Category Archives: Cool Tools

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

X12 Gains QMR Support

June 10, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Wow! What a difference a day makes. Yesterday, Quick Machine Recovery didn’t work on my 2021 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X12 Hybrid Tablet (with 11th-Gen i7-1180G7 CPU). This morning, the X12 gains QMR support and the test mode actually works. Methinks the edge of the gradual rollout just made it four generations back from the leading edge. (Copilot sez that if intel still used such numbers, Arrow Lake would like be 15th-Gen.)

If X12 Gains QMR Support, How Can You Tell?

Interestingly, even though the QMR test completes successfully on the X12, the QRM entry under Settings > System > Recovery — depicted from the 13th-Gen P3 Ultra ThinkStation above — is absent. Ditto for the QRM update (KB5056862) in Update History.

And yet, it works. Something isn’t precisely right around here, because QRM works (or says it completes the self-test successfully) without including those other presumptive signs of capability. It’s a bit confusing, if not at least mildly troubling.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

All this leaves me wondering how much further down the device chain this stuff will propagate. There’s a hard stop at 8th-Gen in that progression. Because my X380 is of that specific generation, all I can say right now is: “The update hasn’t gotten there yet.”

I just tried all the methods that the QRM article from MS Learn recommends to get it working when it opens to the WinRE boot screen, instead of going through its paces. Nothing doing, just yet. I’ll keep trying, and I’ll keep reporting: stay tuned and you can know, too.

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

QMR Wants Newer PCs

June 9, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I have to laugh at myself. I’ve been waiting since Quick Machine Repair (QMR) emerged in April 2024 for it to show up on my Beta Channel test PC. (KB5056862 first appeared on June 2 for Build 26200.5622.) Alas, I probably could have kept waiting much longer. That’s because my Beta Channel test PC is built around an 8th-Gen i7-8650U CPU. But it seems that QMR wants newer PCs to include them in this gradual rollout. Let me explain.

Why say: QMR Wants Newer PCs?

I switched the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra, with its 13th-Gen i9-13900 CPU, over to Beta Channel. As soon as I brought up Build 26120.4230, WU extended the KB5056862 update. You can see that item in the Update History for that machine as the lead-in image above, in fact. What’s going on here?

It’s often the case that boot-related stuff on gradual rollout starts with newer PCs. It only makes its way back to older machines once MS is convinced that it really works as it should. And indeed, I followed the step-by-step instructions for testing QMR on the P3 Ultra (with the afore-depicted KB installed) from MS Learn’s Quick Machine Recovery article. It worked just like they said it would, too.

Meanwhile, the X380 Remains on Hold…

The older X380 is still on the outside, looking in, waiting for MS to extend the Quick Machine recovery update its way. I think it will keep waiting for some time yet. But at least, I have now been able to run the utility and see how it works. I’ll be reporting that in detail for an upcoming ComputerWorld story that’s due for submission on June 25. Stay tuned, and I’ll provide a link when that story goes live.

Cool Tools, Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Still No Snapdragon X Mini-PCs

June 6, 2025 Ed Tittel 4 Comments

I’m disappointed, and more than a little curious. Last year Qualcomm announced a pilot program offering developer kits with Snapdragon X CPU in a mini-PC format. I bought in, only to see the program cancelled. Then, I spent two months chasing my refund down. The lead-in graphic is a publicity still of that very device from Qualcomm itself. Other companies, including Lenovo and Geekom, announced plans to release SFF PCs built around this SoC in early 2025. Despite release dates floated for H1 2025, there are still no Snapdragon X mini-PCs for sale from anybody, anywhere. Nor do I see signs that any might appear in the market any time soon. Oops!

Why Still No Snapdragon X Mini-PCs?

