’re always using the latest and greatest version).

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