My gut feeling is that the answer is, in an acronym, USB. As the Snapdragon X architecture currently stands, it supports only a single USB4 (40 Gbps) and one USB 3 gen 2 (10 Gbps) port. Charging on a mini PC could possibly leave the USB4 port open (TBD, with none such for sale right now). Even so, that’s too few high speed ports for the build to make good economic sense. Who wants to spend $500-700 (or more) on an SFF PC, only to plunk down another $200-300 for a USB4 or 5 dock to bring the port count up to where it needs to be?

I’m guessing that these projects are on hold while Qualcomm is defining its next-gen Snapdragon X architecture. I’m also guessing that the new version will include either 2 or 3 USB4 or 5 ports so that such units can support a more plausible number of high speed video and storage connections in a compact form factor. Especially on tiny PCs ports enable them to do what users need.

An Interesting Upcoming Snapdragon Summit?

Qualcomm is expected to uncover details about the next-gen Snapdragon X architecture and capabilities when the company holds its September Summit in Maui. I’m expected the current paucity of ports to be over topped. And possibly, a new crop of promised mini or SFF PCs could follow in its wake. It should be interesting to see how it all turns out.

I’m pretty sure at this point that we won’t see any SFF or mini PCs around the current Snapdragon X version. The only possible exception might be a low-ball, dirt-cheap model. OEMs may seek to produce some revenue from the efforts that have apparently been expended in trying to build this recalcitrant beast. I’m not holding my breath, however… Let’s hope the next generation is a different story, and has a happier ending!

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

WinGet Source Winget Goes MIA

June 4, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

This morning, I find myself in an interesting pickle. On about half the PCs in the mini-fleet here at Chez Tittel, the default source for WinGet came up “missing” this morning. You can see the evidence in the lead-in graphic, which shows winget missing from the list of available sources, and says it cannot find a source with that name. Thus, when I say that WinGet source winget goes missing, I mean winget itself cannot find its usual default source, period. That’s a problem, because it means WinGet can’t access its basic package database to see if anything needs an update. Sigh.

Fixing WinGet Source Winget Goes MIA

There’s an “add” parameter for the WinGet source command that can fix this little disappearance — in most cases. If you check the next screencap, you’ll see it worked to bring back the default source on my Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Mobile Workstation, and subsequently shows a raft of seven (7) pending updates.

For most PCs, adding back the default source using the URL “https://cdn.winget.microsoft.com/cache” does the trick.

But on one of my PCs (so far as I’ve checked right now) this doesn’t work. I get an error message instead, as shown here:

According to Google Search this error code indicates a DNS resolution issue with the URL string (which works on other, likewise-affected PCs). I’ve flushed the DNS cache and reset winsock, both to no avail. I’m not sure how to fix this, so I’ve posted a question to the WinGet community on Teams. Hopefully, one of the real wizards there will have some other fixes for me to try.

And… … … the day gets off to an interesting start, with a meaty mystery, here in Windows-World. This is my idea of fun, so I’m enoying it to the max! Stay tuned: I’ll follow up when a repair becomes known.

WinGet Teams Chat Provides a Fix!

I’ve been back-n-forthing with Demitrius Nelon, WinGet Team Lead, since posting this initial item. He had me look at some logs and try a few things. Here’s the magic incantation that fixed my problem on the X380 Yoga:

Winget source reset –force

As you can see in this closing screencap this did the trick:

This same command has come in handy before — such as fixing source update fail errors (read about that in this November 2024 post) — and will no doubt come in handy again. All I need to do is remember to use/try it!

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

Disturbing Thunderbolt 5 Revelation

May 30, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

I just read (and recommend) an interesting WinCentral story about the latest, emerging Thunderbolt standard from Intel — namely, Thunderbolt 5. It confirms my suspicions that laptop and PC makers have been slow to incorporate this technology in their products. Indeed, the story’s author, Cale Hunt, reports he’s found exactly ONE laptop with such capability: the Razer Blade 18 2024, whose weight, size and accoutrement position it as a gaming-oriented device. This disturbing Thunderbolt 5 revelation is offset only by increasing availability of new docking devices to get over this lack. But there’s a catch…

Disturbing Thunderbolt 5 Revelation
Comes with a Catch

What’s the catch? You can’t use Intel’s new Thunderbolt Share app unless at least one TB5 device in a PC-to-PC chain is licensed to use that software. That said, if you’re willing to spring US$300 (or more) to buy a TB5 dock you can use its license to link two otherwise unlicensed PCs together. Go figure!

So far, says Copilot, the range of TB5 capable docks includes:

OWC Thunderbolt 5 Dock – Features 11 ports, including three Thunderbolt 5 ports, USB-A, Ethernet, and SD card slots. Supports dual 6K or triple 8K displays.
Beelink Mate Mini – Designed for Mac Mini, offering Thunderbolt 5 connectivity and additional storage options.
CalDigit Element 5 Hub – A multi-port Thunderbolt 5 hub with nine ports, including Thunderbolt 5 / USB4 v2 connectivity.
Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock – Includes four Thunderbolt 5 ports, USB-A, Ethernet, and SD card slots, plus built-in SSD storage.
Kensington SD5000T5 EQ – A triple 4K docking station with 140W power delivery, three Thunderbolt 5 ports, and USB-A 3.2 Gen 2.

Of these, WinCentral author gives the Kensington model the nod for the best price/performance. I think I’m still waiting for CalDigit to release a TS5 model to replace its best-of-breed TS4 offering.

Where Is TB5 Going in the Marketplace?

Right now, the answer to that query has to be “Noplace fast.” I don’t see the latest version catching fire until more laptop makers start building TB5 ports into their devices, and licensing TB Share from Intel. I’m not holding my breath on that one…

I am, however, rebuilding an Asrock B250 mobo-based AMD 5800X PC and plan to include an Asus Thunderbolt EX5 adapter card. Its product page specifically claims Thunderbolt Share certification, so that unit should gain such capability. Then, I might learn something more about this stuff. When I do, I’ll share here so you can know, too. Right now, it’s still cloaked in mystery…

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Time Server Selection Gradual Rollout

May 28, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here we go again. I get back to the office after a week away, to learn that time server selection is moving from Control Panel to Settings in Dev and Beta Channel releases. But, there’s a pretty typical time server selection gradual rollout underway. And guess what: my Beta Channel test PC, as usual, is not in the vanguard of those being offered that update. That’s a distressingly familiar phenom, for yours truly.

What Happens During Time Server Selection Gradual Rollout?

According to Sergey Tkachenko (via an X post from @PhantomofEarth) at WinAero, those Beta or Dev Channel images with this facility will see it show up in the ability to expand the Sync Now entry in Settings > Time & language > Data & Time under the Additional settings heading there. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, the X380 Yoga (my Beta Channel test PC) shows no caret to expand that Sync now entry. That means I haven’t caught any such update just yet.

When it shows up at some point in the future that PC will be able to select a time server for syncing under the Settings umbrella. For the time being, however, that PC must still use the Date and Time widget from control panel, Internet Time Settings tab, Configure Internet time settings subwindow, like so:

Until I get some new cumulative update (CU) or a new Beta version with the right facility, I’ll be using this tool to choose my default time server for synching up. It’s nice to know that MS is moving yet another capability from the old Control Panel environment into settings. It’s less nice to understand my test PC hasn’t yet made that grade. But shoot! That’s definitely the way things go in Windows-World from time to time, especially for your humble correspondent. Sigh.

Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Microsoft 365, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Outlook .DOCX Files Won’t Open

May 21, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

Here’s a pretty pickle. My most-used professional writing tool is MS Word, and I’m an Outlook user, too. A couple of days ago, I noticed that sent as attachments to Outlook .DOCX files won’t open. The first time it happened: I thought: “Corruption.” The second time, I thought: “Hmmmm. Something is up.” The third time, I KNEW “Time for Office repairs.”

Over the years I’ve written about fixing MS Office when it breaks or gets weird. You can find both 2021 and 2024 versions of such a story at ComputerWorld: 5 Steps to Repair Microsoft Office. [Note: the link is to the current version, natch.]

When Outlook .DOCX Files Won’t Open, Then What?

MS Office is a big, complex program. Occasionally it can have problems, sometimes small ones, sometimes big. To deal with such stuff MS has thoughtfully — and thankfully — built repair tools into the application installer environment.

Visit Settings > Apps > Installed Apps and look for your version of Office (in my case it’s named “Microsoft apps for enterprise – en-us”). Click on that entry, then click the Modify button. That produces the repair options presented in the lead-in graphic, with “Quick Repair” selected by default. QR uses local files to re-install and reset MS Office. Most of the time it fixes things.

This time, it did not, so I went back to that repair window and selected “Online Repair” instead. This downloads a fresh copy of all necessary files from MS servers, and does a clean re-install and reset instead. Perforce, it takes longer to do its thing (about 5-6 minutes for quick, and double that for online, on my 2014 vintage i7 Skylake desktop).

But hey! The Online Repair worked. As soon as it completed, I opened Outlook, and grabbed the most recent message with a .DOCX attachment. This time, instead of throwing an error message saying it couldn’t read the file, it opened it up and let me get to work. Just what I was hoping would happen.

Sometimes, things in Windows-World come to a happy ending. This was such a time, and I’m glad. Huzzah!

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

X380 Yoga Is Not Quite QMR-able

May 20, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

It’s been a long time coming, and it’s on its way out. QMR is, of course, Quick Machine Recovery. It’s a facility to let an unbootable Windows image grab a repair and fix itself, from WU or other sources. MS announced it at Ignite 2024, and it started rolling out to the Beta Channel for Windows 11 24H2 in March 2025. It showed up on my Beta test PC — a Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga –earlier this week. But alas, that X380 Yoga is not quite QMR-able just yet. Let me show and tell what that means…

Why Say: X380 Yoga Is Not Quite QMR-able

Take a look at the into screen cap. Up top you see the pane from the X380 for Settings > System > Recovery > Quick machine recovery. Note above that I’ve got QRM turned on and likewise the “continue searching” option. Below, I opened WinTerm to check the status of the Windows recovery agent console (aka reagentc) to show status.

According to Copilot if QMR is available and ready to work on a Windows 11 24H2 Beta PC, one should see four entries in the reagentc /info output (all bulleted items are quoted or paraphrased):

Recovery Test Mode: Enabled (if test mode is active)
Windows RE Status: Enabled (QMR relies on WinRE)
Remote Remediation: Active (if QMR is configured for automatic fixes)
Remediation Package: Installed (if a recovery update has been applied)

If you look at the output in the screecap, it shows only item 2. That simply means WinRE itself is turned on, and able to work on the X380. None of the other QMR specific items appear, though, do they?

Turns Out There’s a Gradual Rollout, Too…

There’s a Quality Update that WU should automatically download on some Windows 11 24H2 Beta Channel PCs for testing QMR. If it’s present the PC can be induced to reboot and use the QMR facility. That package is named “Quick machine recovery update for Windows 11.” BUT it’s on a gradual rollout, as I just learned yesterday.

Alas, this update is NOT in the Update History on my X380 PC. So I still can’t take QMR for a spin. I’ll get there — soon, I hope — but not today. If you’ve got a Windows 11 24H2 Beta image at your disposal, and it’s up to date, you can check things out, too. If you find the afore-mentioned item in your update history, you can take if for a spin with these two commands in Windows Terminal:

reagentc /SetRecoveryTestmode
reagentc /BoottoRE

Then, reboot your PC and you will see QMR do its thing. That’s what I plan to try as soon as I make into the “included group” during this gradual rollout.

And ain’t that just the way things go for Windows Insiders sometimes here in Windows-World? This isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that I’m behind the leading edge on a gradual rollout.

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

Unsticking Lenovo System Update

May 19, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

From May 6 through 12, I had a Lenovo System update stick in WU. That is, it would attempt to install, fail, and then push a retry button at me. Alas, that meant WU wouldn’t show me any newer updates, either. At the end of this cycle KB5058496 came along. It didn’t show up in WU, either. That’s when I found myself unsticking Lenovo system update on the Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga X380 where it happened. How did I do that? I ran the:

Reset_Reregister_Windows_Update_Components_for_Windows11.bat

batch file from the Eleven Forums tutorial Reset Windows Update in Windows 11. As it so often does, the Lenovo System update worked the next time I tried after said reset operation had completed and I’d rebooted that PC (as per the batch file’s own instructions). The new CU installed, and went to Build 26120.3964.

More on Unsticking Lenovo System Update

I’m not sure why the WU version got stuck, nor why it stayed that way for some time. When I looked in the Windows-Update.log file I produced via the PowerShell Get-WindowsUpdateLog cmdlet, no supporting detail told me why it happened, either.

All that Copilot could tell me was that it must be a Lenovo servicing driver update of some kind. Google was willing to speculate it might be the driver for the Lenovo Intelligent Thermal Solution. Lenovo Vantage kind of confirms this in a back-handed way, in that its history shows the latest version dated March 2024 with version number 2.1.14.0, which certainly seems to follow in the general numbering track for the item that got stuck.

So I checked Device Manager > System devices > Lenovo Intelligent Thermal Solution properties. Sure enough, the currently installed version is 2.1.52.0. Interestingly the install date shows as 4/11/2025 (same as in WU update history). That leaves me glad this already-installed driver somehow got itself unstuck. I’m still wondering why WU offered it repeatedly from 5/6-12.

These meaningless mysteries never stop in Windows-World. I’m just glad this apparently unnecessary driver offer stopped when I reset WU. Now the machine is running Build 26120.3964 and the right Intelligent Thermal Solutions driver without further issues. I’m good for now, but sure something similar will pop up soon, on one or more of my mini-fleet of 12 PCs. Stay tuned!

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

Windows 10 Keeps PowerToys ComPal Error

May 16, 2025 Ed Tittel Leave a comment

On April 10, I blogged about how a new release of PowerToys (v0.90.1) apparently fixed a “Class not registered” error for the Command Palette from the previous version (v0.90.0). Alas, while ComPal (as I like to abbreviate this tool) is now rock-solid on my Windows 11 PCs, it’s still throwing errors after restart on my sole remaining Windows 10 desktop. That’s why my title here reads “Windows 10 Keeps PowerToys ComPal Error” — you can see the aftermath in Reiability Monitor as the lead-in screencap above.

Why Windows 10 Keeps PowerToys ComPal Error

Look at the screencap. Notice the Problem Event Name is “MoAppCrash.” This means a Modern App (aka UWP app, usually an MS Store App of some kind) has crashed. In this case it’s the PowerToys Command Palette user interface (MicrosoftCmdPal.UI.exe). Copilot says common causes include faulty, outdated app versions, corrupt system files or missing dependencies, conflicts with Windows updates, and issues with DLL files. My bets are on conflicts with Windows updates and/or issues with some DLL needed for ComPal to run.

I just tried to access ComPal on the affected Windows 10 machine. At first, it refused to respond to its shortcut (WinKey+Alt+Space) for related settings, But when I disabled, then re-enabled ComPal itself, that capability woke up and started working. So did the utility itself, without any easily discovered limitations.

What about Windows 11?

I have — and see — no such issues in Windows 11. So I’m forced to speculate that this is just a Windows 10 hiccup of some kind. Fortunately, once I disable, then re-enable ComPal, everything seems to work fine. There’s obviously some kind of minor gotcha at work, but it’s easy to get around.

Isn’t that just the way things work sometimes, here in Windows-World? Fortunately, even when the path to success isn’t automatic, or even a straight line, a small dogleg often does the trick. And so it was this morning…